http://www.boersenreport.de/technology.asp?msg=004682500000001660000000000
'We are ready to go.'
Now that the Space Shuttle is fixed:
__N__eed
__A__nother
__S__even
__A__stronauts
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2005-04-18T230038Z_01_N18589249_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-SPACE-NASA-DC.XML
New NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said on Monday he might consider letting the space shuttle return to flight even if an independent panel has not finally approved some safety improvements.
"We are not ready, but we'll go anyway."?
http://www.boostmarketing.com/story.php?id=987
NASA's Discovery Launch Delayed
Launch of NASA's Discovery space shuttle has been delayed a week while extra security checks are performed and engineering paperwork completed.
NASA said that it will not launch the space shuttle until it's good and ready. Once safety requirements have been met satisfactory they are good to go.
The new date for launch is May 22.
Shuttle Launch Set for Mid-July
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/20/AR2005052001473.html
"NASA engineers said yesterday they plan to go ahead with a mid-July space shuttle launch even though they still do not fully understand problems that have arisen during loading tests of the orbiter's external fuel tank."
NASA chief says shuttle 'ready to go' in July
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2005-06-28T194700Z_01_N28395542_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-SPACE-CONGRESS-DC.XML
Shuttle Discovery should be ready to return to flight next month, NASA chief Michael Griffin said on Tuesday, one day after an oversight panel found the U.S. space agency fell short on three key safety concerns.
The return to shuttle flight is an essential step in the Bush administration's ambitious plan to return Americans to the moon by 2020 and eventually send them to Mars.
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=343348
"A plastic and foam cover fell off a window of Discovery, causing some damage to the space shuttle on the eve of its planned launch, NASA said Tuesday, indicating it hoped to fix the problem swiftly.
The protective cover, which is taken off before the launch, fell about 20 meters onto one of the shuttle's two orbital maneuvering systems, which are used once the craft is in orbit."
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/07/12/space.shuttle/index.html
"The launch of the space shuttle Discovery will go ahead as scheduled Wednesday after technicians fixed tiles damaged near the spacecraft's tail Tuesday, a NASA spokesman said."
"We're go for launch tomorrow pending weather,"
http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-07-13T201503Z_01_N13664579_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-SPACE-SHUTTLE-DC.XML
"NASA on Wednesday delayed the launch of shuttle Discovery until next week at the earliest, postponing its first human space flight since the 2003 Columbia disaster due to a problem with a fuel sensor."
Discovery is in orbit
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2005-07-26T190313Z_01_N26174657_RTRIDST_0_USREPORT-SPACE-SHUTTLE-ONLOOKERS-DC.XML
"Most NASA workers declined to speak to reporters, but several wore T-shirts with a slogan that seemed to speak for them: "We're back!""
In order to distract Sling from posting any more news items I think we need to change the topic of this thread from "NASA Shuttle ready to fly" to "NASA Shuttle ready to do it Columbia-style all over again".
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/03/AR2005080301723.html
"The percentage of Americans who think the space shuttle program is worth continuing has dropped in a CBS News poll to its lowest level in two decades.
About six in 10 people, 59 percent, said the space shuttle program is worth continuing, down from eight in 10 who said that in 1986 and 75 percent in early 2003."
Also, I saw that scientist on CNN (who said there are no experiments going on on the ISS currently...)
He said that in the industry we have moved to fully automated, so why are we still using people to man shuttles. A machine can do the job much better and there would be no risks for human lives.
That one's easy to answer: Because people WANT to go. Even if the Shuttles were ten times more insecure than now, people would be lining up to fly them.
But that's Space Tourism. Fork or sublease the technology over to the private sector and fly the -paying- tourists, I'd say.
Heck, Russia is proposing Moon tours to anyone who can pay.
I would rather prefer NASA to focus on science advance, fixing the Hubble (tho this could prolly be done by automats), launching satellites, upgrading their hardware, things like that.
I also want an advance warning detection system for incoming stuff (meteorites, solar flares, whatever) up there. Or does that exist already?
As for Mars... Mars seems to be a flat desert, I don't see the use to put a human over there. Except maybe to put up a flag up there "I was here first". Let's terraform it first.
Oh and more of this damage reporting
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2005-08-04T171354Z_01_N0475285_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-SPACE-SHUTTLE-DC.XML
"Commander Eileen Collins said astronauts on shuttle Discovery had seen widespread environmental destruction on Earth and warned on Thursday that greater care was needed to protect natural resources."
"Sometimes you can see how there is erosion, and you can see how there is deforestation. It's very widespread in some parts of the world,"
lol:
"The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg, it's so very thin," she said. "We know that we don't have much air, we need to protect what we have."
No, I'm not talking about space tourism, although that is something people want to do too. I mean there will be no end to competent potential pilots to fly your ships, and clever, resourceful people who want to get out into space and DO STUFF, if only they could.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2005-08-10T192449Z_01_N10511115_RTRIDST_0_USREPORT-SPACE-SHUTTLE-DC.XML
"Shuttle Discovery appears to have suffered very little damage on its latest mission, though a detailed analysis is yet to be completed, a NASA spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
"It's one of the cleanest vehicles they've ever seen," said Leslie Williams, a spokeswoman at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/12/earlyshow/main774036.shtml
"Eileen Collins was kidded about how good she looked when Discovery got back to Earth. Some observers even said she looked like she'd been to a spa.
"Well," Collins said to The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith Friday, "I always tell people that going in space is great. It's great for your hair, for your skin. You get a fluid shift, so you get a little more color in your face."
The problem is that the space program hasnt got the financial resources it got in the 60s. I mean that was the ONLY reason the US got a man to the moon.
If the govt put the same effort now, I am sure we will have moon colonies and mars missions by now.
But people could care less about space.
>But people could care less about space.
They may not care for others, but they likely care for themselves.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4139212.stm
"Despite the apparently prohibitive cost of the trip[$100m], Eric Anderson - chief executive of Space Adventures - said there were about 1,000 people wealthy enough to contemplate it."
Space tourism! We want space tourism!
>>22
I rather have people spend money on colony development on the moon and beyond.
And space battleships.
and flying cars
⊂二二二（ ^ω^）二⊃ブーン
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/23/AR2005082301370.html
"in a devastating 19-page appendix -- written before Discovery's launch but released only last week -- the seven panel members looked beyond those precise recommendations to the [NASA] space agency's underlying cultural and managerial problems. It found "enduring themes of dysfunctional behavior" -- including a failure of rigorous scientific analysis, an inability to accurately assess risk and a refusal to impose accountability."
"One heartening sign is that the new NASA administrator, Michael Griffin, insisted that the minority report be made public."
> But people could care less about space.
"could not"
The older I get, the less I care about space.