ShuttleWatch: Retiring-this-boring-feature Edition
The Latest:
Atlantis launched on time! Who'da thunk?
The Details:
Space.com pseudo-liveblogged the whole glorious affair. Which is good, because we're over this. Bottom line: the EU's science-in-a-can will be up and running before you can say "let's let the Russians take care of this from now on."
Forget gambling on the Superbowl this weekend... it's the return of ShuttleWatch
The Latest:
NASA cleared Atlantis for launch on February 7th. Do I hear $50? $20? ONE DOLLAR!
The Details:
Once again the space types are trying to decide which parts of our decrepit Shuttle are reasonably safe to leave broken for launch, and which are... not. Currently they're assessing "a bent coolant hose." Program manager Wayne Hale says it's no biggie, but engineers are checking out a hose from the shuttle Discovery that was bent in the same way, just in case.
ShuttleWatch: making something out of nothing
The Latest:
This won't come as any surprise to the Shuttle-haters in our midst, but those pesky ECO problems that scotched Atlantis's launch are nothing new. In fact, NASA officials are admitting they've likely NEVER worked correctly. Of course, that didn't stop a Florida congressman from introducing legislation to keep shuttles flying past their 2010 retirement.
The Details:
Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for space operations, says the ECO problems have "been hanging like a cloud over us for the last two years." But in emails obtained by Aviation Week & Space Technology, Wayne Hale, shuttle program manager, says "It seems to me likely that we have been flying the entire history of the shuttle program with a false sense of security and that we never had reliable protection from a [catastrophic] liquid hydrogen low-level engine cutoff." This means that swapping in another shuttle for Atlantis's mission is no longer an option.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. David Weldon (R-FL), "whose district is home to thousands of space workers," thinks keeping our spit-and-bailing-wire shuttle fleet in operation past 2010 (the date mandated by Pres. Bush to ground 'em for good) is better than lettin' them Russkies and Celestials git the jump on us with manned spaceflight.
For Your Cocktail Party:
ShuttleWatch: MST3K edition! [none of this is true, but hey, nothing's going on at Cape Canaveral anyway.]
The Latest:
A ten-story-tall killer spider menaced the beleaguered Atlantis shuttle on its launchpad, killing dozens of NASA personnel before Atlantis mission manager LeRoy Cain repelled it with a Phase plasma rifle (40-watt range).
The Details:
Words do this menace no justice. Watch for yourself.
ShuttleWatch doesn't have a weekend edition. Can you blame us?
The Latest:
Atlantis is grounded till January 2 at the earliest.
The Details:
Blah blah fuel sensors still not working blah blah. What else.. uh... in light of all the aforementioned blah-blah, NASA actually tightened its launch requirements to state that all four of the ECOs had to be working in order to launch. They're also leaving Atlantis on the launchpad while they try to fix it; wheeling it back into the hangar would mean pushing the launch date even later into January.
For Your Cocktail Party:
OK at this point, Atlantis is really not party conversation material on any level. Go to plan b.
ShuttleWatch©®™: Atlantis is kinda like a girl who breaks a date claiming she had to "wash her hair"
The Latest:
Launch scrubbed again. Damn ECOs. They're thinking Saturday now, 3:43PM. Wouldn't hold your breath though -- there's a 40% chance of bad weather.
The Details:
The NASA geek squad couldn't diagnose the fuel-sensor malfunction in time -- they think it's an open circuit somewhere, not a fault in the sensors themselves. Anyway, the visiting ESA folks are pissed about the delay. All 750 of 'em have to head back to Europe tonight, launch or no launch. Of course, these are the people who took 20 years to make Columbus (the space-lab module Atlantis is ferrying up), so you think they'd think before calling the kettle black.
For Your Cocktail Party:
ShuttleWatch strikes again!
The Latest:
Atlantis's launch was delayed. But if it HAD launched on time, NYC residents could have seen its ascent with the naked eye, according to Joe Rao. Maybe tomorrow?
The Details:
If the weather is clear to the southeast, folks in the NY metropolitan area should be advised to go outside and look for a south to southeast-facing prospect of open sky with a view down to the flat horizon (maximum angular elevation will be about ten degrees, the width of a fist held at arm's length).
For Your Cocktail Party:
[thanks to George Musser]
Welcome to ShuttleWatch, our new all-shuttle, all-the-time news update. From spacewalk crises to astronaut-taking-a-piss updates, this is your one-stop dock for all the latest shuttley happenings.
The Latest:
Woo hoo, we're launching! We're ready for anything! OK, how about... not launching? Try again tomorrow, y'all.
The Details:
Atlantis's launch was scrubbed because two of the four fuel sensors were saying the shuttle's liquid-hydrogen tank was empty, when it was really full. The seven-person crew's main mission is to install Columbus, the European Space Agency's long-delayed science lab, in the International Space Station. There are three spacewalks planned, and NASA is hoping to extend the mission from 11 days to 13.
For Your Cocktail Party:
