STS-121 Launches tomorrow

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html
 
I've become kind of a NasaTV addict.  Anyone else really looking forward to the shuttle launch tomorrow?

[Typhoon]

I love the shuttle missions, despite the decades-old technology (hey, its still the only U.S. game in town  Cmon NASA!).  I always try to catch the launches and landings, and used to have a silver space shuttle tack pin that I would wear during each mission.  Alas, I lost it (hope that wasnt an omen&)

Living in Los Angeles, I always got a thrill hearing the distinctive double sonic boom that thundered out when the shuttle had to divert to Edwards to land.  It freaked some people out, but they calmed when I said, Cool!!  Shuttles home!

[K Frame]

I know a former shuttle and ISS mission commander...

Let's just say that the pyrotechnics on launch are a lot more interesting...

I'm really surprised that his fellow flight members got any work done, as they were probably being bored to sleep all the time...

[Nathaniel Firethorn]

What concerns me is that NASAs director of Safety and Mission Assurance and the Chief Engineer said no-go, and were overruled.

- NF

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

Oh really?  I hadn't heard that.

[Nathaniel Firethorn]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/orl-nogoshuttle3006jun30,1,2386046.story?coll=chi-news-hed

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-shuttle30jun30,1,7035690.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060630/NEWS02/606300356/1007/battleboxrtf

Plenty of blogs, too. Just Google News on NASA.

- NF

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

Interesting.

[stevelyn]

I've always liked watching the shuttle and space launches.
Too bad we're pi$$ing away lives and resources in Iraq and not dedicating more funding to space exploration. It is I believe where the solutions to a lot of problems lie.

[TarpleyG]

I saw Atlantis launch from Kennedy in 2001 at night (well, 3 or so in the AM but still dark) and lemme tell you what...there's a whole lotta juice moving through those nozzles.  It was like daylight and you could feel the heat 3 miles away.  If I can ever find my video of that, I'll convert it to digital and put it somewhere.  Pretty cool stuff and if you ever get a chance, go see it...especially at night.

Greg

[Sindawe]

What concerns me is that NASA’s director of Safety and Mission Assurance and the Chief Engineer said no-go, and were overruled.

I guess decision makers at NASA just ain't leaned from loosing Challenger and Columbia.

[Guest]

Call me jaded, but when the comander of the mission said (in as many words).  "*expletive deleted*it falling off the shuttle is just  a risk we have to take" (sorry, i don't have the actual quote, but should i find it, it'll be posted).

WTF???  the thing  sheds during freaking lauch, and thats an exceptable risk??  to hell with that.

NASA needs to be scraped, and the funding funneled into development of a decent weapon and better caliber rnd to replace the M16.

Privatize space.  had we did that in the early 90's, who knows where things would be now.

[Azrael256]

Call me jaded, but when the comander of the mission said...

Pilots.  They're all like that.  They all take the view that they need to get in the air right now and they'll deal with problems as they arise.  I think they're all insane, but I guess it takes that kind of insanity to put a flag on the moon.  I hope it goes smoothly, but you sure won't be finding me climbing into one of them wacky contraptions.

NASA needs to be scraped

I don't think it needs to be eliminated entirely.  The country as a whole has definite strategic and commercial interests in space, and let's face it, NASA didn't build that shuttle, Rockwell did.  NASA paid for a vast amount of R&D in the private sector that created tangible benefits for pretty much everybody.  But, that was way back when.  They haven't given us much lately because the whole organization has been at a dead stop since the shuttle was introduced.  As a space exploration administration NASA is stone dead, but as a spacefaring SBA and a no-Air Force, they could really do some good.

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

Delayed due to poor weather.  Trying again tomorrow, the 2nd.

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

OK, today.  They're going today.

www.nasa.gov

[French G.]

The director of NASA actually gave a much better and honest detailed explanation of the risk analysis if you saw the whole thing, a lot less sensational than the papers made it. Very honest, basically "Yes there are risks to every flight, we know about them, we've looked at them, and we find them acceptable. " The persons that said no-go later agreed with his call. They had been of the opinion there is a risk so no go; not is this risk acceptable. Things fall off the space shuttle every flight. Something usually fails on pretty much every military flight. If you want zero risk you had better not step out your front door, much less go into space.

Anyways, I got to see the launch, I was headed north probably about 40 miles off the coast when it launched, was able to watch it go overhead for a couple minutes then rushed back inside to Fox News to see it passing over Italy. Pretty fast.

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

The NASA Administrator is a good guy, I think.  He said some pretty good things at the recent press conferences.

"I can explain it to you, I can't understand it for you" - To reporters who kept asking the same questions over and over.

"We keep going back to feelings.  I'll have time for feelings when I'm dead.  Right now, I'm busy."  To reporters who kept asking how he felt about things.

"Every year I decide to continue shuttle operations, there is a cost of billions of dollars.  That matters." -GRIFFIN FOR PRESIDENT!

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Yeah, I like this guy.  Anyone who says that things can never be perfectly safe gets my respect.  

The nanny-staters never like to hear, but it's true nonetheless.  It doesn't matter whether your flying a space shuttle or driving to work in the morning.  There will always be some risk.  You have to decide whether or not the risk is acceptable, and then live (or possibly even die) with the consequences of your decision.