US going back to space on a US rocket.
 

Took us 9 years to do it but it looks like were are finally getting back into the game.

https://www.nasa.gov/specials/dm2/

I hope Behnken and Hurley have a safe flight to ISS.

Gotta be honest.

Why should we care (spend the funds) about this right now?

What's out ROI?

boeing will shoot a hole in the fuel tank

Not being a loser third world nation in the future.

- Peter.

My view is that a lot of consumer products came from space exploration, including Tang. A lot of advancements also came from wars. So, the space option is a better choice.

I don't care about ROI. This is not about commerce. It's about something way bigger than that.

- Peter.

Right now we rely on Russia to get us to the ISS. A successful launch will give us our own ride. It will allow us to service satellites if reconfigured. One day we will have to leave this rock so we might as well start practicing now.

I worked on tracking ships during the early days of the manned space flight program right up to the Apollo Program. What glorious days those were!

Cocoa Beach was a carnival and the whole country was working and thriving. Our country was the envy of the world and there was no end in sight. I often wondered what happened to lose it all.

Bring it all back! Short of a world war, there is no way to more quickly advance science and prosperity for everyone. A healthy space program employs scientists and floor sweepers. No-one is left behind.

Those that say it is a "waste of funds" don't understand economics. The money spent churns through our entire economy. I remember the commercial crab fishermen on Merritt Island never had it so good.

I just may ask for my old job back.

But you have to sell it. And Rocky's post points out the revenue stream. Take sports fishing. Its a multi Billion a year industry. Even the manufactures put in money through a tax on equipment sold. They requested that. But I do agree the space program inspires many. HAL would approve.

It's the same now as it was back in the 60's. Not losing out to our enemies in global dominanance is the selling point. ROI is merely an incidental side benifet.

- Peter.

Launch postponed till Saturday due to weather along the flight path.

so I quess if someone airburst a nuke 200 miles up,we could not launch ICBM's cause of electricity in the air. when did our country turn sissy over everything?

What?

- Peter.

This isn’t a war? [emoji2369]

Speaking of ROI, other than a government subsidy of 5 billion or so Space X has been privately funded......

You get that there are people on board the rocket right?

Tang! Oh dear God, imagine life w/o Tang!

Putting satellites into orbit is the only benefit I can see. That and robotic missions. Sending people back to the moon and oneday Mars strikes me as a huge waste of money.

Re the fever to go back to the moon, the moon is about the most unpleasant place that we know of for humans and human machines. Coated with abrasive dust from hell, I understand the damned stuff hangs in the air from static electricity. Is bad for rubber seals, it adheres to boots and every other part of space suits, will be brought back in the habitable spaces and find it's way into lungs. Stuff is microscopic razor blades, having never suffered erosion and degradation from water.

The chances of finding useful/recoverable minerals are about zero and the cost of getting them up and back to earth even if they were there in good quantity is enormous.

If one assumed that we still had the space shuttle program and further that it could land on and then take off from the moon (we don't/it couldn't), further if we assumed gold bricks were neatly stacked on the surface waiting to be loaded into the hold, the value of the gold would be similar to what we used to spend just putting a shuttle into orbit and getting it back again. I did the math once, don't want to do it again.

If EMP resulted in ruination of electronic circuitry, sissy has nothing to do with it.

Visionaries are always scoffed at by luddites whose only concern is profit. As I said this is about something way bigger than that. The place of the United States in the future. Once humanity makes the shift to interplanetary travel those nations staring at their navels will slide inexorably into loser has been status. I'd rather not see that happen to the US while the likes of China determines what kind of future humanity has.

- Peter.

At some point, we will probably have to leave this rock. Exploration is what man has always done. Whether it be to the depth of the ocean or the outer reaches of space. No way to know what gains will be made by doing so.

Correct. It was great to watch. Fantastic job. Hope they can maintain reliability moving forward.

- Peter.

The R.O.I.
 

Typical ignorant trolling post and non question .

The R.O.I. has been huge, you're trolling using it you moron .

I miss Tang, no one carries it anymore .

There's no air 200 miles up. The atmosphere ends 62 miles above sea level.

yep space burst. We do need to invest on harden power,one huge flare,and its 1810 for 40 years.

As with the bomb, science worked the math part early in the 20th century. I was poking around and found that math has proved a craft can go 1000 times the speed of light. By folding space, we have to find dark energy,not anti matter to do this. A gravity,can bend space, and time.