MSNBC Breaking: Space shuttle 'go for launch' on July 13

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8420409/

Space shuttle 'go for launch' on July 13
Discovery's flight will be first since Columbia disaster in 2003

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 3:36 p.m. ET June 30, 2005
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The first U.S. shuttle flight in more than two years will take off as scheduled on July 13, NASA said Thursday. The launch of space shuttle Discovery will be the first since the shuttle Columbia broke up as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on Feb. 1, 2003, killing all seven crew members.

The formal announcement came after a two-day flight readiness review conducted by officials at the space agency. NASA administrator Michael Griffin told reporters Thursday the review was "very thorough" and said that based on that review, Discovery was "go for launch" on July 13.

Earlier in the week, a report by an independent oversight group said NASA had failed to comply with three of the toughest recommendations from accident investigators in 2003. The oversight task force said Monday that NASA had put off long-term improvements to the shuttle’s thermal shielding, thus failing to improve its ability to make emergency repairs in space. However, the group also acknowledged that delaying a summer launch a few months would not significantly reduce the risks of such a flight.

<</SNIP>>

[Goldmund]

1. I wouldn't want to be Griffin,

or the nails on his fingers, on July 13th.

[Ezlivin]

2. I'll be watching with dread

Both the launch and the re-entry are now super-serious events.

I sure hope NASA has its act together on this one or we'll really fall behind in our space program. We'll be ordering Chinese take-out from the moon before NASA launches again.

[katmondoo]

3. I have a bad feeling about this.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

4. A rat done bit my sister Nell.

(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face and arms began to swell.
(and Whitey's on the moon)
I can't pay no doctor bill.
(but Whitey's on the moon)
Ten years from now I'll be payin' still.
(while Whitey's on the moon)
The man jus' upped my rent las' night.
('cause Whitey's on the moon)
No hot water, no toilets, no lights.
(but Whitey's on the moon)
I wonder why he's uppi' me?
('cause Whitey's on the moon?)
I wuz already payin' 'im fifty a week.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Taxes takin' my whole damn check,
Junkies makin' me a nervous wreck,
The price of food is goin' up,
An' as if all that shit wuzn't enough:
A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face an' arm began to swell.
(but Whitey's on the moon)
Was all that money I made las' year
(for Whitey on the moon?)
How come there ain't no money here?
(Hmm! Whitey's on the moon)
Y'know I jus' 'bout had my fill
(of Whitey on the moon)
I think I'll sen' these doctor bills,
Airmail special
(to Whitey on the moon)

(sorry :evilgrin: couldn't resist)

[daleo]

5. Good luck to them.

I don't see an accident happening for another 20 flights or so, based on past history. But if the flaws are systemic, you never know. There certainly is a Russian roulette feel to it now.

There seemed to be a lot of spooky connections between the Feb 1 2003 flight and the March invasion of Iraq. Here's hoping this doesn't presage an autumn military adventure by Bush.

[IbeaBonehead]

6. 13th???

hhmmm

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Despite Concerns, NASA Is Planning to Go Ahead With Shuttle Launching

Reposting this scary article:

New York Times:
Despite Concerns, NASA Is Planning to Go Ahead With Shuttle Launching
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: June 29, 2005


NASA got some unexpected and unsettling news on Monday, when its own advisory panel said the agency had not fulfilled all of the safety goals it had promised to meet before returning the shuttle fleet to orbit. But it is planning to go ahead anyway, launching the Discovery in as little as two weeks.

"I think, based on what I know now, we're ready to go," Michael D. Griffin, administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, told the House Science Committee yesterday.

It may sound like a recipe for trouble, or worse, especially since the work left undone includes three of the most critical recommendations of the board that investigated the loss of the Columbia in 2003, including elimination of the kind of launch debris that doomed the Columbia and the development of on-orbit repair techniques.

Yet few experts, even some of those who have been critical of the space agency, seemed troubled by the failure to fulfill those recommendations completely.

The consensus of these experts is that while missions are inherently risky, the remaining shuttle fleet has been made much safer over all....

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/29/science/29shut.html

[Adrian Luca]

8. Thank God!

Our crucial research into the affects of weightlessness on diet coke has fallen way behind. Also, the Tv Neworks have run out of original footage of astronauts in orbit doing nothing for no reason.

[Massacure]

11. Astronauts have relatively little free time.

If I recall, Columbia had 80 or 90 experiments that they carried out. Some of them are proposed by high school students, others are designed by multi-billion dollar drug companies.

[supernova]

9. I'm worried about this

As much as I have enjoyed and learned so much from the space program, I'm leary of sending people up on equipment that is shaky.

[progressivebydesign]

10. Not being paranoid, but I think they're ramming this thru for politics.

Nothing will help an ailing president like a warm and fuzzy shuttle launch.. God bless America and all that. I wouldn't want to crew that ship after reading those articles.

[karlrschneider]

12. You might be right about the politics, but I'd happily go along if

they'd let me. :D