Slashdot Mirror
Space Shuttle Discovery to Launch July 26
thhamm writes "According to Space.com: 'NASA will restart the countdown for the space shuttle Discovery Saturday, with plans to launch the orbiter spaceward on July 26 after more than a week of work to pin down a fuel sensor glitch, mission managers said late Wednesday'. In the meantime, technicians will work with grounding wiring associated with the liquid hydrogen engine cutoff sensor system, as well as adjust the configuration of components within Discovery's point sensor box."
I'm afraid that NASA shuttles will never get in the air again, due to the now incredibly high standards of NASA. The last problem may have been pretty big, but we can't turn off every shuttle launch just because it's not absolutely perfect.
Believe me, I want the astronauts to survive. But you also have to understand that going into space is dangerous. Things go wrong even in the most tested of scenarios. The astronauts know the risk.
What makes you think the successor to the Shuttle won't be a pork politics blasphemy?
For god's sake, how did it come to this, anyway?!? 30 years in and the STS program is still considered an experimental program with experimental vehicles.
I remember cutting out time magazine stories about Congress funding the space station in 1983! This is probably very simplistic thinking, but we could've taken the money we wasted on ISS in the 80's and designed a much more dependable shuttle fleet where loose wiring didn't mess the whole launch up.
And we're still talking about a Mars mission?1? Step by step, folks...not all at once.
I think a lot of fans of the space program (and NASA employees as well) would love to see all of the Shuttles just fall apart in storage ala the Bluesmobile at the end of The Blues Brothers
Sadly, that will not happen, and any damage sustained during a flight would give more ammunition to those who believe NASA's funding should be eliminated altogether (or at least the funding for the manned side of things).
Another accident would simply doom the organization. When Challenger was lost, NASA was allowed some breathing room to rework itself as an organization. When Columbia disintegrated, it was the death knell for the shuttle program much sooner than anyone could have expected or hoped for. Anything else at this point, would likely put the entire organization back another 10 years, if they were even allowed to fly people up again.
NASA is running on its last chance here. All of the remaining shuttles will be decommissioned in 5 years. Period. The CEV is being worked on at an accelerated pace. No more of the "Yeah, that one part failed during a test and it will take 18 months to fabricate a new one, so everyone involved with the project can sit on their hands while we make this thing" like we had with the previous attempts to remaking the shuttle without really having technology ready to see it through.
Some would like to argue that private industry could do manned exploration better. I'm sure they could do launches quite nicely, but no company is anywhere close to having an orbital craft. And good luck on finding me a private company that will drop a few billion on pure research for the sake of knowing more about our galaxy.