Re: Astronauts should speak up

"Allan.Stern@xxxxxxxxx" <Allan.Stern@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:1150694853.462622.236610@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

Seems to me we lost a vehicle before when the warning of shuttle
engineers went into the deaf ears of NASA management. I would love to
see the astronauts join their ground-based comrades for unity and
refuse to ride until the engineers declare the mission a "Go."

Crew confident of shuttle safety
<http://www.flatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20060609/NEWS02/606090329/1007/news02>

Some risks can be understood, said Piers Sellers, one of the mission's
spacewalkers.

"We've driven those risks down as far as we can, which leaves the things
you don't know about," he said.

"We're going to have cameras all over the vehicle," commander Steve
Lindsey said.

There will also be radar tracking on the ground and inspections in orbit.

"With all of that information, we feel pretty comfortable flying as we
are," he said.

Shuttle crew says it?s time for flight test
Astronauts accept tiny risk of catastrophic foam damage
<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13212095/>

Mission commander Steve Lindsey, who was a veteran test pilot before
coming to NASA, said the crew was involved in the discussions and agreed
with the outcome.

"We'd just as soon make one change, flight-test it, and then go to the
next change, knowing that we eventually need to improve those ice/frost
ramps. ... We think it's time to go flight-test," he said.

Lindsey's crewmates concurred. "I'm 100 percent comfortable with the
decision," Discovery pilot Mark Kelly told NBC News.

The crew members all said they understood that spaceflight was a risky
business, and they said it was time to conduct a real-world aerodynamic
test of the PAL ramp removal ? which Lindsey called the biggest change
ever made to the space shuttle's exterior.

Open discussions
Lindsey said the debate over the ice/frost ramps demonstrated that NASA
managers and engineers were being more open in their discussions of
safety issues ? something that investigators said the space agency needed
to do in the wake of the Columbia tragedy.

"It looks like a controversy," the commander acknowledged, "But in a way
.... culturally, as an organization, this is exactly what you want to have
happen. It is not a black-and-white decision, there is a lot of
uncertainty. We do the very best we can, we leave no stone unturned, and
everybody has a voice. This is the kind of thing that we want to have in
our organization."

Shuttle Discovery commander says ship is ready for launch
<http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/space/orl-
a2story0906jun09,0,611901.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-space>

Space shuttle Discovery's astronauts are ready to fly and confident their
ship has been made safer, Commander Steve Lindsey said Thursday.

"I haven't seen a decision made that I didn't agree with," Lindsey said.
"I think we've done everything we can on the ground and it's time to go
flight test."

Space Shuttle astronaut puts his faith in £700m upgrade
<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2219089,00.html>

But Dr Sellers, 51, from Crowborough, East Sussex, says that design
modifications have helped to reduce the risk and the only way to test
them is by going back into space.

?We have done all we can for the time being and now it?s time to go fly,?
he said as he and the six other astronauts who make up the crew of
mission STS-121 held their last formal briefing at Johnson Space Centre
in Houston, Texas.

Shuttle commander confident in July 1 launch
<http://www.floridatoday.com/floridatoday/blogs/spaceteam/2006/06/shuttle
-commander-confident-in-july-1_14.html>

Commander Steve Lindsey tells reporters this morning that he sees nothing
in the technical discussions leading up to Discovery's flight to indicate
delay is in the cards. He says he is confident NASA will be able to
launch Discovery, as planned, on July 1 or within a few days of that.

--
JRF

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