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NASA Delays Discovery's Final Launch To February
Velcroman1 writes "NASA has postponed the launch of space shuttle Discovery's final mission to no earlier than early February — the latest in a long string of delays that have kept the spacecraft grounded for more than a month. Discovery is now slated to launch no earlier than Feb. 3, with the delay allowing NASA engineers more time to analyze why small cracks developed in the shuttle's huge external fuel tank. The cracks have since been repaired, but NASA wants to make sure similar issues don't pose a future concern."
If it's fixed, launch it. Why worry about future concerns? There won't be anymore Space Shuttle.
allowing NASA engineers more time to analyze why small cracks developed in the shuttle's huge external fuel tank
Might it have something to do with every component being built by the lowest bidder because funding keeps getting cut anytime someone at NASA blinks?
...to say "fuck it" and load everything onto Falcon 9? Seriously, if this keeps up, the Dragon capsule will be fully tested before the last shuttle goes up. It's like trying to eek your '78 Pinto up to 300,000 miles while a 2010 BMW is sitting in the driveway.
I hope their final voyage is a safe one, and one day we will have a manned mission back to the Moon and maybe to Mars.
Here is a cool infographic I found on the Space Shuttle
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
On the on hand, this sucks. On the other hand, its more time that I have to get enough money together to go see a launch in person.
You can't end the shuttle era if you keep delaying the last shuttle mission.
Meanwhile, various other launch systems, that aren't pork-bloated, politically-designed flying bricks, just keep chugging along with their launches and schedules successfully. I suppose this is what happens when politicians and business majors decide they can be engineers. Go figure
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Are you implying that the lowest bidder makes the worst product? And that the highest bidder makes the best product?
Are you saying that NASA did not provide specifications to the vendors? And that NASA accepted whatever was provided?
Are you saying that the blink rate of NASA employees has something to do with their budget?
I heard the real reason was that the crew refused to let the TSA agents do the new pat down procedure.
I don't know who or why they would push the launch to Dec 17. First of all, the Shuttle is not tested across a year boundary, and the last flight is not the time to be testing to see if this works. (Dates are complex enough, and handling all possible date transitions is even harder. Thus it's easier to not fly the Shuttle across a New Year transition rather than have to test everything to ensure it can handle it).
I believe it was supposed to be a 10 day mission, so if it launches Dec 17, it means it returns Dec 27. Which gives you 4 days before you're in test-pilot mode (the missions may get extended unexpectedly due to launch delays or weather on return). While I doubt the shuttle would just explode when the clock ticks over, 4 days doesn't seem like a lot of leeway.
All they had to do was push it another couple of weeks and they'd have a whole year to schedule and launch. At least it seems saner heads have prevailed.
Two missions left and they want to study to see if there will be "future" problem? This one is fixed. Shoot it. Inspect Endeavor. Fix cracks if present. Shoot it.
Can't even go out of buisiness on schedule.