Gadgetory

nasa hasn't sent human beings above low Earth orbit since the Apollo program ended in the 1970s and with the shuttle program ending we haven't even been sending our own astronauts up to the ISS that's going to change nASA has announced that they want to send us astronauts from US soil starting in 2017 and their ambitions are even bigger it's not just NASA either companies like SpaceX the United Launch Alliance and Virgin Galactic are trying new ambitious things that we've never done before I think space is coming back in a really big way oh my god oh my god what we're here to see is the Atlas 5 rocket launch which is going to be carrying an a/v communication satellite to provide cell phone service not super sexy and a lot of our rocket launches have been like that not really compelling in the same way that human spaceflight can be the space program has literally had its ups and downs if you'll pardon that little bit of a pun but but there have been some changes we certainly experienced that at the end of the Apollo program today you know there's only two countries that have the ability to launch humans into space and the u.s. is not one of them we obviously had huge excitement around the Apollo program that was renewed with shuttle and then when the shuttle was decommissioned we kind of went into this bathtub or hiatus where the excitement level went down and NASA you know wasn't able to do what it normally does to excite the country but I think we're seeing a resurgence of that we are certainly at the turning point in the space activities because we add if you want the period of the space shuttle and the space station the major developments are completed and we need to look beyond by looking beyond of course the next step at international level is agreed to be space exploration moon Mars and so on there's something really amazing about sending people beyond our own planet I mean it's maybe the most impressive thing that we've accomplished as a species the idea that we might be going to Mars really excites me and I think it excites a lot of other people too I've seen a really renewed interest in what's going on in space in part because we're doing things we haven't done before one of the things that's different from the early days from the Apollo missions is that we actually have private companies that are interested in space now that's pretty cool i think that potentially things like space tourism might make people care about the big missions more and more likely to fund them we definitely are renaissance and what a lot of people called new space which is the movement from gum dominated programs like the space shuttle program in public-private partnerships where NASA's investing in programs but companies are also investing to try to make it commercial as well for the private side as we say there has been a clear identification of a private sector taking more responsibility in the low Earth orbit destinations course this is in general beneficial it has to be very strictly coordinated with the government activities I believe because we cannot afford to have major failure so take risks which cannot be calculated 30 our estimation tism main engines at 108 percent if you are it's not like space is easy though just last year we saw three major accidents within the space of about two months two of them were uncrewed thank goodness but one person died it's kind of like the early days of Apollo when the Rockets weren't totally ready for prime time and we saw a lot of explosions I mean commercial spaceflight isn't there yet it just isn't space never has become routine there were 135 Shuttle missions which seems like a lot but when you compare that to cars operating on the freeway or commercial aircraft where you may have a million flights a day operating it's really a very small number at some point there's going to be a conjunction between the reliability and cost of the technology and processes it takes to get to space in a burgeoning commercial market particularly for low Earth orbit there's going to be a time in the future where you don't have to be a billionaire to get to space but your average citizen has an opportunity to go to space maybe work in space during research at least go to space and look back at Earth which is a incredibly unique perspective so this was my first rocket launch I've never been to one before and it was amazing I'm so excited I like kind of cannot contain myself I'm like I've got butterflies oh my god oh my god I wasn't expecting to be as excited as I was it was like a kind of giddiness butterflies in the stomach feeling that I hadn't really been expecting especially because this isn't even a very important mission and honestly I don't think I had a single thought in my head except the holy this is so cool I think we like to think of ourselves as a spacefaring people we like to think of space as part of our home now and I think the excitement of what's going on in space travel space launch space exploration I think it's starting to hit its stride again it is capturing the public's attention in and the imagination and making people think a little bit more about what is out there in the future are we going to march when are we going to Mars when is that going to take place when am I going to get to fly in space and all those things are possible the thing is i think that people really are interested in space I was in Times Square when curiosity landed and it was packed and I think people really responded to how ambitious that mission was and how ambitious as landing was I think people care about space when we're doing exciting new things especially when we do things we haven't done before especially if people are involved something like an asteroid redirect mission a moon base Mars maybe even Venus those are things I think people would get behind I think those are things people care about and I think that's what's coming space is about to get really exciting for everybody and I really can't wait