Interested in this news story from our position here in Huntsville, AL. The NASA Space Shuttle timetable formally announced now up to the final mission on 31st May 2010.
Follow the links to the NASA Constellation / Ares / Orion project which will provide subsequent manned NASA missions.
The Huntsville connection ? Wernher-vonBraun / Operation-Paperclip / Redstone-Arsenal / Marshall-Space-Flight-Centre / Apollo / Saturn I & V and now the J2X engine to power Ares V.
Interesting on the MSFC home page; the biographical sketch of Ernst Stuhlinger, vonBraun’s No.2, who died recently 25th May 2008 aged 94. This lively old boy made an impression on Sylvia when she met him last year, amongst another things waxing philosophical about the ironic sign o’the times changing for the better as he considered that … in the German army from 1940 to 1943, “I was marching toward the steppes of the Ukraine when an order reached me in early 1943 to come and join the Pennemuende (V1/V2 Rocket) group” … the doctor working to prolong his life in the 21st century … was Jewish. (Actually interesting to read the biographical notes and earlier quotes – major engineering projects really about working cooperatively with people, for the future of the planet.)
Interesting also to see also the SpaceX / Falcon / Dragon project may run privately-funded space-station missions in the meantime – hadn’t noticed that before.