Just saw the ISS make a pass.

[RocketMan]

SWMBO and I just saw the International Space Station pass across the horizon.  The highest it got was about 25 degrees on an approximate five minute pass.  Magnitude was around -1.4.
Pretty cool.  I hadn't seen it since 2005 at a rocket launch in the high desert east of Bend, OR.  It's had a lot of hardware added to it since then, and that helped make it more visible against all the light pollution.
SWMBO had never seen it before.  She really enjoyed.  As a bonus, she saw her first ever meteor, too.
It will make a higher pass over the horizon tomorrow night, about 50 degrees max. altitude with a magnitude of -2.7.  I'm going to watch for it again if the weather permits.

Check http://www.heavens-above.com/ for passage times in your area if you are interested.  And now would be a good time, considering that NASA is going to deorbit the ISS in 2016.

[Sergeant Bob]

I've seen it many times and it is indeed pretty cool. I would get the schedule to show other people and the reaction would most often be complete disbelief. It usually takes a bit of 'splainin' to educate them.

[RevDisk]

Check http://www.heavens-above.com/ for passage times in your area if you are interested.  And now would be a good time, considering that NASA is going to deorbit the ISS in 2016.

Wait, what?  Why is the ISS scheduled for deorbitting?  We're still adding modules to it.  Is there some replacement scheduled?

[Silver Bullet]

We're tracking that also.  Lotsa fun:  you look up in the sky at the designated time, direction, and inclination and then it pops up into view.  At first its dim because it always seems be coming from the west (we only watch in the PM times) and then it gets brighter and brighter as it moves towards the east and more of the surface can be seen lit up from the sun.  Then it gets behind the earth's shadow and disappears before reaching the horizon.

I prefer this sight after looking at several:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=United_States&region=Arizona&city=Phoenix

To change the location, click +REALTIME DATA > Sighting Opportunities > Go To Country > choose state > choose city

[RocketMan]

Wait, what?  Why is the ISS scheduled for deorbitting?  We're still adding modules to it.  Is there some replacement scheduled?

The new NASA administrator announced the deorbiting earlier this week.  Lots of stories out there.  Here's one:
http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-amp-space/article/2009-07/nasa-de-orbit-international-space-station-2016
No replacement is set for the ISS.  Ostensibly, it's to free up funding for the Moon program and the associated launchers that are supposed to replace the shuttle.
That said, I doubt America will ever return to the moon, as broke as we are.  There simply is no way it could be funded.  And I don't believe Obama cares a whit for NASA.  He'd rather divert the comparitively small funding it gets to social programs.
So, enjoy the views of the ISS while you can.

[RevDisk]

No replacement is set for the ISS.  Ostensibly, it's to free up funding for the Moon program and the associated launchers that are supposed to replace the shuttle.
That said, I doubt America will ever return to the moon, as broke as we are.  There simply is no way it could be funded.  And I don't believe Obama cares a whit for NASA.  He'd rather divert the comparitively small funding it gets to social programs.
So, enjoy the views of the ISS while you can.

There are ultimately two choices for humanity.  Going out into space, or dying. 

The old-school NASA is dead.  Old-school NASA was inspiring, for damn good reason.  Give them an impossible task, they'd salute and hop on it.  They'd do so by finding a bunch of really smart geeky engineers (with manditory ugly glasses, no social skills, poor fashion sense, and inhumanly high IQ's) and locking them in a room with nothing but caffiene, nicotine and graph paper.  Probably threatened them with the equivilent of "No cheetos or WoW until we get an upper stage booster specifications!"   And by the Gods, said geek-engineers delivered!
Now?  Any kid that'd try to build a real functioning rocket in his back yard is either going to be medicated to zombie status by his school or a visit from feds and put on a watchlist for the rest of his life.  Ask Nuke Boy or that New Zealand guy that made a ramjet engine. 

Only way to fix NASA would be to shoot all administrators that are not geeky engineers or organizational geniuses at managing geeky engineers.   Round up said feds and their watchlists, take away their guns, give them cheetos, and tell them to mine their watchlists for recruiting anti-social youngins that like blowing stuff up or attempt to build functional nukes in the backyard. 

But no.  Now we have a NASA that is a bureaucracy and CYA or desk jockey empire building is the mission, not doing the impossible on a daily basis.  At this point, I wonder if we'd probably be better off canning NASA and going the X Prize route.  I'm not sure, but I'm starting to get that vibe.  I know a bunch of smart people that work for NASA, none of whom will ever be allowed to climb the ranks.  They love their work and they'd love to go old school.  But the brass and the politicians don't care about any of that.

Sigh... 

[mfree]

"I wonder if we'd probably be better off canning NASA and going the X Prize route. "

SpaceX just launched the FIRST fully commercial liquid fueled rocket to successfully get it's payload (a Malaysian imaging satellite) to it's designated orbit. Two stage to orbit, second stage relightable and did so, transit to orbit was to a parking orbit first and then a re-burn to circularize. That alone is a hell of an accomplishment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_1

Now it's been shown to be a reachable goal... NASA may end out out of the business, except for some probe work and experimental propulsion. NASA could be the next FAA or worse, DOT.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon/005/status.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTFlFFrfEB0

That's history being made, right there.....

[HankB]

. . . we have a NASA that is a bureaucracy and CYA or desk jockey empire building is the mission, not doing the impossible on a daily basis. 

And it's been thoroughly corrupted by poltical correctness; I remember a conversation with a NASA manager (probably retired by now) who was really p****d off . . . he had an opening in his department for some sort of scientist or engineer, and HIS management told him that while he could interview anyone he wanted, the person he hired WOULD be a black woman.

Period.

End of discussion.

 

[MrGreenmachine]

Wow, you guys have pretty much wrote out the book "Kings of the High Frontier" Victor Koman.  A fairly decent read and pretty much follows just like that.  NASA bureaucrats pretty much ending space travel and just making it more bureacracy.  Ciivilans make space flight.   Not a book for kids as there is some sex, unless your kids are mature enough.

[Ben]

Well said RevDisk.

I would add that the bureaucracy of safety has also hurt the program. I am by no means writing this in a callous manner regarding the lives of space program personnel, but look at the differences between our current space program and older programs. In our initial race into space through the Apollo program, if a rocket blew up, or even if there were deaths, it seemed we pushed that much harder. Today, if there's the slightest chance of something not being right, or something bad actually happens, NASA locks everything down.

Again, I don't want to sound cavalier regarding other people's lives, but pioneers didn't make it from Plymouth Rock to California by being overly cautious, and we won't expand into space by being overly cautious and not taking risks. Maybe the difference is that the old programs, besides the nerds, had a lot more military personnel in operational and administrative roles, and they had a different mindset regarding the risks.

[freedom lover]

SWMBO had never seen it before.  She really enjoyed.  As a bonus, she saw her first ever meteor, too.

Was it on the ground or are you saying she never saw a shooting star when she was a child?

If it were up to me NASA would take a long hiatus from manned space flight, stop sending rovers to Mars, and have nothing to do with searching for alien germs, life, and planets. I know that even if controllable fusion and Star Trek matter generators (which will be fantasy for some millenia at the very least) are invented man will still need to expand to other planets. The problem is that America doesn't have the funds to spare right now.

[RevDisk]

Well said RevDisk.

I would add that the bureaucracy of safety has also hurt the program. I am by no means writing this in a callous manner regarding the lives of space program personnel, but look at the differences between our current space program and older programs. In our initial race into space through the Apollo program, if a rocket blew up, or even if there were deaths, it seemed we pushed that much harder. Today, if there's the slightest chance of something not being right, or something bad actually happens, NASA locks everything down.

Not always.  Engineers knew and said there were problems with the O rings and heat tiles.  They were ignored by brass playing CYA games.  Nothing wrong with a culture of safety, assuming priorities are straight.  Every astronaut knows they can be killed by the unknown. They should not be killed by dumbass bureaucrats who refuse to listen to the engineers. 

Old school NASA, if an engineer said "there is a 99.9% chance that the O ring will fail because the temperature is too low but I don't have specific testing under this particular scenario to prove it, just common bloody sense and basic polymer physics", the launch was scrubbed.  Now, it's a manager saying "I'm not getting a bad review because of your opinion, so go sod off!"   

There's a huge difference between "You're flying into outer space under unproven conditions.  Any one of a billion things can kill you.  We poured our blood, sweat and tears into trying to make sure that will not happen, but no guarantees..." And "I'm an important mid-level bureaucrat manager who is too important to listen to pesky engineers just because they have fancy degrees and math speak."

[Ben]

Yeah, I actually said it poorly. I meant more the administrator who sites "safety" for fear of being sued or looking bad, versus genuine safety concerns.

[RocketMan]

Shooting star, freedom lover.  She had never seen one until the other night when we were looking for the ISS.
By definition, a meteor does not become a meteorite until it hits the ground.  There is a nice collection of meteorites at OMSI up in Portland.  I should take her to see those sometime.  It might add some interesting perspective.