I was happy to see the space shuttle Discovery safely reach orbit yesterday, but I don't quite understand one thing about NASA's plan. They announced that if Discovery sustained damage that would prevent safe re-entry that Atlantis was ready to be launced for a rescue pick-up mission. Surely I can't be the only one that realizes that Atlantis would be subject to incurring the same type of tile damage, can I? What happens, then? Who rescues the rescuers? I haven't watched the news today, so hopefully the crew's visual inspection of the tiles renders these questions moot. It just seems to me that NASA makes less and less sense all the time.
As a side note, it never gets old watching the shuttle blast into space. We watched it on Fox News which switched over to the NASA feed. Hearing NASA's official voice check off the telemetry was cool. At one point that thing was moving over 14,ooo MPH. That's difficult to comprehend. Not bad for something running on 70's technology. Imagine the possibilities when free trade and modern technology reach for the stars.
Were you here at our house with us? Chris commented on the 70's technology as we watched it on NASA TV, and my mind was blown as they ticked off the numbers (the continued rapid acceleration really got me). Number of seconds into flight, the altitude, the speed and distance traveled were amazing to hear. 2000 mph, 4000 mph, 14000 mph--wow!
ReplyDeleteI also marveled at what a piece of crap the shuttle looked like with the many discolored tiles--I asked Chris "couldn't they have run that thing through the car wash before they show it on national TV?"
But you do raise a good point--if they're concerned about the safety of Discovery and are going to send Atlantis as a rescue, why didn't they just send Atlantis in the first place?!?!? Personally, you wouldn't catch me on that shuttle, what with the "calculated risk" and all.
Yeah, why can't Ralph Nader start a crusade to to put headrests into that big flying Corvair... I'll bet the landing gear is rolling on bias-ply tires too...
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