Re: Astronauts should speak up


Chris Bennetts wrote:
Bob Haller wrote:

There are several issues here. Schedule appears to be driving flying...
Isnt this what the CAIB pointed too as the underlying accident cause?
Why bother having a board if you will ignore their conclusions?

The forthcoming launch has nothing to do with schedule pressure. The
shuttle is as safe as it can be made at the moment. Nobody's exactly
sure how much of an improvement the last round of changes will have
made, but hard data is needed to determine that. That means flying.

Everything reasonable has been done to ensure the astronauts' safety.
It's time to fly.

The big issue is a rescue mission even possible or advisable? So you
have 9 people on station, then risk another shuttle, may end up with
even more people stuck at station only making things worse:(

True. On the other hand, the problem may be trivially fixable before the
launch of the rescue shuttle, and everyone comes home safely.

If they are going to fly anyway then downsize the shuttle crew
dramatically to just 2 or 3. That way if they get stranded the station
can better support them.

If we expect the mission to fail, we shouldn't be flying in the first
place. Either make it safe enough and fly a full crew, or don't fly at all.

The ideal solution is have the shuttle modified to fly unmanned cargo
only. Think of the advantages no lives at risk, lose another orbiter
sad but no biggie...

A multi-billion dollar spaceship, and hundreds of millions worth of
payload. Not a big loss...

Also, if it's good enough for payloads worth multiple hundreds of
millions of dollars (or more), it should be good enough for half a dozen
humans too.

> Fly past the 2010 date till the station is
complete. Gut some of the life support to increase cargo weight
capacity. Rotate crews on Soyuz till CEV is available. If the $ is
availble the shuttle could fly a occasional mission for many years.

The money isn't available. The shuttle money was supposed to go over to
the CEV/CLV fund after 2010. You can't have both of them.

Just trhe IDEA that this decision isnt schedule driven is absurd....

its all about jobs and that 2010 end date

.

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