Re: OT: Shuttles Atlantis and Endeavour, both ready to launch

On May 10, 2:53 pm, John Larkin
<jjlar...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sun, 10 May 2009 17:42:15 -0400, Phil Hobbs



<pcdhSpamMeSensel...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
John Larkin wrote:
On Sun, 10 May 2009 17:02:39 -0400, "Martin Riddle"
<martin_...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Apparently this will never happen again.  Because of the Hubble service
mission, Endeavour is ready in case a rescue is needed since they are
not going to the space station.

see thumbnail 9 for a view of pads 39 A & B

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts125/mult....

Cheers

Crazy. For the price of one repair trip, we could have funded dozens
of ground-based telescopes with resolution superior to Hubble and many
decades of lifetime each. Throw in a few expendable UV and gamma-ray
satellites too.

Pity the space station isn't usable as a telescope platform. At least
it might claim to have a use.

Read Chaisson's book, The Hubble Wars.

John

The whole space thing isn't a scientific endeavour, it's a military one
at bottom.  That's why the scientists have been puzzled by the
priorities from day 1.

I don't even think it's military. And it's sure not science. It's
politics, money, and show biz. NASA won't even buy magnetic storage
for some of the data that older satellites are sending back.

Why do we want to put humans back on the moon?

China is working on putting a man on the moon. I think it is a case
of "We are doing it because they are. They are doing it because we
did." It is all about pride and ego. NASA isn't likely to put a
human onto Mars any time soon so repeating the moon trick will have to
do.


John

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