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Safe Landing For Space Shuttle Discovery
dylanduck writes "Discovery is back safe and sound, despite minor problems with a leaky power unit and a last minute change of approach direction to the runway. The mission tested some post-Columbia safety changes, and also set up the space station for future construction. But in some ways, the tough job starts now - NASA has just 40 days or so to get Atlantis up."
This is a perfect example that STS program has fulfilled expectations placed on it. Astronauts are now able to go to low earth orbit, take pictures of the shuttle and land it safely.
Oh? The scientific experiments? We forgot about those. Maybe next time.
Congratulations to NASA on a very successful mission. Most slashdotters will whine about spending money on this, but what we have to realize is the internet and much of our communications infrastructure depends on satellites and other things that the shuttle either researchs or launches directly. Many improvments in many things we use today are a result of research NASA either has did in space or did to get to space. GO NASA! :D
Gorkman
Technically the shuttles get repaired so extensively at each launch that they are as safe today as they were 20 years ago. That of course is the problem, they weren't safe 20 years age we just didn't know the extent of the problems and didn't have any other choice.
"Space exploration is dangerous"
Put on roller-skates, all your winter clothing, welding goggles, motorcycle helmet, then strap on fifty pound bags of cement until you can barely walk, and crossing the street is dangerous.
While I have a great deal of respect for the people who fly the thing -- astronauts, controllers, all -- the shuttle is a set of fatal compromises driven by budget and politics. The shuttle has done more to hold space travel back than any other spaceflight program. It needs to go.
I'm hoping for a dropped wrench in the VAB -- no lives lost, but we lose another shuttle to something mildly spectacular. That would put a thankful end to the program, whereupon we could start spending the money where it counts: Unmanned programs, and launch vehicles that don't suck.
(I used to be a big shuttle fan until I realized how much it was costing us).
Any sufficiently advanced technology is insufficiently documented.
People still fly in planes that have killed many more than that in their history. I would like to hope that space travel won't be threatened by the occasional disaster, because if nothing else, a few thousand here or there is peanuts compared to what will happen in a few billion years when our solar system becomes rather uninhabitable, or possibly sooner with a meteor strike, war, or plague.
-mrxak
Onions Will Kill You
when that results in half your usuable vehicles being lost.
The 2% number might mean something if we didn't need the main piece back. As such, that number is only good for people who love to toss numbers around without including the context of them
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Don't you still need to ferry people back and forth between the space dock?
-mrxak
Onions Will Kill You
I've been following this flight since a great launch on July 4th, watched it on NASA TV streaming to Realplayer - and the biggest lesson I learned is that journalists are really such dopes. I love reading about the mission, the challenges, the science, etc. But everytime NASA has a press conference the reporters ask such idiotic questions I just turn it off. Having to rely on them for the only source of knowledge about the US space program is the pits. It's like great science filtered thru the brian of a tabolid publisher. It's like they don't know what to ask, and are constantly digging for some 'human angle' to make an interesting story for people who would rather watch soap operas and golf games. Over and over we get "How do you FEEL about taking such an incredible RISK knowing there are problems with FOAM". I *just* turned on a post landing press conference and the first thing I heard, an NPR reporter AGAIN WITH THE FORM (then hit STOP in disgust). Thankfully we can get info directly from NASA these days. People who get their info thru 3rd party media don't know how badly a distorted view they're getting. Journalists reporting on NASA are like Martha Stewart reporting on NASCAR.
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