The Single Most Beautiful Machine Ever Conceived by Man

[Rob Oplawar]

I just thought the Space Shuttle deserved its own thread, seeing as it's one of mankind's greatest achievements and all.

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-121/hires/iss013e48788.jpg
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0210/shuttlemir_nasa_big.jpg
http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=ig365-07-02.jpg
http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=ig365-05-02.jpg
http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=ig365-02-02.jpg
http://www.ocw.cn/NR/rdonlyres/Aeronautics-and-Astronautics/16-885JFall-2005/E568D184-9883-450C-BD5C-BBCBD6BA71AE/0/chp_shuttle.jpg

Like I told Snaf, the Space Shuttle is approximately 2^20 times cooler than the Millennium Falcon and Serenity put together, and that's saying something, cause those are my two favorite fictional spacecraft ever.

But the Space Shuttle doesn't deserve all the credit.

Here's the real purpose of this thread: I find real life spacecraft to be tremendously inspirational for my 3D Modeling. Post any good pics you have of *real life* spacecraft here!

e: maybe this should be in off topic instead, idk. Heh, it'd get more hits that way.

[n00b1n8R]

the falcon has guns http://sa.tweek.us/emots/images/emot-colbert.gif

also, needs mor picky plox!

[dg]

Human ingenuity never ceases to amaze me.

Also, what the hell is "plox?"

[nooBBooze]

Their planning a new one right? it will be on retirement soon-tleast thats waht i heard.

[Agamemnon]

Yes, by 2010 the Space Shuttle will be retired and be replaced with the Orion. It's being done primarily because the Space Shuttles weren't designed to land on the Moon and Mars, but the Orion spacecraft will.

[Rob Oplawar]

Actually, it's being done because the fleet of Space Shuttles is aging and proving very expensive to maintain while not performing nearly as well as they were originally intended, a capsule is inherently much safer, more reliable, cheaper, and more efficient than the Space Shuttle, reusable or no.

But while the Orion CEV is admittedly very cool,
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/156336main_Orion_lunar_orbit.jpg
it's just not nearly as bold or ambitious or clever or gorgeous as the Space Shuttle.

[Agamemnon]

Actually, it's being done because the fleet of Space Shuttles is aging and proving very expensive to maintain while not performing nearly as well as they were originally intended, a capsule is inherently much safer, more reliable, cheaper, and more efficient than the Space Shuttle, reusable or no.
That's also the other main issue, due to budget spending. The shuttle was designed for beauty, not efficiency.

[Rob Oplawar]

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/spacecraft/apollo_17_cm.jpg
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/spacecraft/apollo_15_cm.jpg
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/spacecraft/apollo_14_lm.jpg
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/spacecraft/apollo_9.jpg
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0201/challenger_apollo17.jpg
^ UFO! UFO!
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/images/apollo11w72.jpg
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a11/ap11-69-H-365.jpg
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/122526main_image_feature_367_ys_4.jpg

BTW, the CEV capsule is much larger than the Apollo capsule- it has to seat 6 for a longer period of time. o.0 /big