I will be monitoring and blogging the launch today. If it happens. I haven’t really enjoyed Shuttle flights since Challenger. I guess I’ve known or worked with too many people impacted by the flights that haven’t gone well:
I spent a number of years in aerospace working in and around NASA’s Johnson Space Center for a variety of contractors including Loral, Lockheed-Martin, and SAIC. Notable jobs during those days included serving as a field engineer for the Shuttle Training Aircraft program and later as the webmaster for the Space Shuttle Program Office’s secure global extranet (SSPWEB) via the United Space Alliance Space Flight Operations Contract (SFOC).
Not all of what I wrote about the program before STS-114 still applies:
I really miss working in the space program at moments like this. I’m reminded of Discovery’s first return to flight mission which followed the loss of STS-51 (Challenger). Everyone at JSC was glued to monitors, and when the SRB’s (with their evil o-rings) sucessfully detached, many pumped their fists and shouted with an intensity that hadn’t been seen at the agency in a long time. There was genuine optimisim. It was a great time to be involved in the space program.I have no doubt that the folks at JSC will be watching just as intensely this time around. However, the tragic final moments of Columbia serves as a reminder that the Space Shuttles are the most complex experimental vehicles ever created. Crews won’t be safe after the SRBs separate, upon reaching orbit, or even while on final approach. Spaceflight is dangerous end to end.
I don’t think I’d want to work the last couple years of the Shuttle program. I also don’t think there’s an abundance of “genuine optimism” in and around the program. None of my old co-workers, the ones still left, tell me that working on shuttle program is much of joy these days. Recent events pretty much reinforced that.
I do support the decision to fly today. Informed NASA astronauts (and I believe that they are informed) are fully capable of weighing the risks and rewards. But I also support wrapping up this program as safetly and quickly as possible.
Saturday Update:
Launch Scrubbed: Today’s launch of Space Shuttle Discovery has been postponed for 24 hours because of weather. The preferred launch time for tomorrow is 3:26 p.m. from Kennedy Space Center.
Sunday Update:
Launch scrubbed – reset for July 4th.
Monday Update:
We’re go for launch on Tuesday..as of now anyway:
NASA will forge ahead with plans to launch the space shuttle Discovery Tuesday despite losing a small piece of foam insulation from the orbiter’s external tank.
“We’re go to continue with the launch countdown,” William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator of space operations, told reporters here at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). “I don’t think we’re taking any additional risks than we did in our original [flight] assessment.”
Discovery is now back on track to launch NASA’s STS-121 mission on July 4. Liftoff is currently set for 2:37:55 p.m. EDT (1837:55 GMT), with current weather forecast predicting a 60 percent chance of favorable conditions for flight.
It’s off!:
The space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew roared into space Tuesday afternoon — NASA’s first manned launch on Independence Day and its second shuttle flight since the Columbia accident of 2003.Pieces of foam came off the external fuel tank when the shuttle lifted off. NASA officials did not yet have information about its significance.
Also Blogging:
NASA Watch
The Flame Trench
StarBaseOC
NASA:
STS-121 Mission Page (JSC – Includes video links)
Mission Control Launch Blog
Weather:
SMG Weather
Media:
Space.com
Spaceflight Now Mission Status
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I was to young to remember Challenger, but I do remember Columbia, and now I just get so tense when they get ready to launch. NASA really needs an overhaul in my opinion. I enjoy your blog and will be linking to it shortly.