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Discovery Set to Launch July 13
An anonymous reader writes "The US space shuttle is set to launch July 13 for the first time in nearly two and a half years, after being grounded following the 2003 Columbia disaster, NASA said today. NASA experts held a final 'flight readiness review' meeting on Wednesday and Thursday to make a final decision."
Didn't RTFA.
-Randy
Gotta say this first, enough with the weekly Slashdot stories about some sorry ass committee saying the shuttle might fly, though there is another committe meeting next week at which point maybe it wont. Can we wait until:
A. It launches
B. it land safely
and stop the week by week coverage of the pathetic bureaucracy that is today's Shuttle program.
If you want to salvage your faith in American ingenuity and space farering try to catch the Discovery documentary Black Sky: The Race for Space and its sequel, Black Sky: Winning the X Prize. Discover Science ran it a few times in the last few weeks and never tired of watching it over and over. Not sure how it would play with young people but I sure would like to see schools showing it in science classes. Kids with a science and math aptitude and dreams of space travel would probably dig it. Its an interesting and real picture of what its like to work on an engineering team doing something hard and solving hard problems.
I particuarly like the Scaled Composites aero engineer, he had a great sense of humor. He caught a trim problem, in real-time, in the middle of one of the flights that prevented a disaster. He sure looked like he knew his stuff and he designed big parts of SpaceShipOne solo.
He had a line I wish I could quote exactly about how we have all been trained to think we can't do anything amazing any more unless we are part of big government or big business. A key thing The Scaled Composites team wanted to prove is that 20 people working as a close knit team could still do something hard and amazing.
Contrast this with NASA's manned space program, and army of like 10,000 which is squandering billions every year and can't do anything amazing any more, they can't even do things they did 10, 20 and 40 years ago. This is what happens when you take the amazing Apollo team and turn it in to an entrenched bureaucracy, a jobs program, and corprate welfare for Boeing and Lockheed. Its an institution just trying to preserve itself and its tax payer funding and not do anything amazing any more.
GO SCALED COMPOSITES!!!
@de_machina
Never has there been more reason to be proud. Our country has done the right thing despite it being unpopular.
...and the vision to explore cislunar space and beyond.
Being right and popular rarely go together.
The invasion has eliminated a tyrant and there is no occupation...
Terrorists are confined and treated better than they deserve...
How do you put a price on freedom and our children's security...
Our country still has the power to explore the heavens with what once was a mortal enemy...
If you can't be proud today, you must live in someplace called paris.
God speed to those bright eyed, idealistic, diverse over-acheivers who will ride that great ticking bomb into space. And if the worst happens, I will enjoy the spectacle!
an ill wind that blows no good