Slashdot Mirror
"Father of the Space Shuttle" George Mueller Dies At 97 (washingtonpost.com)
The Washington Post reports that long-time NASA engineer and administrator George Mueller died on October 12 of congestive heart failure, at 97. Mueller had a hand in NASA programs as Associate Administrator of the NASA Office of Manned Space Flight going back to the Apollo program, but not only as an administrator: he played a large role in the design of Skylab, and in lobbying for the Space Shuttle; this last earned him the (sometimes disputed) nickname of "Father of the Space Shuttle." During his Apollo days, Mueller became well known for his insistence on "all-up" testing, rather than incremental, per-component tests. From the Washington Post's story:
As applied to the space program, [all-up testing] implied specifically such techniques as the testing of all three stages of the giant Saturn V booster rocket while they were coupled together and with a payload attached to boot. It was reported that the scheme had its doubters, among them such leading lights of rocketry as Wernher von Braun. But in time, the forceful Dr. Mueller proved persuasive enough to overcome all such reservations, and it was “all up” for the mammoth Saturn V, the launch vehicle upon which NASA pinned its hopes of sending Americans to the moon.
and tested.
Do we really need to put people on a pedestal? I wish it would just go away and people recognized it was all team effort. Finally recognize that two people can have two ideas and both be right and that everyone can be replaced - even Steve Jobs ( not that anyone really wishes to fork for an egocentric megalomaniac.
Surely you want to do both unit testing as well as integration systems testing in a realistic production environment.
Then again I've worked for places where that was considered not worth the time or effort.
At least when it came to solid boosters.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
His name was Mueller.
...i don't care what anyone else says, skylab was fucking awesome!..
"He lost too many tiles"
Table-ized A.I.
"Father of the Space Shuttle" should be a title of shame, because of shuttles' wasteful irresponsible uselessness, and total failure to achieve almost all of intended goals. everything they did do could have been done more efficiently in other ways. they were good for empty boasts, even that only among the ignorant, but nothing else.
i would be voted down for stating facts.
Want him to die for that b
Baaaaa..
no not for stating facts but for being OT
The Space Shuttle probably held back space explorations by decades, consuming huge amounts of money for very little return.
Usually, you need a mixture of approaches to get things to work. Idealism in software engineering, or in engineering, works about as well as idealism in politics, ie it doesnt really, it misses key points. But, in both areas, it's much easier to create a platform on idealism, and so people who propose one single idealistic viewpoint often do quite well.
In practice, in software engineering, saying 'all tests must be automated, 100%', misses that some things are really hard to test automatically, but can be tested by hand quite simply. Similarly for creating test harnesses, mocking, which this article is the hardware-engineering equivalent for. Sometimes it's easier to mock, and do real 'unit-testing', and sometimes it isnt, and insisting that every project, and every part of every project, uses the exact uniform standard, might not always work as well as it looks like it will in the Powerpoint presentation :-P
Only God knows how many Russian cosmonauts were killed in their space program. Far more than U.S. space program.
So you think you're god?
...shuttles' wasteful irresponsible uselessness, and total failure to achieve almost all of intended goals. everything they did do could have been done more efficiently in other ways.
It was still the most amazing and capable spacecraft ever developed.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Huh, very rare to have someone from the Kennedy Space Center here. We usually get input from posters who "work" on KSP instead.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
I am sad Mr. Muller lived to see the horrendous mismanagement of NASA and the manned spaceflight program by the muslim socialist, Barack Obama.
The SRBs on the space shuttle were successful for every flight, except when run outside of the parameters stated by the manufacturer. Making a rocket, which can not fly in freezing weather is a valid design decision, when the launch pad is in Florida. The SRBs provide lots of thrust, and reliability, at a fair price.
To paraphrase Captain Kirk: "Why would God hang out on Slashdot?"
It was still the most amazing and capable spacecraft ever developed.
It was totally awesome when the Shuttle landed on the Moon.
Too bad they closed the program early, we would have been on Mars right now - in stead of being jealous of the Russian's Buran which landed on Jupiter.
It was the most complex, useless, inappropriate boondoggle in the history of mankind.
I would do it for 10hr me and 10hr vehicle consumables.
Now a 20 min with traffic ride cost 100.00 PHX to Queen Creek.
About 10 times more than it should cost anyone who wants should be taxi.
Go purchase a taxi sticker 10.00 with ID and plate number new one every month sold like fishing license so the state makes money.
And anyone big or small is in business I bet that would knock a hole in prices and cut pollution 50 percent.
true -
The moon walk was a hoax, and there were no people on the shuttle. They made sure to put the shuttle explosion on tv to traumatize people including children because macauliffe was supposedly a teacher. This page has more on shuttle lying and fake astronots is also example of propaganda.
http://aplanetruth.info/2015/04/23/breaking-news-theyre-alive-challenger-space-shuttle-crew-safe-and-employed/
Most internet sites are made up by people in the cabal tribe. Others expose it bit by bit then some put it all in one and put propganda in it. See how they write- 'still alive!!' exclamation points, as if positive type excitement instead of just plain expose it without exclamation. If it was not cabal people writing it would be plain and angry because they are lying fakes, also see they add 'safe' and 'employed', as if we should give a shit if the liars are 'safe'. All the lying and is not for fun it's so the cabal got and still gets even more power. They did the moon fake so people would ignore the attacks on vietnam killing people and dummies from here killing them and also got killed themselves. Because the fake moon walk worked on stupid Americans they keep faking space travel for even more ripoff money and weaponry.
There is a lot of information and links in the - shuttle fraud propaganda comment above, add this to those
The space shuttle had a clear goal, namely to launch stuff into low orbit cheaply. There are various ways to measure the cost per Kg launched, but even if one ignores the huge research cost, the shuttle fails big time. The Russians can launch stuff using relatively simple rockets for a fraction of the cost. And a Saturn V can launch bigger payloads into *low orbit*, I would think.
Worse, having built the wretched thing an excuse had to be found to use it, and that lead to the ISS. A huge white elephant.
Imagine the real science that could have been done if those funds had been spent correctly. Certainly the Web telescope would have been launched years ago. Many more probes to Mars, including digging some holes. Europa. ...
Well, if the most amazing and capable spacecraft ever developed was the most complex, useless, inappropriate boondoggle in the history of mankind, it doesn't speak very well to our ever having a practical, working space program, does it?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
It's a sad day, that such a great of NASA history has to pass on. You know you are getting old when all your heroes start dying.