Manned space flight

Discovery has landed safely.

This is wonderful news, and this will also be news for several days.

While listening to one of the press conferences, one of the NASA officials made a comment that I found very interesting.

To date, this is our 145th American Manned Space flight.

We are still new at this.

Spaceflight is barely possible for us.

Those are 3 very interesting statements to me.
First, this is only our 145th Manned Space flight (in the US). When you think about it, that isn't very many. We sent our first satellite (Explorer 1) to space in January, 1958. On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space during a fifteen-minute suborbital flight, and John Glenn made the first orbital flight nine months later.

So, it has only been 44 years since the first American was sent to space. That is only 3.3 flights per year on average. Could you imagine where we would be if we had only had 145 airplane flights in 44 years? We defiantly would not have any planes that broke the sound barrier.

Second, we are still new at this. Until recently, with the successful flight of SpaceShipOne, spaceflight has been only in the realm of Governments. Unlike airplanes, space flight has been a government only club. And like aircraft, I think now that the private sector is getting involved, we may see some huge changes. I don't think because private sector is any smarter than the public, but that more risks can be taken in the private sector. Some of which just are not allowed in government, well, in ours anyway.

Third, space flight is barely possible for us. In 1903, the Wright Brothers flew. Then, in 1919, the first transatlantic flight was made. I wonder how many flights took place before that first transatlantic flight was possible. More than the 145 I would say. So, compared to normal flight, spaceflight is still in it's infantcy. It is a very risky business leaving the confines of Earth and going into space. When you think about it, every person we send to space sits on top of an exploding bomb. Granted, it is a controlled explosion (usually). However, the men and women that do this WANT to do this. Do they know that it is dangerous? YES. But the desire and benefit far outway the risk to them.


I am sure there will be more shuttle missions up till the 2010 shuttle retirement. When they are gone, they will be missed, but there will be more manned spaceflight once the shuttle are gone. I'm sure that what is coming will be far superior to what we have now. But each step in important.

Each step is exciting.

Interesting Tid-Bit:
Here is something you may not know. After both the Challenger and the Colombia Disasters, Discovery was the next shuttle to be launched.


You can find out more about human spaceflight at answers.com