How Very Appropriate that it was ATLANTIS Touching Down at 5:57 AM

[July16th-20th]

For, on this day, we have sunk beneath the Wave of Leadership we have occupied since the 1960s.

We will regret this.

Soon.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I am off to my second-last day of employment at NASA, which has done more to advance this nation peacefully than any other governmental agency in our history.

With tears in my eyes,

Denny Ruhrman :patriot:

[Pholus]

1. Already regret this. Thank you for what you've done for us! nt.

[trumad]

2. Woke my ass up this morning... Big sonic boom...

Sorry to hear about your last days at NASA...and I agree with your sentiments exactly.

[Liberal In Texas]

3. A sad day. My son works in Mission Control.

He's pretty sure he will have a job as he isn't a contractor. Doing what is the question. He really doesn't want to work on the ISS.

Good luck to you.

[geckosfeet]

4. Best wishes for you going forward. And thanks for all.

[ewagner]

5. Deep regrets

I left Florida and my home town in 73 after the Apollo program shut down....or while it was in the process...Unemployment was high and some of the smartest people I ever knew...people who put us in orbit for the first time and eventually brought us to the moon...were driving tour buses and some were begging Disney for jobs...

I blame the leadership in DC for this. We haven't had a national vision of the future since...I don't know...KENNEDY?

We've had slick politicians who know how to get elected but have no dreams, no visions of the future of America both on and off this planet.

Sad indeed.

[kentauros]

9. "The leadership in DC" has always been NASA's worst enemy.

I seem to recall that at one time, NASA's budget was under the umbrella of the Housing and Urban Development agency.
:wtf: I mean, really, what were they "thinking"?

I have a feeling that all those on this board and elsewhere that still feel that NASA should be axed and their budget should be handed over to the various social agencies is a direct result of that unfortunate association.

[Johonny]

12. and best friend

If we didn't launch people would the space program get the $$ from congress, but launching people is a drag on space science. But how much space science money would we get without the people that attract the $. The round robin money game NASA has always had to play. It has trapped them into doing not the ideal space missions. Without massive spending we wouldn't have had the Apollo program, but then congress also gave us the pointless space station and it's goal of employing the Russians so they don't make Iranian ICBM... Politics it makes everything complicated.

The good news is we still have a great space program filled with space architecture.

[July16th-20th]

29. Nixon's Greatest Sin

Watergate? Ptuh! Like no President ever did that kind of shit before. Puh-LEEZE!

But he gutted the space program. If not for him, we'd have a base on Mars now!

[RedCloud]

6. A nation that dares not to dream, is one headed for oblivion.

[reformist2]

7. The American people have new dreams - of amassing ever bigger piles of money.

And worshipping those who have even bigger piles than they do.

[pokerfan]

8. Enter SpaceX?

http://www.spacex.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/12/08/space.flight/index.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTwRxtmQ9IY

[Demoiselle]

10. I woke up to radio step-by-step coverage of the final shutdown..

Simple words, detailing the crew's final actions. At the end, the NASA speaker choked up, audibly. So did I.
How much is national pride worth, anyway?

[Lucky 13]

11. Thank you for your service in such a noble program.

I'm sorry that it's over. And we will all be sorry in the future. China is going to pick up where we left off and reap the rewards of that investment.

What a hugely short-sighted, incurious, anti-visionary, pathetic decision this was.

[bklyncowgirl]

13. This is a sad day. Thank you for your service to the future. nt

[Arkansas Granny]

14. I am really saddened by this. I was just a girl during the early days of the space program.

The space race was really exciting. You could get little plastic models of different rockets as prizes in cereal boxes. When Sputnik was launched, they would announce on tv when it would be passing over our area. We would go out and search the skies for that little moving speck of light and just marvel at it.

At school, we would watch the manned space flights on tv from lift off to recovery. I can remember Walter Cronkite narrating the whole adventure with the use of mock ups and simulations. It was fascinting. Nearly everyone knew the names of the astronauts and what flights they were on. It was a really big deal.

[JustAmused]

15. So sorry about this

The Space Program should be advanced, not ended. Unfortunately I think it will be continued in private hands. That was probably the plan for awhile now.

[lovuian]

16. America has been taken done by banksters

and it isn't money that makes a country great

It is a sad day for NASA

[Johonny]

17. Somewhere the ozone layer is smiling today

thus ends the US era of large scale solid rocket engines that destroy ozone. Not a lot because we only launched a few shuttles per year, but enough to teach us in the future the US should not be using large scale boost motor that burn through the stratosphere. All plans seem to suggest NASA won't :)

The shuttle represents ~ 12 % of the United States space mission a year. Why more people don't know this is beyond me. We have what 8 spacecraft in orbit around objects in the solar system. The future of the US space program is fine so long as Congress doesn't * it up. This congress can * anything up :(

[July16th-20th]

18. Please K&R for Barry Wilmore and Mike Grabois!

You will NEVER IN YOUR LIFE find two men more dedicated to advancing America!

[July16th-20th]

22. I really should clarify: I've had some champagne

But I stand by my endorsement of my friends! The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has made possible 80% of the technology we employ (and enjoy) today.

[Zephie]

19. Thank you for the work you have done. That you cannot continue is a disgrace to the nation.

I am truly ashamed.

[July16th-20th]

24. Don't thank me. I don't deserve it.

I'm a nutritionist. That's all. I have had the honor of helping to design meal schedules for our astronauts. I am no hero.

[Zephie]

26. I disagree. Anyone who has had a hand in the space program, no matter what they did, is a hero.

Also, our astronauts had to eat - they wouldn't have gotten far without meal plans. :)

[July16th-20th]

28. Thank you, but no.

Taking off from the launch pad may LOOK routine. In fact, it is anything BUT, and it's something I would never have the GUTS to do!

[midnight]

20. K&R

[Tommy_Carcetti]

21. I'm sorry to hear that. You did a lot of good for humankind.

Here's hoping our country's hiatus in outerspace is a short one, and that you and your collegues will soon be back in the business of stretching the limits of human exploration.

[chrisa]

23. Well, if it makes you feel better, the money saved is probably

going to somebody who doesn't need it or care that they're getting it.

[July16th-20th]

25. Sandy Magnus just kissed me on the lips!

:woohoo:

[Starry Messenger]

27. ((hug))

I'm in mourning today too, friend. It's the end of one of the few noble endeavors in this country. Privatized space junk will never be the same in my eyes. I'm sorry you are losing your awesome job too, Danny. :hug:

[July16th-20th]

31. Thank you, sir

[Starry Messenger]

40. Ma'am, actually.

Have a drink for me. Wish I was there buying rounds.

[July16th-20th]

42. Sorry for the mistake, ma'am

And don't worry: We got seriously sloshed! I expect the same today, when 4,660 of the Agency's 30,000 layoffs---including my own---take effect.

[July16th-20th]

30. REC THIS FOR RON, FOOLS!

Ron McNair was the first flyer I dealt with personally after joining the Agency in October 1985. He was on Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986.

Maybe you'd prefer that I'd met Chrita McCaullife, God rest her. But I didn't. I'm sorry. But I'm also drunk: We're having a rather melancholy "party" here at Cape Cav.

[Withywindle]

32. I'm so sorry.

A lot of us are mourning with you today. I know it's not the same as you and others losing a job and a community as well, but our solidarity is here.

The space program really does represent a lot of the best things about America-as-she-should-be. This treatment really shows where our values have gone. :(

[July16th-20th]

43. With the astronauts grounded, who should we look up to now?

John Boehner? Eric Cantor? GORDON GEKKO??? :puke:

[sudopod]

33. ;_; nt

[Jim Lane]

34. On July 20, 1969, I was sure that I'd be able to go to the Moon someday.

I didn't see myself as an astronaut, but with the real astronauts blazing the path, obviously there'd be commercial passenger service in time. That would be the fare I'd save up for.

It doesn't look like I'm going to make it. :(

[librechik]

35. I'm crying with you

man, our priorities are all messed up in this country.

[Withywindle]

36. They sure are.

And some people who I respect think that instead of the space program, we should be concerned with feeding the hungry and taking care of the sick here on earth--and that just makes me even sadder, because it doesn't HAVE to be either/or. If it weren't for groveling kowtowing to the ever-greedier rich who give NOTHING back, and the endless, pointless war war war, we could go to space, we could nurture and restore the environment here on Earth, we could feed our whole nation and a lot of the world, we could actually have real health care....the list goes on.

OUR money is going down an endless toilet of greed and bloodshed that doesn't put food on our table, doesn't provide us meaningful work or good homes, doesn't treat our sick and inured, and certainly does not advance our knowledge of the universe or bring us inspiration and joy.

[librechik]

41. exactly--we could do it all--PEACE

[July16th-20th]

44. Amen!

:yourock:

[FarLeftFist]

37. The symbolism is glaring...

Our most innovative feat as Americans has collapsed.

[July16th-20th]

45. IT didn't collapse:

WE have torpedoed it!

[BlueCheese]

38. What an appalling lack of vision.

What happened to the country that could do great things?

The United States has just exited from the ranks of spacefaring countries. We are no longer leading humanity into space. We have abdicated our responsibilities to push the boundaries of human accomplishments.

Goddammit.

[Rex]

39. This will be one of the biggest mistakes we've made since

well, since GWB stole the WH. NASA needs funding like the MIC, we would already have a few bases on the moon by now.

MIC = fuck you assholes, give NASA your pocket change you don't need it.
NASA = thank you for letting this man dream as a boy about roaming the stars onboard the Challenger.

:cry:

[July16th-20th]

46. NASA will Remain

And I just gotta believe that someday, and I hope I'm around to see it, another JFK will come along.

[Rex]

47. I know, it just seems like it has been hollowed out without the space

shuttle program...let us All hope another JFK will come in our lifetime! WE NEED THEM NOW!

[Vidar]

48. NASA represented the best in this country, when this country

was worth something. Thank you for the part you played in it.