The Shuttle has landed. Thanks to the fortuitous fall of a piece of plastic (see my July 18th post)mere moments before it's scheduled take off, which prompted the NASA engineers to re-check the shuttle and take what may of seemed to some as extraordinary precautions before and during the flight, the shuttle landed with virtually no problems this morning at Edwards Air Force base.And all I can say is "WHEW!"
I was watching the report on TV this morning and some things about it gives me pause to wonder. The report stated that the mood at the Kennedy space center in Houston was "ecstatic", and one anonymous source, a team member, reportedly said, "It will be hard to beat this mission." (or something like that, my memory isn't as good as it once was)
What is he talking about? If that was the best mission, I surely don't want to witness the worst. Hopefully we have already seen the worst. This mission was beset by problems and mistakes from the beginning. There are a lot of problems to be addressed before they attempt another flight, in my humble uneducated opinion.
The engineers at NASA are going to have to do some serious revamping of the quality control methods now currently employed by whoever it is that builds those things.
The entire civilized world was on proverbial "pins and needles", and in prayer throughout the flight. I don't think that is the mindset that NASA wishes to convey. America's confidence in the ability of NASA engineering has waned significantly.
Next time, let's hope they do a more thorough job before they attempt to launch.
Lie Of The Day
"Nobody in this country wants to vote for an abortion law that's the same as the Catholic law," claimed Mario Cuomo, on NBC's Meet The Press.
THE TRUTH:
Now Cuomo speaks for ALL Catholics?! Absurd!
7 comments:
Mark, I think that government control over space exploration (as we know it) is quickly coming to a close.
There has already been a privately owned rocket that has made it into space twice, and I think that that is just the beginning.
I believe that the exploration of space will be more effectively and more profitably, and more safely done when the private market does it.
Everything runs more smoothly when the private markets run it,rather than when the Government runs things...
Once again, we have a mind-meld on our blogs. One of us is going to have to scramble to copyright the word, "WHEW!"
Yep, electricity came to rural areas because of private enterprise. NOT.
Yep, the private entrepreneurs who ran the ferries and roads in this country for tolls, but only where there was a profit to be made, sure did create a network of roads and bridges for a growing country. NOT.
Yep, private enterprise sure did crawl up off the floor and provide jobs in the 1930s without any help from the New Deal or the government-drive response to World War II. NOT.
Yep. Oh, I'm tired.
Sorry, Tug. I had to. :-)
And all that was unconstitutional, yep. And the New Deal was undisguised socialism, yep.
I'm with Tug and Lone Ranger on this.
An interesting point on the shuttle. The insulation that is causing the problem is due to Clinton's EPA. Nasa had a much better insulation, but it consisted of freon, which is a no-no in enviroworld. So Nasa had to use the lesser freon-free insulation.
They are having a devil of a time making it adhere. Better to supernova the shuttle than to get those nasty freon molecules floating around.
Lone Ranger, yer funny. Sad, too, but funny.
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