Space Shuttles almost Ready to Re-Launch

stagmeister writes "CNN and Space.com are reporting that the Return to Flight Task Group, the overseeing committee that determines when the Space Shuttles can go back into space, has reported that the only items blocking the Shuttles are issues 'related to tank debris, orbiter hardening and tile repair.' They plan to re-meet in later this month to finalize their decision. However, 'NASA has made clear it intends to resume shuttle flights with the repair capabilities it has in hand without knowing for sure whether they would work in an emergency.' Would you want your children flying a space shuttle that hasn't been properly beta-tested?"

Comments

Remaining bugs are the same

[Animats]

The remaining bugs are "related to tank debris, orbiter hardening and tile repair". Aren't those the problems that caused the last crash?

Re:Careful here Re:Spirit of exploration wins out

[Rei]

the recent report I read

If you've got a report, then link it, Mr. "Shuttle Tiles Don't Radiate Significant Amounts Of Heat". I demonstrated, with links, that the spectators at a NASA launch are ten times further away than the soldiers wounded and killed by the Soyuz failure.

I never said, meant, or even thought that

You did, however, state:

No, the question was about passenger safety what the odds for his child on a launch vehicle was, not reliability; Soyuz is possibly less reliable, but it is somewhat safer for the cosmonauts.

How callous can you be? 50 people died, and you're essentially saying that you don't care about the ground crew when looking at safety - only the cosmonauts (which haven't been safer, as demonstrated in my last post, which you didn't respond to).

By the way, I noticed that you skipped responding to the vast majority of my post, including all of the spots where I corrected your misstating of the facts around Soyuz, its safety record, and its past accidents. Duly noted.