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Space Science

Countdown Begins for 100th Shuttle Launch 11

Posted by michael from the don't-forget-the-duct-tape dept.
tewl writes "Saw this on http://cnn.org/2000/TECH/space/10/03/spaceshuttle.ap/index.html "NASA clocks began counting down early Tuesday for the 100th space shuttle flight, a space station construction mission." " They're finally getting serious about assembling the space station.
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Countdown Begins for 100th Shuttle Launch More

Countdown Begins for 100th Shuttle Launch

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  • Hey, if spending a few hundred (or even a few thousand) dollars on designing and manufacturing patches helps with employee morale, I'm all in favor of it. The last thing we need is NASA employees going postal.

    I suppose you probably complain about your employer wasting money on T-shirts for the employees, too.

  • I seem to recall a NASA brief a LONG time ago ('99 maybe), that stated that while the Shuttle had the ability to use the Internet, that it was only the workstation laptops. I.E., NONE of the critical systems were connected in any way shape or form to the Internet.

    Simply to reduce terrorist risk.

    -Chris
  • Hard to believe theres only been 100 launches. Seems like more that that, especially when you think of the timescale. It'll be interesting to see what effect the space station has on space exploration in general. Will it have little or no effect, and be little more than a damned expensive toy, like mir, or will it actually pave the way for further, cheaper, more interesting space flights?
  • 100 doesn't seem like all that much when you look at the time span that the shuttle program has been working over, but when you take into account the cost of the STS program, especially with NASA's budget, and also a couple years off after the whole Challenger thing, 100 flights is fairly impressive. And speaking of the Challenger, while that was obviously a catastrophic event, in space flight, a 99% return rate for spacecraft is very admirable. I think it's fairly safe to say that the shuttles have been a technical and scientific success, even if their PR value isn't all that great anymore. Go Nasa.
  • Funny, isn't it, how this story runs back-to-back with the story about de-orbiting Mir?

    I hope the new station is immune to space fungus.

  • Hard to say how accurate this [sheflug.co.uk] is.
  • Actually, only a hundred launches seems about right. We sometimes forget in our post-spacerace society exactly how complex, difficult, and downright dangerous these missions are.

    Yeah, this is #100. FYI, the originally-predicted failure rate for STS launches was around 2%. STS-51L (Challenger) was one. I get nervous with every launch these days, some because of that value, the other because I work on a payload to go to ISS and know that STS explosion==me out of a job.

    That's why every single mission-that's right, every one- has its own mission patch (by the way, you can see STS-92's patch at this location. They call them "missions" for a reason: they are as intricate and dangerous as any military action. The slightest mistake can cost billions of dollars and even irreplaceable human lives, as has already been demonstrated in our history.

    Stupidly, there's a movement afoot at NASA Public Affairs Office (PAO--I refer to it as the "Perfect Asshole Office") to even kill mission patches. Consider NASA Administrator Dan Goldin's desire to eradicate the NASA "worm" logo [nasawatch.com]. Specifically, this link [nasawatch.com], which states in part:

    "Astronaut mission logos are an important part of NASA activities. They should continue to be used as they have been, since they are an established form of visual identification for a particular mission. However, in terms of media awareness and overall visibility to the public, the use of the 'meatball' should take precedence over the use of mission logos."

    I mean, this is really just a Mickey Mouse [slashdot.org] agency. -sigh- Yet I work as a contractor [tbe.com].


    --
  • Hard to believe theres only been 100 launches. Seems like more that that, especially when you think of the timescale.
    Actually, only a hundred launches seems about right. We sometimes forget in our post-spacerace society exactly how complex, difficult, and downright dangerous these missions are. That's why every single mission-that's right, every one- has its own mission patch (by the way, you can see STS-92's patch at this location [nasa.gov]. They call them "missions" for a reason: they are as intricate and dangerous as any military action. The slightest mistake can cost billions of dollars and even irreplaceable human lives, as has already been demonstrated in our history. To see just how complex this stuff is, check the source [nasa.gov].
    Star Trek and other sci-fi makes this stuff look too easy; space travel is the hardest thing humans do. Okay, maybe maintaining world peace is the hardest, but space travel is right up there!
    Take care,
    Mark
    P.S: If you think missions are hard, look at the history of extra-vehicular activities. Hmmm...bundling myself up like a kid in winter and stepping out into a near-zero pressure environment where the sunlight alone could vaporize me in an instant... sounds like fun!
  • Presumably this things going to be extremely automated, ie run by a computer.
    I mean the space station, not the shuttle &#9786
  • Presumably this things going to be extremely automated, ie run by a computer.
    It would be interesting to know what sort of hardware they're packing, i would presume energy efficiency, reliability and long life time are the major criteria for a space station processor, what are they running?
    What sort of operating system? Ok its going to be highly customised, but it must be based on something Also what sort of fail-safe system do they have, Is the computer in contact (ie satilite network etc) with a ground based computer, if so is this computer isolated from the internet? if not, could they hack the shuttle?.

    I presume these things arnt classified anymore, maybe i'm naive again.......
  • Why is this even a headline? Obviously the fact that only 16 people have commented on it shows that no one really cares anymore about shuttle launches. There was even a Simpson's episode to mock it. It could be the billionth shuttle launch, for all I care. No matter which shuttle it is, you can only look at a massive hunk of metal hurtling through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds before it gets old. The only time I was even moderately more hyped about a shuttle launch was in 1995 when I met Eugene Kranz. For a while I was really pumped about NASA and the space program, but then I once more realized that it's not all _that_ exciting. Mr. Kranz, by the way, is a very nice fellow, it's not that I didn't like him, just that, as I have said many times, shuttle launches get boring quickly.

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