Astronaut Steven Swanson hitches ride on Soyuz

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• You read it here in IHTM first - Russia's Deputy Prime Minister is now saying American astronauts can use a trampoline to get into space from now on:

  http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/04/30/us-astronauts-should-use-trampolines-to-get-into-space-russian-official-says/

  • Makes the shutting down of the Shuttle Program an even smarter move, right Barky?

• If things get ugly between Russia and America down here on the ground, I'm betting that the ghost of Ed White will appear on the ISS and tell them, "Something's going to happen... Something wonderful."

• I called the cyber-bully hotline today to report vlady for being such a bully to barry

• What was the cost of the ticket to ride?

  • Since I sometimes miss the sarcasm, just in case you were wondering;
    +-70 million a pop.

    • Stick around awhile we will help you understand the sarcasm and skeptical attitude that many of us have.

      I have a T-shirt that says "Sarcasm, just one of the many services I offer" and another one that says "All stressed out and no one to choke"

      Both are persona non grata at work. I have no idea why

  • She don't care.

• So, not that I particularly like defending Urkel or giving him the benefit of the doubt. In fact, I am in physical pain, right now, as I write this. However, didn't the decision get made under Bush? Urkel just decided to adopt another stupid Bush policy and not fight it? I may be wrong, and I hope I am, and it's really all Urkel's fault. Like I said, I don't like giving him any wiggle room.... But....

  • Which was supposed to be replaced by the Orion Program, which promptly lost most of it's funding when Quagmire took over.

  • Yes, that's what I stopped by to say. I think the Shuttle program was scheduled to be phased out long ago by NASA itself, and no president should be held responsible for it

    Turning NASA into an Outreach-To-Mohammadans social work organization, that's something else entirely.

    • That's how I'm remembering it, look later (maybe). But for the Divine1, one or the other nixed it's "replacement" and I'm leaning Øbummer not Booosh.

      • You are correct. The shuttle program was extended several times to assure we had some way of getting men into space. The replacement was supposed to be the Constellation program. Bush seemed to grasp the simple concept that you can't stop flying shuttles until something else is ready to replace it so NASA kept repairing them, improving them, and flying them. (You can imagine how outdated the original electronics and computers would have been if they didn't replace them.) Obama cancelled the Constellation program at about the same time he cancelled the shuttle program, which was about the same time he decided NASA needed to start an outreach to worldwide Muslims.

        • Here's the current plans:

          http://news.yahoo.com/private-space-taxis-track-2017-launch-nasa-says-120445301.html

          So if this is true, that we could have a replacement by 2017, then all we needed to do was keep the shuttle flying for a few more years.

        • Thanks JP, I knew about spacex, but the other companies were an eye opener to me.

          Being private companies, they have a better incentive to preform than any taxpayer funded venture. I wish I had a few extra dollars to invest in all of these companies, as I am sure at least one of them will pay off.

        • That Dream Chaser looks pretty cool, doesn't it? Of course, looking cool and actually working are two different things but I'm guessing it's able to look cooler than the shuttles because material science has advanced a long ways since they were coating that shuttle in ceramic tiles and electronics have advanced a long ways lightening the load considerably. When you think about it, our cellphones probably have better GPS abilities than the original shuttle.

• Not only has the brilliant Quagmire Administration given up control of the internet to the UN, but now he's about to give up control of the International Space Station to the Russians.

  • It's really not that surprising, Barky isn't even in control of is own household, so why would we think he might balk at giving up control over stuff he doesn't own? Once a wuss, always a wuss.