NASA Worker Falls To His Death On Launch Pad 202
RedEaredSlider writes "Tragedy has struck NASA as the organization announced a space shuttle worker fell to his death at the Endeavour launch pad this morning. NASA said the United Space Alliance worker fell at approximately 7:40 am eastern at the NASA Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A. The launch pad is currently holding the space shuttle Endeavour, which is slated to launch on April 19."
Well... (Score:4, Insightful)
Well,
I hope he died doing what he loved. It's the least any of us can ask for.
Re:Well... (Score:4, Funny)
What, falling?
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Re:Well... (Score:4, Insightful)
On another note...anyone else find it interesting that 2 tragedies to people involved with this mission have already happened before it even launched? First the commander's wife gets shot, now some random worker falls to his death.
Not really, you can find just as many dead people involved with a Superbowl, a racing event, or whatever else you like. Such "tragedies" are a fact of human life, they occur with statistical relevance.
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Speak for yourself. I have a fear of falling. Not heights, mind you, but falling. I'm fine looking out the (closed) window on the 20th floor. Put me on a 2nd floor balcony, however, and I slowly inch backwards and get very nervous when anyone approaches the edge. Sometimes even driving over bridges sets me off. (Never so bad that I can't make it over the bridge, but enough that I can't talk and have to focus solely on the road ahead.)
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I have a fear of landing at unsurvivably high speeds. I've jumped on the transparent floor on the CN tower, but I wouldn't want to stand near the edge of a two-story drop without a guard rail.
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I think its a question of perceived survivability and confidence in human engineering. At the end of the day its really a question of trust. For me I wouldn't want to challenge whether I can survive a two story drop and sometimes human engineering inspires confidence.
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No it makes perfect sense. Standing on the CN tower's transparent floor is at least as safe as standing in an aircraft cabin. The floor's not going to break. On the other hand if I'm standing near the edge of a two story building's roof, I could slip off the edge by accident and I'd be severely injured or killed.
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Sounds like one of those sentences is backwards.
A two story drop is completely survivable (so you shouldn't fear it).
Falling from the CN tower is sure to kill you.
Sounds like you have a fear of landing at survivable but painful speeds.
FTFY
Protip: If falling at terminal velocity be sure to orient yourself with your head facing down so as to ensure that your last conscious though wont be feeling your femur going through your lungs.
Re:Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Paraphrasing a quote I can't quite remember well enough to attribute to anyone:
I'm not afraid of heights. I can look up at them all day. It's depths that bother me.
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Paraphrasing a quote I can't quite remember:
It's not the fall that kills, it's that sudden stop at the end.
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It was my great uncle Ian, but I don't recall you being there.
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I have a problem with jumping into water....
Parachuting, both normal and HALO? Check.
Bit of rock climbing? Check.
Trying to jump from the 3m platform into a pool? That takes a while to work up the nerve....
Doing it from 10m? No way.....
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Obviously that's because you know some kid just peed in the pool. I wouldn't want to jump in either!
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It is odd that you do have that issue, yet have no issues with a sustained terminal velocity freefall. That makes me shiver just thinking about it.
Re:Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
I say this as a guy who loves motorcycles... Think about them most of the day, commute on one, race one.
I do not want to die 'doing what I love.' I would rather die quietly in my sleep at an old age. I take some solace in the fact that a falling death is probably one of the less painful 'accidental deaths, still... I would hope for much better.
Re:Well... (Score:4, Funny)
I do not want to die 'doing what I love.' I would rather die quietly in my sleep at an old age.
You don't love sleeping? Cause I do. Dying in my sleep would -totally- be dying doing one thing I love.
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I've known plenty of people who hate sleeping. I'm one of them. It just feels like such a waste of several hours that I would rather use for something else.
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Yeah, but vivid, surreal hallucinations are a reasonable substitute for "something else".
Now don't go turning this into a drug conversation.
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Yeah, but vivid, surreal hallucinations are a reasonable substitute for "something else".
The problem is, how do you distinguish vivid, surreal hallucinations from normal office routine?
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However, your desire is eminently achievable, and Slashdot is one of the better places to advertise for it. If your meaning of "Laplander" extends to cover people from the boreal parts of Finland, then there's likely to be a fair few qualified readers. And even if they're not exactly what you want, you're well on the way an assistant in just "2 degrees of separation".
You're not a squirrel are you?
Will y
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Unlike those poor bastards riding in the car I'm driving at the time.
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IF i'm going to die tomorrow, i'd certainly rather die working on a spaceship or saving someone else's life or something else important. As opposed to dying working as a cashier at a fast food restaurant during a robbery, or getting killed during a mugging, or failing to look both ways before crossing the street, etc.
Dying old and dying well are both better than dyin
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I just don't want to see it coming. I'd rather not have time to fear or dwell on it.
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Why die quietly in your sleep? You only get to die once (maybe). Aren't you curious how it will feel? Having said that, I'd still prefer a relatively quick death to the long drawn out agony of cancer or something. But as the actual moment of passing approaches, I want to be as conscious as possible.
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But as the actual moment of passing approaches, I want to be as conscious as possible.
I read this as "I don't want to die" ... Death is permanent unconsciousness. You can't have it both ways.
But what is the transition like? What does it feel like to have your consciousness shut down? I'm not eager to die, but I don't want miss that experience because I was unconscious to begin with. Yes, the entire thing is a bit silly because I won't have time to ponder it after it's experienced or be able to report it to anyone else, but it's no more silly in that regard than saying you want to die in your sleep.
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Have you ever passed out while giving blood? That's probably what it's like, as the actual true cause of death is the same cause there - hypoxia. The difference is the extent - and your cognitive abilities short out well far of the mark.
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I always say I want to die in bed, but what I really mean is, I'd like to be trampled by a herd of wild elephants while having sex.
(RIP Roger Zelazny)
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Seconded.
I bungee jumped from a 103 m (ca 337 ft) bridge some years back. ( http://www.vertigeaventures.com/xindex.htm [vertigeaventures.com] )
I have no clue how deep the guy fell, but I remember two things very clearly
* you pick up speed ENORMOUSLY FAST, the air really rushes by as you go head first.
* the brain goes in some kind of overdrive making every second seem to take forever and although I did not quite see my life flash by, I sure had plenty of time to realize what was going on and wonder why that elastic cord hadn't st
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the brain goes in some kind of overdrive making every second seem to take forever
I suspect that's adrenaline. The same thing happened to me in the one major auto accident I got into.
Time slowed down, I *KNEW* that I was going to be hit, and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.
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It takes nearly a minute to fall from this height.And despite what you may have heard,you're likely to stay conscious all the way down.Thoughts like this keep me warm at night.
- Batman
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Death was not instant. He was speeding down to the ground at terminal velocity when Charles Darwin appeared to him, pointed, and laughed.
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She'd be driving a stick, so that wouldn't happen. I mis-stepped one day, slipped off my brake and landed on my accelerator in an auto, almost shot into heavy traffic. I've outright misread the light and gone to punch it when the left turn signal went green (but my through signal was still red) ... rev'd the engine, came off the brake, hit the clutch, went into gear and........ no. Clutch stayed down, my foot went back on the brake while my car was hovering there in effective neutral, and I pulled the st
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Somehow I doubt he reached terminal velocity in the what.. 100 feet from the launch pad?
If you fall 100 feet, odds are it's going to be terminal.
Very sad news for Brevard (Score:2)
Re:Very sad news for Brevard (Score:5, Funny)
I have no doubt he died doing what he loved.
Skydiving.
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Do you know the difference between a golfer and a skydiver?
The golfer:
WHACK!
-"Oh, shit!"
The skydiver:
-"Oh, shit!"
WHACK!
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There's also the difference between falling from 2 meters and falling from 20 meters:
2m: *thud* AAAAA!!!
20m: AAAAAAA *thud*
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There's no such thing as negative acceleration. Acceleration is a vector, it has a magnitude (size) and a direction. And it's not the direction that kills you, it's the magnitude of the acceleration.
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I'm going to go out and say it was, depending on the fall distance:
1. Hypoxia to a critical area of the CNS
2. Shearing trauma to the CNS
Really, 99% of the ways you die are covered by the above. The rest are all similar to #1, usually a result of the metabolic processes halting or malfunctioning.
yay. happy thoughts.
Why? (Score:3)
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Or one of those "Is your awesome job about to end? Don't know what you'll do next, but are sure it won't be as awesome as working on the space shuttle? Don't jump off the launch tower, call 1-800-GET-HELP" videos.
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That's really awful. But... Aren't these guys supposed to be clipped in when they're working up there?
Metric clips vs Imperial clips?
Seriously though, I've worn a climbing harness to do light telco wiring (admittedly decades ago) and one annoying failure mode was the thing you clip on breaking. In that situation you are very firmly and securely attached to something falling right next to you.... I always felt weird cliping onto the basket right where they did the repair welding... I would not be surprised if whatever he clipped onto, landed on top of him.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Informative)
Apparently there are some contexts in which OHSA will allow free-climbing since tying in as actually more dangerous.
A friend sent me this [liveleak.com] video a while back (sorry for the flash) ... it shows some guy climbing a really tall tower and not being tied on for the most part.
Not for the faint of heart or people who really don't like heights. It's not something I'd be willing to do.
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Apparently there are some contexts in which OHSA will allow free-climbing since tying in as actually more dangerous.
What do they [ohsa.net] have to do with it?
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We had a guy who did that. I'm 100% sure that it wasn't OSHA approved however! ... and the tower was only about 150ft... but still.
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There is an investigation so we will find out eventually what happened.
I work at KSC and I have had fall protection training. There are certain times you need to wear fall protection. It has to do when you are working near an unprotected edge. You have to wear it when you are near an unprotected edge with a drop of 6 feet. The Pad is really pretty impressive because you can access most areas or the orbiter and a few key areas of the SRB's and ET. Before launch the access arms and platforms are moved away. M
Re:Why? (Score:4, Interesting)
When you investigate any horrific accident, such as an airplane crash, train crash, etc., it always turns out that there wasn't a single cause of it, but rather a confluence of several events/actions which combined led to the tragedy.
I suspect that the same may be here, as well.
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My first guess would be a worker being lax about actually using his safety harness* (possiblly caused by time or other pressures, possiblly just as a result of overconfidence) on combined with a sudden surprise making him lose his footing.
*note that wearing a safety harness is not the same as using it. For a safety harness to protect the wearer it has to be actually attatched to something solid, prefferablly with a shock absorbing section in between the harness and attatchment point.
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There is an interesting policy at the Pads. When there isn't a shuttle at the Pad you wear hard hats. When there is a shuttle you don't wear one because if it falls off it could damage the shuttle. Nothing should fall anyway since everything is supposed to be tethered and things like watches get a strip of tape wrapped around them to keep them from falling off.
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If anyone follows OSHA... (Score:3)
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People working in potentially dangerous conditions at 7:40 in the morning a day after we all lost an hour of sleep to Daylight Savings Time...yeah that could end badly.
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Gravity. Come on, it's not rocket science.
OSHA may have a field day here (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:OSHA may have a field day here (Score:4, Informative)
Again, from my experience I would guess it was the worker himself who was side-stepping the rules. (I hate to sound like I'm blaming the victim, though...) Typically management get in so much trouble (and have to deal with so much paperwork and lost productivity from shutdowns) that they really do care about safety and DO NOT want anyone breaking a safety rule.
Then again, I'm speaking in generalities. We'll have to wait and see what led to this particular tragedy.
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IME from my younger days, jobs sites like that are the exception. Unless you're working for a really shitty contractor you probably have foremen that know how dangerous working in rigging can be and make sure their guys are happy, comfortable, and safe. Nobody likes seeing anyone get hurt at a job site. And nobody who works for a living would want to see a job shut down (and people out of work) because someone else was cutting corners and being unsafe.
Of course I have no personal knowledge of what the co
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I'm not sure about OSHA, but I know our state L&I compliance personnel don't adhere to that standard. If I'm out flagging and I so much as utter the words "I don't know" that's a willful violation right there, the company is ultimately responsible for making sure that the employees know about the safety requirements and if there is a violation knowing why it was done that way. A willful violation carries a much stiffer penalty than one that's accidental. And often times they'll let you off with a warnin
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A friend of mine who works mostly blue-collar jobs has been told by more than one foreman on a work site: "If you fall from rigging, your employment is terminated before you hit the ground." Apparently this is how they sidestep safety regulations -- I'm not responsible for that guy, he wasn't my employee.
...and is the manager's employment terminated before the back of his head hits the ground as the result of blunt force trauma to the front of his face?
Unless it's all off the books (which in itself can be tracked), how does a foreman deny someone on the job site that's been paid is a worker?
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Stay tuned (Score:2)
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Dude. Not funny.
Someone is dead ... stop being such a dick.
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I would have probably drawn more ire if I said he fell from the pier into the pyre, which was my original idea.
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:(
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His name is Robert Paulson
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Where are the Slashdot stories for them?
When they're notable nerds, or die in a way that is of interest to nerds (falling off a launch pad qualifies) then the Slashdot stories for them are... uh... on slashdot.
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Personally, I don't find falling off a launch pad newsworthy for Slashdot. It was an industrial accident, pure and simple. If someone were standing on the pad when the engines fired, that would be dramatically bizarre enough to be newsworthy.
FWIW, I don't intend to make a joke of this. Even if it's not "news", this was a real, live perso
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A miscalculation caused a slip.
Another metric vs english measurement unit malfunction for NASA?
Re:It looks like... (Score:5, Funny)
A miscalculation caused a slip.
Another metric vs english measurement unit malfunction for NASA?
Yes. He was thinking in SI units and turned out the problem was in .... feet.
Yes, I'm going to Hell.
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I admit it, I laughed, and if I had mod points, you'd get one.
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Assuming the cameras caught everything I wonder if there will be an analysis of the acceleration and downward trajectory?
Seems odd though, that nearly all of Nasa's accidents have involved something coming *down*
- Dan.
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Nah, that makes sense. After all, NASA's all about getting things high.
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I'm no rocket scientist but I'd guess his acceleration was around 9.8 ms^2 down?
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I'm no rocket scientist but I'd guess his acceleration was around 9.8 ms^2 down?
9.8 ms ^ -2 that is...
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No, you're just obligated by law to throw on your sunglasses and follow your remark with "... YEAH".
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Crazy Matter Streams (Score:2)
I am pretty sure if Gary Busey and Charlie Sheen crossed paths the world might end.
Re:1...2...3...hold it (Score:5, Informative)
it was the last lauch for _discovery_. atlantis and endeavour still have one launch each on the schedule
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It was the last mission for THAT shuttle.
It's being decommissioned now and will never go back to space.
Re:1...2...3...hold it (Score:5, Informative)
The mission that just ended was the last flight of Discovery. The other two shuttles each have one final flight before they two are sent to museums.
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I thought one of the post-Columbia safety protocols was always have a stack ready to go in case a rescue mission is necessary. Waiver?
Re:1...2...3...hold it (Score:5, Informative)
Basically the rule says that if the shuttle is going to an orbit where it can rendezvous with ISS, that a backup has to be able to reach ISS within 28 days. During that time, the astronauts can stay there, but beyond 28 days, ISS can't really handle the extra crew.
If the shuttle mission is to an orbit where rendezvous is NOT possible, a vessel has to be ready to go more or less immediately (7 days if I recall).
Since the Columbia disaster, I believe only one mission was to a non-ISS orbit. (The final Hubble Space Telescope upgrade mission) This is the only time that two shuttles were on the pad simultaneously.
Now for the specific situation going on now:
The next flight will be Endeavour, and Atlantis will be the designated rescue shuttle.
Atlantis will fly the final mission of the shuttle program, (if the funding is approved) and there will be no space shuttle available as a backup. Because of this, Atlantis will only be carrying a crew of 4 so if something goes wrong with it, they can recover the crew via Russian capsule(s) while the four stay at ISS.
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This makes me sad, but I have to wonder how this is "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters.
To get meta it's not what you think matters. But it sure is something I'm glad i read.
This is the last launch of the shuttle. It was supposed to be the height of tech, yet we lost two shuttle crews and two shuttles. Losing another person before the launch just adds another layer to the sadness about the launch. Not only will we lose the ability of manned flight for some time, but a bunch of very smart engineers will be out of work. And more abstract, we lose a bit of the shine on our national tech halo.
All
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This is the last launch of the shuttle. It was supposed to be the height of tech, yet we lost two shuttle crews and two shuttles. Losing another person before the launch just adds another layer to the sadness about the launch. Not only will we lose the ability of manned flight for some time, but a bunch of very smart engineers will be out of work. And more abstract, we lose a bit of the shine on our national tech halo.
This is certainly a different take I really had not considered.
[...]wonder why you're complaining about it.
True there are much more irrelevant articles this topic could be considered more relevant and I do consider this more "on-the-fence" or appropriate now than before. I say I guess this was relevant and I believe that was more an expression of my frustration towards other articles poorly grouped with this.
Yes, I'll admit when I overreact, your point is completely valid and makes me question my initial perspective towards this posting...thanks.
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How it matters is that space mission funding is precarious, and the equipment is easily damaged. A death on the launch pad will not be brushed aside. It will be a thorough investigation with potential delays in the mission, and implications on future funding decisions if the mission is delayed. Moreso, if something was damaged in the accident, the mission might be scrubbed for an indeterminate amount of time.
However, the focus of the story is on human tragedy, and the life that ended, leaving it up to the r
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In addition to my reply above [slashdot.org], I do agree that my posting was an overreaction. It may be true that some articles are a bit out of whack but in hindsight, not so much this one. Your point is well made and also commenters are supposed to admit when they had jumped to conclusion too fast...like me.
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I've never been on the Shuttle gantries, but have been on other ones at KSC and VAFB. You would think that there are lots of precautions, but there are lots of places up there where you can fall, especially if there's no vehicle on the pad or if you're working outside the gantry. Lots of edges to reach over to grab a cable and places where if you miss a foothold or handhold you'll be relying on one hand to hold you in place. Once workers have been there a while they treat such risks as routine and since m