Programmer For Endeavor Now Crew On Final Flight 68
Lucas123 writes "Greg Chamitoff, a computer programmer who wrote software for NASA's Endeavour spacecraft, will be blasting off on shuttle's final 15-day flight as a mission specialist on Friday. Chamitoff, who created software focused on spacecraft analysis and maneuver optimization, will operate the space station's robotic arm, and he'll also take part in two spacewalks."
Damn fool (Score:5, Funny)
Hasn't he seen a single science fiction movie?!?!? He'll be the comic-relief nerdy guy on the crew, who the pretty astronaut just regards as a friend, who gets killed about two-thirds the way through the mission--after providing a few laughs and some expertise in getting the escape shuttle at the abandoned space station online. No way is he going to make it to the sequel mission.
Re: (Score:2)
Normally, that only applies to people, but I think under these circumstances we could extend the trope to vessels.
Re: (Score:3)
God help any older crew member who talks about how much he misses his kids and tells his daughter on the uplink that daddy will be home soon.
Re: (Score:1)
Somebody at NASA needs to replace the shirt/top part of his space uniform with a red-colored one...
Re: (Score:1)
Don't want to close my eyes
I don't want to fall asleep
And I don't want to miss a thing
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry to say, this one gave me a little "ugh" -- you are, after all, talking about the space shuttle.
Re: (Score:2)
That depends, if someone else can remind him that he's not getting too old for this shit, he might be OK.
Ob. Galaxy Quest (Score:5, Funny)
From the greatest non-trek trek movie [imdb.com]:
[the crew is on a shuttle descending to an alien planet]
Guy Fleegman: I changed my mind. I wanna go back.
Sir Alexander Dane: After the fuss you made about getting left behind?
Guy Fleegman: Yeah, but that's when I thought I was the crewman that stays on the ship, and something is up there, and it kills me. But now I'm thinking I'm the guy who gets killed by some monster five minutes after we land on the planet.
Jason Nesmith: You're not gonna die on the planet, Guy.
Guy Fleegman: I'm not? Then what's my last name?
Jason Nesmith: It's, uh, uh - -I don't know.
Guy Fleegman: Nobody knows. Do you know why? Because my character isn't important enough for a last name, because I'm gonna die five minutes in.
Gwen DeMarco: Guy, you have a last name.
Guy Fleegman: DO I? DO I? For all you know, I'm "Crewman Number Six"! Mommy... mommy...
Sir Alexander Dane: Are we there yet?
Re: (Score:1)
obligatory followup:
Gwen DeMarco: Let's get out of here before one of those things kills Guy!
Re: (Score:2)
This is his second flight... he would be a better plot device if it were his rookie mission.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
If he doesn't bring one along himself, he's a humorless son of a bitch.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, a baseball cap or grimy t-shirt would be even worse.
Re: (Score:1)
Then they will realize that only Chamitoff had the login password for the compute
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, he has! The problem is, he actually thinks some Evil Martian type will put a gun to his head and tell him to implement a quicksort all while a pretty green alien female massages one of his lower extremities with what looks suspiciously like a mouth appendage.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
And I complain (Score:1)
When my boss makes me trek in on the weekend.
Re: (Score:3)
Actually, he should have been on the first flight - sort of a quality of deliverables incentive.
Re: (Score:2)
shuttle's final 15-day flight
emphasis mine
Emphasizing what exactly? (Score:2)
shuttle's final 15-day flight
emphasis mine
What is your point? The June launch is a shuttle too, the shuttle Atlantis. There is more than one space shuttle you know.
Your terrible understanding of grammar revealed (Score:2, Informative)
As noted by a more intelligent responder, and discovered by myself when I re-parsed the original sentence after reading your reply, the line in question was missing a "the" throwing off the whole meaning of the thing. You can talk about apostrophes all you like but people misuse them so often who can you rely on THAT to inform you of meaning over the actual words used in a sentence?
In the end all we have ended up showing here is you lack the ability to analyze a sentence for grammatical errors, and that yo
Re: (Score:2)
a shuttle, or the shuttle?
Re: (Score:3)
shuttle's final 15-day flight
emphasis mine
What is your point? The June launch is a shuttle too, the shuttle Atlantis. There is more than one space shuttle you know.
His point was that the "shuttle" in question was already identified as the Endeavor. They didn't say shuttles' final flight, they said shuttle's.
That said, they did screw up the sentence, so I see why you were confused. It should read, "Greg Chamitoff, a computer programmer who wrote software for NASA's Endeavour spacecraft, will be blasting off on the shuttle's final 15-day flight..."
Wow (Score:2)
Re:Wow (Score:4, Interesting)
Nope. Just the "wrote software that flies in space" part pretty much does it.
And yes, I have.
Well ain't that just grand! (Score:3, Interesting)
I've been a controls programmer for fifteen years and this guy gets to write control software for a freaking space shuttle. As if that's not enough glory already, now he gets to fly in it and space walk! Lucky bastard! I hate you! Next month he'll probably win the lottery too.
Re:Well ain't that just grand! (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, but talk about dogfooding...
Re: (Score:1)
It hardly counts as dogfooding after you've let someone else use it for _years_.
Re:Well ain't that just grand! (Score:4, Informative)
Well, he's done a lot more than just hard-core programming work... this isn't his first time in space: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/chamitoff.html [nasa.gov]
Re: (Score:3)
Recreational interests include scuba diving, backpacking, flying, skiing, aikido, magic, guitar, and chess. Dr. Chamitoff is a certified divemaster and instrument rated pilot.
Damnit, he has my dream life...where did I go wrong?
I never thought I'd see the day (Score:1)
Just goes to show (Score:5, Informative)
Seriously though, this isn't his first time in space. He's an experienced astronaut who was on the International Space Station for half a year and has multiple high level degrees in engineering, astronautics and planetary geology. He's a recipient of the esteemed Silver Snoopy Award and is literally a friggin' Eagle Scout.
Godspeed!
Probably Not (Score:3)
and comeing from movies that guy will get some (Score:2)
and coming from movies that guy will get some thing simple wrong.
So we have this... (Score:2)
nice red shirt for you to wear...
Guts (Score:2)
Chamitoff...created software focused on spacecraft analysis and maneuver optimization.
Now that's guts, standing behind your work like that. Or crazy. One of those things. Maybe both.
Title is incorrect (Score:4, Informative)
Right now, he's thinking ... (Score:2)
Misleading summary (Score:3)
free rides (Score:2)
The ultimate boondoggle?
Hey Greg...
Your Welcome,
the taxpayer
Had Greg as a Lecturer in Flight Mechanics (Score:2, Interesting)
This is great. I had Greg as a lecturer when I was at Sydney University in the mid 90s. He's a great guy and really enjoyed his lectures on flight mechanics. He came back a few years ago and shared with us some of his experiences with the astronaught training program.By the way, he's not a random programmer. He's an aeronautics PhD and a few other degrees to boot.
Congradulations NASA (Score:2)
Its difficult to find someone barley young enough to fly into space AND be able to bit bang a i386sx like a champ
Best way to know code quality assurance is done (Score:3)
Make the code monkey do a ride-along!
Don't want to downplay this work, but ... (Score:1)
I don't want to downplay the guys work, but after reading his bio, I don't think he actually wrote any of the software used onboard the space shuttle AP101/S computers in HAL/S language. I think his code runs in the FCRs (Flight Control Rooms). It may also run on laptops taken onboard or on the space station, but not on the shuttle. My code runs on all three systems - shuttle, MCCs, and space station.
I worked writing GN&C code for the shuttles for 5 yrs and for the mission control centers around the
Rocket Man (Score:1)
Would that be... (Score:1)
Greg "The Easter Egg" Chamitoff?