{"id":15191,"date":"2009-07-13T07:31:04","date_gmt":"2009-07-13T13:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=15191"},"modified":"2009-07-13T07:31:10","modified_gmt":"2009-07-13T13:31:10","slug":"the-long-retreat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/13\/the-long-retreat.html","title":{"rendered":"The long retreat"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

One day I fear I’ll have to answer to Katherine — or to her children — about how we let this slip away<\/a> …<\/p>\n

\n

The international space station is by far the largest spacecraft ever built by earthlings. Circling the Earth every 90 minutes, it often passes over North America and is visible from the ground when night has fallen but the station, up high, is still bathed in sunlight.<\/p>\n

After more than a decade of construction, it is nearing completion and finally has a full crew of six astronauts. The last components should be installed by the end of next year.<\/p>\n

And then?<\/p>\n

“In the first quarter of 2016, we’ll prep and de-orbit the spacecraft,” says NASA’s space station program manager, Michael T. Suffredini.<\/p>\n

That’s a polite way of saying that NASA will make the space station fall back into the atmosphere, where it will turn into a fireball and then crash into the Pacific Ocean. It’ll be a controlled reentry, to ensure that it doesn’t take out a major city. But it’ll be destroyed as surely as a Lego palace obliterated by the sweeping arm of a suddenly bored kid.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The ISS is not a perfect endeavor. But it’s there, and it’s a small sign that we’re still interested in something bigger than our (literally) mundane concerns. It’s an appeal to our better natures, to our ideals — and deciding it doesn’t fit into a given year’s budget cycle shows the flip side to government programs that never seem to die: some things you can’t just give up on for a little while then pick up again when you’re ready.<\/p>\n

Unmanned probes are fine, even clever. Manned space missions are flashy. But an orbiting habitat is … humanity’s toe-hold in space. But not nearly important as some Congresscritter’s district’s big defense contract, I guess.<\/p>\n

I think of the big “spinning wheel” space stations from SF novels of my youth — or, heck, from 2001: A Space Odyssey <\/em>— and reading this makes me very sad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One day I fear I’ll have to answer to Katherine — or to her children — about how we let this slip away … The international space station is by far the largest spacecraft ever built by earthlings. Circling the Earth every 90 minutes, it often passes over North America and is visible from the … Continue reading “The long retreat”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-space"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10296,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/02\/21\/hell_of_a_way_to_run_a_sp.html","url_meta":{"origin":15191,"position":0},"title":"Hell of a way to run a space agency?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 21-Feb-07 10:58pm","format":false,"excerpt":"NASA may not be able to launch the space shuttle's replacement by 2014 as promised, according to the agency's 2008 budget request to Congress. This could increase the gap...","rel":"","context":"In "Science & Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Science & Nature","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27960,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/22\/go-spacex-go.html","url_meta":{"origin":15191,"position":1},"title":"Go, SpaceX, go!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 22-May-12 8:55am","format":false,"excerpt":"Very cool. Yeah, at this point it's all utility work (literally the \"heavy lifting\"), but still very cool. Embedded Link SpaceX Launch Succeeds \u2014 Now Comes The Hard Part A mission to dock the first ever privately-owned spacecraft with the International Space Station is underway, following the successful launch of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48660,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/05\/the-orion-launch-was-very-cool.html","url_meta":{"origin":15191,"position":2},"title":"The Orion launch was very cool","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 5-Dec-14 7:14am","format":false,"excerpt":"Harkened back to the capsule launches of my childhood. Bravo. Originally shared by +NASA: Missed the launch of #Orion? Want to see it again? Watch it here: http:\/\/bit.ly\/1wDOT2c NASA\u2019s Orion spacecraft launched successfully atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket Dec. 5 at 7:05 a.m. EST from Space\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10143,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/24\/mercury_gemini.html","url_meta":{"origin":15191,"position":3},"title":"Mercury … Gemini … Apollo …","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 24-Aug-06 3:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"... Orion. NASA announced Tuesday that its new crew exploration vehicle will be named Orion. Orion is the vehicle NASA\u2019s Constellation Program is developing to carry a new generation...","rel":"","context":"In "Science & Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Science & Nature","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/orion-nasa.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":27474,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/04\/20\/science-its-neat.html","url_meta":{"origin":15191,"position":4},"title":"Science! It's neat!","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 20-Apr-12 5:39am","format":false,"excerpt":"A fun story about discrepancies in the positions of Pioneer 10 and 11 ... and (finally) the likely solution. Cool! (h\/t Steven.) #ddtbReshared post from +Ricardo Nuno SilvaSpace mystery solved after 32 years! 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