want to know how many people are in space right now?

[bibblebub]

http://www.howmanypeo...einspacerightnow.com/

I'm undecided as to whether that site is interesting or one of the dullest sites around.

[mollykins]

i have actually wondered that for a long time.

Years ago, you'd know about every shuttle launch but now its no big deal and they barely get a mention.

[chelle7272]

Well it is interesting but not fo very long! Somehow I thought there would be more than that, but I have no real basis for thinking so.

[bibblebub]

mollykins - you're not old enough to remember the times when the Russian space programme was shrouded in secrecy and you'd wake up one morning to find that there had been a new mission launch overnight. Now the Chinese are (hopefully) in that role of providing surprises.

Of course, back in the 60s there was great enthusiasm for all things space-wise and everything seemed possible; there were speculative plans to have manned missions to Mars by the early 80s (I had the books that outlined in a semi-technical way what might happen). Then came Apollo 11 and all the interest died off. So the 70s turned out to be quite disappointing.

[snags]

9 men and 4 women... no pigs then :-(

[bibblebub]

in space no-one can hear you oink

[Laasya]

I hope no one.

[mollykins]

Yeah but my parents said 'back in my day every launch was big news and you heard about all the satellites and shuttles that went into space. . . . '

[bibblebub]

Way before the shuttles, the 1960s was the decade for manned space-flight, things happening all the time.