I'm going to risk it.........

[Sig]

If you have an hour to kill this is an amazing video by James May from Top Gear fame about the history of the US space program. Really shows you how much passion there was/is for space.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/J...the_695845.htm

[Dave K]

Roadhouse!

[Cawk Star]

It's amazing to me that the U-2 took it's first flight in 1955. Americans kick ass!

[Sig]

Originally Posted by Cawk Star

It's amazing to me that the U-2 took it's first flight in 1955. Americans kick ass!

Also amazing that the Soviets were able to shoot that thing down with the technology at the time.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Sig

Also amazing that the Soviets were able to shoot that thing down with the technology at the time.

Enough of that pinko commie talk.

[Razr]

The Russians first space program was run by a Commadore 64!!!

[Sig]

Originally Posted by Chris

Enough of that pinko commie talk.

Good point

[vance]

What's this I hear on the radio today about the shuttle being taken out of use and from now on US astronauts will be traveling in Russian rockets?
Pretty sure my ears were clean when I heard it.

[Buckwild]

Ghost!

[beechkingd]

Originally Posted by vance

What's this I hear on the radio today about the shuttle being taken out of use and from now on US astronauts will be traveling in Russian rockets?
Pretty sure my ears were clean when I heard it.

That's been their plan for years. As soon as the space station is finished the shuttle program is over.

[Marcmcm]

I read somewhere the other day that the first lunar landing computing power was roughly that of an iPod and now when our iPod breaks we just throw it away. We've come a long way.

[Motofun352]

Thanks for the post! The best TV I've seen in quite a while....Leave it to the Brits to have the best description of the USA's moon flights....

[dsting]

Originally Posted by vance

What's this I hear on the radio today about the shuttle being taken out of use and from now on US astronauts will be traveling in Russian rockets?
Pretty sure my ears were clean when I heard it.

U.S. plan is to retire the Shuttle next year, maybe 2011 and replace it with the follow-on Constellation system currently in development (has some problems & being re-looked at, though). Until the new system, or perhaps new commercial systems, come online in a few years, the only way to get astronauts to space is to hitch a ride with the Russians on their Soyuz rocket. Note: we did this for a while after the Columbia accident while the Shuttle fleet was down for post-accident review.

It's been a huge debate/issue within the space industry, including a full review of NASA's human space flight plans by a Presidential commission just a few weeks ago. It's a problem and everyone knows it, and lots of folks are trying to figure out the best way ahead given insufficient budgets, technical problems, bureaucracy, etc.

[YamahaRick]

Originally Posted by Motofun352

Thanks for the post! The best TV I've seen in quite a while....Leave it to the Brits to have the best description of the USA's moon flights....

+1 Thanks again for the link OP.

[blueFLsv]

Originally Posted by Motofun352

Thanks for the post! The best TV I've seen in quite a while....Leave it to the Brits to have the best description of the USA's moon flights....

+1

[amaner]

Incredible video, thanks for posting! If I'm reincarnated, I want to come back having his job

[Sig]

He really does have an amazing job.

[BigHeadzDC]

The development of the U-2 was cool, but the SR-71 was just insanity.. The way Kelly Johnson and his team overcame operational obstacles is just WAY outside the box thinking. There is still no aircraft to date (that anyone's talking about) that could match it's operational envelope. Back when I was an air traffic controller, I used to talk to U-2 pilots at night, and at altitude, the flight envelope THEY had to fly in was terrifying. Slow down 2 knots, and the airplane starts to stall. Speed up 2 knots and it gets into supersonic buffet. 4 knots of operating envelope at 85,000' up.

Lockheed has always been so far ahead of the curve it's scary. Kelly Johnson and Ben Rich were freaking witches with a slide-rule.

[BigHeadzDC]

Originally Posted by Marcmcm

I read somewhere the other day that the first lunar landing computing power was roughly that of an iPod and now when our iPod breaks we just throw it away. We've come a long way.

An iPod could have run damn near the entire space program back then. One of my professors in college was a programmer on the space program for Mercury and Apollo. The stories he told were scary to say the least.

The command module's navigation software that got the Apollo missions from Earth to the Moon and back ran in 4K of programming code. That's 4096 bytes. Even the smallest iPod Shuffle has 2GB of storage or 1,000,000,000 bytes.

[wingnutks]

Originally Posted by Razr

The Russians first space program was run by a Commadore 64!!!

I had one of those when I was a kid... I was the loser that didnt have the 128