I am having lunch and watching the NASA TV coverage of the docking of Atlantis with the ISS.  The docking has happened and now we are waiting for the hatches to open, really one is open already and the main hatch is still closed at the moment.

Will we even have a “NASA” much longer?  The future of NASA is partly with the Orion spacecraft, check out the video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

LOL, I’m watching one of the ISS crew, he’s seemingly pointing right at me and saying “hurry up and finish the post”, not really,  but it did look like it.

So, we have this new idea the Orion but will it ever come to pass?  Oh you don’t see how it couldn’t?  If the successor to the Hubble, the James Webb Telescope, is on the chopping block at this stage in its development and make no mistake it is in jeopardy of being cut this year, the Orion probably isn’t that far behind.

I still say spending less than a dime on a US tax dollar towards the sciences (of which spaceflight is a part) like we do (~ 0.86 %) is a pretty good deal.

Oh well, sour grapes I guess.  If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say the door is closing on NASA.

Be sure to check out the Space shuttle Tribute put together by Vizme, it’s rather good; AND lest you say my cup is half empty today, the hatches between the shuttle and the ISS are both open!  Other than a problem with a general purpose computer due a minor switch issue things have been going great on the still young mission.

Video source