shuttle probs....
 

so they are grounding the shuttle fleet... what will happen if they can't bring the shuttle home for fear it will do what the last one did??? i know they said that the astronauts would have to stay on the space station, but who in the hell will rescue them? how much food and stuff do they have stocked? man i am really freaking about this. :eek:

Re: shuttle probs....
 

Dani:

A small chunk of loose and falling insulation seems to be the problem. However, this time, the insulation that came off on launch didn't appear to hit any part of the shuttle and simply fell into space, doing no damage. The upside-down view of the shuttle the space station crew took (and downloaded to the space center in Houston) was carefully analyzed and confirmed that the shuttle is unharmed. One more test is scheduled (29th) and if all goes well, as NASA expects, Discovery and it's crew should be given the green light to return to earth as scheduled on August 7th.

As for stocking the space station; the Discovery brought up 15 tons of supplies and is taking away 13 tons of trash from the station...2 1/2 years worth. Expensive garbage haul!

Re: shuttle probs....
 

wow, that is expensive trash!!!!

i guess i shouldn't stress over it. nothing i can do about it anyway. but i sure would hate to see the shuttle thing go away, cause i sent the president an email that said to put all the terrorists in it and ship them to another planet, so they can blow each other up. j/k. but it is a thought... and also put everyone that is in prison there with them. maybe we would be better off.


sorry, i'm just in a mood today.

Re: shuttle probs....
 

It just amazes me that we can spend over $1 BILLION on trying to prevent such a simple problem, yet it seems as if they completely overlooked it. NASA engineering at its finest, I guess. :rolleyes: Still, I'm sure they're just as embarassed about it as I am dumbfounded as to why this is happening.

I wasn't there to witness it, but were things like this common in the days of the Apollo program, i.e. massive R&D expense with little to no payoff?

Sickening also when you consider most NASA engineers are making $100k or more a year...or maybe I'm just jealous! :p Looking at NASA's website, it appears you only need a BSE for employment. Now I'm wondering if that'd be worth getting into; mebbe shake things up and help 'em out!

IMO, it's time to ditch the 70's technology for something cutting-edge and ultra-modern, making it easier to service and cheaper to launch.

Re: shuttle probs....
 

Could you imagine paying some cash to fly up in a Russian ship. LOL , O-HELL NO!

Re: shuttle probs....
 

I know two people that worked for NASA. They don't work there anymore, largely because they pay dirt compared to market value for their employees.

The shuttle program desperately needs scrapping. Of course, that is fairly hard to do when you've scrapped the programs to replace it.

Morons.