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Endeavour Rolled Out As Rescue Ship
stoolpigeon writes "The space shuttle Endeavour was rolled out to Launch Pad 39B yesterday. Space shuttle Atlantis is already at Launch Pad 39A, being made ready for the STS-125 mission to repair Hubble. We recently got a look at some behind-the-scenes photos for this mission. Endeavour is now in place to act as a rescue vehicle if there are any problems with Atlantis, once they are in space. This is the first time one shuttle has been prepared to act as a rescue vehicle for another. If all goes well for STS-125, Endeavour will move over to 39A to be used for STS-126."
Which part of "inherently flawed" do you not understand. The grandparent is not questioning the logic of having a rescue mission. It is questioning the logic of having a craft, which; on the basis of the last several counts; has a one in four chance of needing a second rescue mission. What if we end up with two broken shuttles in orbit? Would the Russians even have enough Soyuz craft to perform a rescue? Assuming 3 crew on the original shuttle and two rescue crew, on the next one, you would have five Americans to rescue. Each Soyuz could take two people down, so, if you could have only a single crew member in them you would need three Soyuz craft for the rescue. That seems like alot to me?? Assuming that you pretty much immediately launched one rescue craft, filled with as much spare supplies as reasonable, that would leave thre Americans surviving in two shuttles. How much chance of a complete rescue? How much would it cost?
The ISS wouldn't help, one of the major reasons they were considering scrapping the Hubble is because the shuttle can't make it to the ISS "safe harbour" from the Hubble orbit.
I may agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to face the consequences of saying it.