CmdrTaco at Kennedy Space Center 105
Matthew Travis from the
Ares Institute Inc helped me get a press pass for the STS-135 Launch. so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for no scrub. I'm tweeting as @cmdrtaco from the launch if you are into that sort of thing. I'll have more later, but for now you'll have to make do with a photo I took, as well as a brief video clip I took of Atlantis on the pad at night.
Press Site (Score:4, Insightful)
I was there, for the STS-132 Tweetup, and it is absolutely incredible.
Nearly 2700 press were badged for this launch; the record was 2707 for STS-1, and they might find they've beaten it when all is said and done.
Shame the press paid no attention to the 100 or so in the middle; perhaps the public would have raised more fuss with its legislators about NASA's miserable budget.
Re:Congrats. Have fun! (Score:4, Insightful)
Merely ideas before their time. Both nice in theory but ugly reality made them too ineffective for their roles.
Fortunately, we (as in civilization) have taken our lessons learned quite well. The Concorde was too inefficient relative to high subsonic aircraft (i.e. high fuel costs), and had very limited routes due to restrictions on supersonic land overflights. There is a lot of research going on now to reduce sonic booms to the point of elimination, as well as improving efficiency. The next supersonic commercial aircraft, whenever it is made, will be cost competitive and capable of flying more routes.
The shuttle's failings are well documented, but the next generation of manned vehicles demonstrate the lessons learned quite well. All have the passenger cabin on top, separate crew and cargo functionality, seek simplicity and are truly reusable rather than merely refurbish-able. Additionally, by seeking multiple independent vendors we are avoiding the single string failures we encountered after Columbia, Challenger, and the current retirement plan.
We didn't get things right the first time out on either of these, but thats not necessarily a bad thing -- mistakes are often the best way to learn.
Re:No offense taco ... (Score:4, Insightful)
The shuttle launch is something that is likely never going to happen again, and those who have not had the opportunity should be jealous.
All of the shit that happens around us is unique and is never going to happen again. IOW: not much of an argument. It's all a matter of what one values in life. It's important to you: fine. Important to my Dad, who saw a Shuttle launch in the 80s. Not all that important to me -- certainly less important than, say, working on my house.
As far as I'm concerned, recent CPUs and GPUs are no less of a technological achievment than, say, a Shuttle launch. They are all immensely complex technical systems, even if the Shuttle is "just" a spaceplane strapped to a rocket, and, say Penryn is "just" a CPU on a piece of silicon wafer. Whether the parts are mechanical or not doesn't matter much, IMHO. Things fail spectacularly in the silicon world, too.
Doing "Something", to me, definitely wouldn't be watching a Shuttle launch.
Re:Press Site (Score:0, Insightful)
Test1