CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) -NASA is prepared to waive a flight safety rule so it can launch space shuttle Discovery on the first mission since the 2003 Columbia accident if a fuel sensor glitch reoccurs, managers at the U.S. space agency said on Monday.The malfunction involving one of four hydrogen fuel sensors forced NASA to postpone Discovery's first launch attempt on July 13. For its second liftoff attempt on Tuesday, NASA is considering changing a rule that all four sensors must be working.
"Any time you talk about changing a launch (rule), that is a big deal," said Stephanie Stilson, Discovery's vehicle manager.
"It's huge. That is not something we would go into lightly, as we should not," Stilson said in an interview.
Officials said NASA was willing to waive the rule requiring all four sensors to be working because it feels there are sufficient safeguards and they are confident the shuttle's safety would not be endangered even if one sensor malfunctioned.
Liftoff of Discovery and seven astronauts on a long-delayed resupply mission to the International Space Station remained on track for 10:39 a.m. EDT (1439 GMT), despite minor damage found on a heat resistant tile on Monday that delayed launch preparations slightly.
NASA spokesman Bruce Buckingham said technicians spotted a "small ding" on one of the tiles that protects the spaceship from superheated atmospheric gases on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, and it was "swapped out." Launch preparations were quickly brought back on schedule, Buckingham said.{...}
Sigh. I feel sorry for the poor people at NASA. That they should have to defend the action of waiving a rule that says you have to have four working sensors when three are working is ridiculous. Never mind that the fourth sensor is three times redundant, these poor people have to defend their actions to the utmost, otherwise this could be---ahem---something an astronaut could die from!
Well, far be it from me to point this out, but I do believe these astronauts know what the hell they're getting themselves into when they strap into a machine that's going to slingshot them into space. Nothing in this world is perfect, particularly not with a machine that flies into space. The entire endeavor is not safe. It never has been and it never will be. Figure it out.
What is it with these nannies in the media and in Congress? Ever since Columbia exploded two and a half years ago, I've watched in awe as everyone and their mother has bellyached about making space travel safer. And by that I don't mean they want to make it safe within reasonable expectations. They want the shuttle to be a freakin' Volvo, replete with side airbags and parachutes for the astronauts. They seem to think that if the astronauts had parachutes and a better way of exiting a space shuttle that's---ahem---in the process of exploding at a high altitude, these astronauts would be able to exit the shuttle and pull a rip cord. They would then float safely to earth from 50,000 feet or higher and would live to tell the tale.
Ok, that's a nice thought, but it's not going to happen. Do you remember how quickly both Columbia and Challenger exploded? I believe it took eight seconds for Columbia to explode. That's simply not enough time for the astronauts to undo their restraints and jump out of an escape hatch. Never mind that parachuting from that altitude is generally something only SEAL's do on on a rare occassion. The only reason pilots of F-18's and the like find themselves alive after an accident is because the roof of their plane explodes and they're forcefully ejected from their plane. Nothing even remotely similar was proposed for the Space Shuttle in all of the caterwauling that occurred after Columbia exploded. They simply couldn't remodify the shuttle for such a thing. Which should be a big honkin' clue to the rest of us that the commission meetings were not about making the shuttle safer: they were about making the people on the ground feel better about astronauts dying. They were doing something. Well, that's all well and good, but what did they actually get done at the end of the day? What, exactly, is different on Discovery because of Columbia's explosion? If they'd really wanted to make the shuttle safer, they would have done something about those ridiculous tiles that have been a problem since day one, wouldn't they? Those tiles were directly responsible for Columbia's demise, but they did nothing about them. The shuttle is still lined with them.
Space travel is something we're obviously still working out. The shuttle was a big step toward making a reusable aircraft. What I don't understand is how people could not understand that we don't know everything when it comes to flying into space. We just don't. We're still working on figuring it out. These new Magellans and de Gamas, our astronauts, know this. I have to think that they know precisely what they're risking in this endeavor to learn more. If they're willing to take on that burden, why shouldn't we, the people on the ground, trust that they know what they're doing?
I'm not saying that NASA doesn't have it's problems. God only knows that that organization has its issues. But it's time to go already. They shouldn't have to defend against worthless accusations of not wrapping the shuttle up in bubble wrap.
Nothing will happen tomorrow when---and if---the shuttle lifts off. It will all go smoothly, I predict.
So, stop worrying and light the fuse, already, eh?
Posted by Kathy at July 25, 2005 10:56 PM | TrackBack