Risky Business
The space shuttle Discovery sits on its pad at the Kennedy Space Center as I write, prepped and ready to make its stubby phallic way into the depths of space. There are only two shuttles now, the results of two accidents - one over 20 years ago, the other only 4 years ago.
NASA sold its soul when it harnessed itself to the Shuttle Transportation System after Apollo; it can't ditch the program because it would spell the end of its funding, but it needs the shuttle to complete work on the International Space Station. A new orbital delivery system is in the works, to replace the last two shuttles by about 2010.
So the shuttle sits, and the seven people who will ride in it - strapped to two gigantic Roman candles and about 500,000 pounds of explosive fuel - are taking a risk. It's been the same risk faced by a select and honored few ever since Y. A. Gagarin rode in Vostok 1 - the risk that Something Might Happen.
Space flight is risky business. You are flying into the most inhospitable environment known, propelled by a combination of high explosives, material technology and complex mathematics. Everything has to work just so, or you don't come back except as a corpse or as scattered ashes.
If heroism can be defined as ordinary people dealing with an extraordinary situation, then astronauts are heroes, one and all.
Goddess keep them safe.
UPDATE:
The shuttle lifted off from KSC at 1438 local time on Tuesday 4 July. So far, everything looks exceptional for its 15-day mission.
NASA sold its soul when it harnessed itself to the Shuttle Transportation System after Apollo; it can't ditch the program because it would spell the end of its funding, but it needs the shuttle to complete work on the International Space Station. A new orbital delivery system is in the works, to replace the last two shuttles by about 2010.
So the shuttle sits, and the seven people who will ride in it - strapped to two gigantic Roman candles and about 500,000 pounds of explosive fuel - are taking a risk. It's been the same risk faced by a select and honored few ever since Y. A. Gagarin rode in Vostok 1 - the risk that Something Might Happen.
Space flight is risky business. You are flying into the most inhospitable environment known, propelled by a combination of high explosives, material technology and complex mathematics. Everything has to work just so, or you don't come back except as a corpse or as scattered ashes.
If heroism can be defined as ordinary people dealing with an extraordinary situation, then astronauts are heroes, one and all.
Goddess keep them safe.
UPDATE:
The shuttle lifted off from KSC at 1438 local time on Tuesday 4 July. So far, everything looks exceptional for its 15-day mission.
posted by Walt at 11:02 AM
1 Comments:
There is a lot of hesitation about this flight and it frightens me. I hope this one is delayed until all agree it's safe, or as safe as can be.
So you'll make big bucks over the holiday, huh? Good for YOU!
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