Re: No more shuttles for another YEAR?

On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 21:59:54 -0400, Terrell Miller
<millerto@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>> I'm getting hints that looming problems with ET analysis --
>> unrelated to Katrina -- are leading NASA managers to
>> worry that they won't be able to get Discovery back into space
>> until the fall of 2006. Anybody else getting such 'straws in the
>> space wind' they are willing to share, online or offline?
>
>JimO, at this point I see no reason to ever fly the shuttle again.

I'm leaning that way myself. Thirteen more months before the Shuttle
flies again? And then it's going to be a hellfire rush to get maybe 16
flights off before 2010 hits? This sounds like a prescription for
disaster to me. More idiotic schedule pressure like before 51L and
107. Maybe not for STS-121, but I sure wouldn't want to be on STS-126
or 127.

Pull the plug. Get started on SDLV, CEV and an OMV or commercial
outfit to get the rest of the Station elements up.

>does it sound like to you that we need to devote a lot of time and
>effort to STS just now? I really hate to say it, but this time the old
>"why spend money on space when there are all the problems here on
>Earth?" has a lot of credibility.

No, it really doesn't. Because there have always been problems here on
Earth and always will be. Cutting Apollo in the late 60s to pay for
welfare and Vietnam did not result in an end of poverty or a victory
in southeast Asia. It just ended Apollo. Yippee. If we kill Shuttle
now, and I am increasingly of the opinion that we should, it needs to
be to pay for better space vehicles and launchers to succeed it, not
to continue the lunacy of operating a city below sea level that is
surrounded by water.

Brian
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: CHANGING VIEWS BLOG TO THE MOON
    ... When there was a huge asteroid headed for the earth, ... shuttle have enough manoeuvrability with thrusters/OMS to precicely put ... would be too hot for tiles to widthstand and with time for tiles to cool ... concept than with a specific vehicle). ...
    (sci.space.shuttle)
  • Re: Lynx Spaceplane
    ... the Hubble Space Telescope in space. ... Earth to fix as he implied with his post. ... The problem with theory is it's launched on the Shuttle, ... and ATO - Abort to Orbit reach orbit, ...
    (sci.space.history)
  • Re: Momentum Question
    ... > Space shuttle weighs 59000 pounds on earth, now if in space, zero ... > gravity a person tied to stationary shuttle spits will spitting give ... a small momentum to the shuttle. ... But the mass ejected is very small compared to ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Re: CHANGING VIEWS BLOG TO THE MOON
    ... Even the below link talks about a fuel tank being sent in orbit ahead ... When there was a huge asteroid headed for the earth, ... shuttle have enough manoeuvrability with thrusters/OMS to precicely put ...
    (sci.space.shuttle)
  • Re: What Will Replace The Shuttle?
    ... the water lines on the washer, and the power and vent line on the ... That's what the Shuttle does for the Space Station. ... Items that the shuttle delivers and returns to earth were designed that way ... because all ISS components *need* to be designed for earth return. ...
    (sci.space.shuttle)