Shuttle Delayed Due to Cloudy Skies

PunkOfLinux writes "The shuttle won't be coming down until Tuesday, due to a decision by NASA that the weather was not good enough for re-entry. After the first two attempts, at around 4:45 and 6:25 this morning, NASA called off today's landing."

Shoulda gone Canadian

[ndg123]

I hear they don't mind you landing in bad weather north of the border.

Re:And

[Anonymous Coward]

Great to see it was postponed! I didn't wake up to watch it.

Guess I chose the wrong day

[Silver Sloth]

to give up glue sniffing

Yeah, but I bet they're trying to make something u

[interstellar_donkey]

Right now the astronauts are sitting in the shuttle, wondering when it's going to land. NASA has probably given them some B.S. story about 'technical difficultys' and passing out free headphones so the passengers can watch the crummy in flight movie.

Hopefully, some of those astronauts will make a fuss and get their next ticket for free, or, at the very least NASA will upgrade them to 1st class when (and if) they chose to fly NASA again.

Re:Why the mission has been so eventuful

[n-baxley]

That kind of plan could easily backfire into a "Why do we need the freaking space program anyway. If they can't even do these simple things right, let's just forget the whole thing." mode of thinking. Not feeling in the least, but it certainly could be one outcome of this mission with all of it's "problems".

Clouds Delayed Due to Shuttle Landing

[Wonderkid]

When we see headlines like this, we'll know mankind has grasped true control of the weather.

what are they doing...

[spectrokid]

this morning, NASA called off today's landing. are they flying it in a holding pattern over the airport?

Re:Shoulda gone Canadian

[Mark Hood]

There's a saying in the airplane industry expressing that idea:

Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.

And the second half of the saying is: "and if the 'plane can be used again, it was a GREAT landing."

Mark

Re:Why the mission has been so eventuful

[Lipongo]

I have heard several times on the radio and know that several articles have been written questioning the space progam's usefulness. We spend countless amounts of money on space exploration and short of the satellites alot of people believe that very little has been gained. Granted I do not feel this way, there are alot of people who do.

*SPOILER ALERT*

[l0ungeb0y]

Here's this weeks timeline in advance:

Monday August 8th 2005: A cloud is in the sky, NASA decides to postpone landing

Tuesday August 9th 2005: A slight breeze is detected, landing will be pushed back to Wednesday.

Wednesday August 10th 2005: Wind Chill Factor sited as cause for continued delay

Thursday August 11th 2005: A small flock of birds is spotted near the runway, landing cancelled due to safety and environmental protection concerns..

Friday August 12th 2005: Barometric Pressure Non-Optimal, landing postponed.

Saturday August 13th 2005: Humidity levels cause concern, after some deliberation it is announced that Mission Control will again delay the landing to "play it safe".

Sunday August 14th 2005: Another cloud is spotted, landing delayed.

Let's just hope they manage to get perfect weather conditions so they can land the damn thing sometime soon.

Re:Why the mission has been so eventuful

[karnal]

You have a very good point.

A lot of people also don't see the need for taxes, since it doesn't impact their lives in any way that they can see "directly." Fortunately, there are those of us who know better.

(note: not saying the tax system is perfect, just making a general point..)

To add insult to injury....

[Monkey Angst]

The Moon People keep holding up "If you lived here, you'd be home now" signs every time the shuttle swings by.

Re:What to do?

[cdrudge]

Today is the day they get to shoot lots of file footage. The old stock video of them throwing a carrot across the room as a "missle", bubbles of water floating around, and running on a treadmill while nearly weightless were starting to get data. They also get to bug the commander with "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"

This Shuttle Mission was Like My Last Vacation

[vjmurphy]

Let's see:

* I ended up leaving late, because my car was having problems.
* I finally got to where I was going, and my Dad made me look all over the car, to make sure it was still working correctly.
* When I found a problem, he made me fix it.
* When I went inside, my Mom made me take out the garbage.
* On the way back home, traffic was so bad, it prevented me from getting home at a reasonable time.

I'm like an trip in space away from being an astronaut! I think I'm fully trained now.

Re:Guess I chose the wrong day

[ari_j]

At least you got over your drinking problem.

Re:Guess I chose the wrong day

[blakespot]

Bad weather on landing day... When NASA finds out about this, the shit's gonna hit the fan.

blakespot

Attention span

[DragonHawk]

"Most would likely agree that this mission has been more 'eventful' than many in the past. "

No. Anyone who has studied the space program will tell you that every single mission is eventful. The difference is that this flight has had more attention. The astronauts on STS-114 can't break wind without getting mentioned on a news report or weblog. Hell, look at Slashdot here, we've had more coverage for this space flight then I think we've had for any other single event, ever.

Why? Because the last shuttle ended in disaster, and everyone wants to be first to report on this one. Everybody's watching. If this flight goes off without a hitch and STS resumes flight again, the next one will get moderate coverage, the next after minor, and then people will move on to the next big thing.

The same thing happened with Apollo. The Apollo 11 landing broadcast had the biggest audiance of all-time. When Apollo 13 exploded, most people didn't even know we had a mission up there.

Senstationalism gets attention. A larger share of attention means the media can sell more advertisements. Like water and electricity, money follows the path of least resistance.