Last Shuttle External Tank Arrives at Kennedy

[wattstarr911]

Ill miss seeing that barge on my way to work as I cross the bridge going in to Chalmette LA

[luv6pup]

as always, amazing!

[m60a3ttsmilwaukee]

between 1976-1980 the usaf wanted the 4 space shuttles so they can carry 20 nuclear warheads each in the cargo bays for preemptive strikes over soviet russia if needed !...6 minunites from orbit to nuke moscow!...ronald reagan continued this mission!

[m60a3ttsmilwaukee]

between 1976-1980 nasa hyped president jimmy carter to continue funding 4 space shuttles so we can put solar powered energy satellites in orbit to beam down by microwave free electricity to american cities to solve the energy crisis!...(look at the oil mess in the ocean...drinking water air and rain)

[snoopyloopy]

@m60a3ttsmilwaukee not sure a microwave beam would be practical. there would still have to be a receiving station on the ground, and there there's the big problem presented by having a live microwave beam going down at all times. what happens if the orbit slips, or any other number of mishaps happen and then suddenly the mw beam is NOT hitting the receiver.

[m60a3ttsmilwaukee]

nasa+jpl cover up flying saucers and alien abductions! their covert masters are majestic-12 (men-in-black) at area-51 s-4 and pine gap australia!...nasa+jpl have covered up seti signals...airbrush out ufos and ancient ruins from photos..of moon and mars! astronauts edgar mitchell and gordon cooper have seen flying saucers and swear to nasa ufo coverup! ( w . disclosureproject . org).

[Demokrator86]

Jeez I'm crying right now :((( I'm so sorry about this incredible machine. Atlas-Apollo, then Space Shuttle. I mean this is very bad tendency goddammit!

[fcycles]

They should paint it in white... like the first shuttle flight!!!!

[kachinababe]

@lgvereor, No it's people like you who drag this country down with hate.

[faab007]

@kachinababe no he's just a bit upset

[Rigo0Jancsi]

I wonder what will happen to the "launch-on-need"-tank at the end of the program.

[spencertron88]

thats how large those things are?!?!??! dam...

[Bluenoser613]

Please, when the comentary is finished can you increase the volume of the rest of the video?

[bannedbyMusloons]

The end of an Era. :(

[wilhelmschumann]

Does anyone Know if NASA has another surprise to us like a new sort of Space Shuttle ?.

It is a pity to see the Shuttle fleet will never fly again after that flight on Feb 26/2011.

Regards, William

[DukeNukemIsHere3]

@wilhelmschumann There are no surprises.

They'll be relying on the Russian Soyuz rocket to ship astronauts to Low Earth Orbit until the commercial space companies, such as SpaceX, will be able to do the job.

One promising aspect, however, is the development of a new plasma rocket, the VASIMIR engine, which should be significantly faster than Shuttle or any chemical rocket. The engine is scheduled to be tested in space on the International Space Station in 2014.

[bannedbyMusloons]

@DukeNukemIsHere3: Vasimir engines cannot launch stuff into orbit from Earth, they can only work in the vacuum of space. So they are not and will never be launch vehicles. Unless Ion engines like those seen in Scifi such as those in Star Wars or Stargate are somehow developed we will have to continue to rely on chemical rockets.

[DukeNukemIsHere3]

@bannedbyMusloons I am aware of that :/

Perhaps my comment wasn't all that clear but I was referring to the use of chemical rockets in space. I know they'll still be needed to launch to LOE, but the VASIMIR could potentially make missions to Mars significantly easier to achieve, which is like totally dope.

[muffles12]

that right new nasa mission is coming

[JoeyCanPwnRS]

Do you know how much pig crap that could hold?

Enough to lift 4.5 million pounds of astronauts and equipment, these are massive and awesome.

[ti994apc]

@JoeyCanPwnRS Actually that is not even close to being true. The Shuttle can only carry 53,600 lb to LEO or only 6,000 to GTO. True Shuttle requires a heavy lift system (one of the many drawbacks of Shuttle) that ad's great cost and danger. Remember, Shuttle has to be able to lift its own weight.  Shuttle cost 1.6 billion per launch, it might be cheaper for it to burn dollar bills. In contrast Falcon9 heavy lifts 90,000 to LEO and for 90 million, a fraction of the cost.

[JoeyCanPwnRS]

@ti994apc It's a Simpsons Movie joke. Wow.