Russian sub survivors!

[Guest]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050807/ts_nm/russia_submarine_dc

Good news, if this is all true.

It's nice to have a positive resolution to this near-tragedy.

(Now if only Discovery makes it home safely.)

 

[shereads]

That is good news about the sub. I felt claustrophobic just heariing about it on the radio.

As for Discovery, it should never have left the ground. The first time a shuttle burned up on reentry was an accident. If it happens a second time, it'll be the fault of bureaucrats who were overeager to make the program look viable again. A public relations stunt gone wrong. I don't want to know.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

That is good news about the sub. I felt claustrophobic just heariing about it on the radio.

As for Discovery, it should never have left the ground. The first time a shuttle burned up on reentry was an accident. If it happens a second time, it'll be the fault of bureaucrats who were overeager to make the program look viable again. A public relations stunt gone wrong. I don't want to know.

Actually the shuttles were a well meaning iea, a resuable launch and entry vehicle. One that was cost effective during a time when congress was cutting NASA's funding constantly.

The problem is they are now like aircraft and subject to structural fatigue, a collection of minor things that can lead to catastrophe. They also lack the ability to go much farther than near earth orbit. Limiting the goals of the maned space program to short hops.

Apollo 13 failed, but the good thing about each saturn and each apollo capsule was that they were new and designed to be used just once. So continued maintenance was not a concern.

 

[shereads]

Actually the shuttles were a well meaning iea, a resuable launch and entry vehicle. One that was cost effective during a time when congress was cutting NASA's funding constantly.

The problem is they are now like aircraft and subject to structural fatigue, a collection of minor things that can lead to catastrophe. They also lack the ability to go much farther than near earth orbit. Limiting the goals of the maned space program to short hops.

There's also the problem of an entrenched bureaucracy that can't survive intact without the space shuttle program. I'm so glad my own screw-ups at work are never likely to kill anyone. I don't think I could sound half as perky and upbeat as NASA Administrator Griffin:

"Wild Ride" capped with re-entry into risky reality

Ellis Hennican
Newsday
August 7 2005

(excerpt)

Give NASA Administrator Michael Griffin this much credit. He may be suffering a meltdown of private jitters. But he's no pessimist when the cameras and the microphones are on.

"Discovery looks like a very clean bird," he was saying at week's end as his mission-control team gave the crew an official thumbs-up for re-entry. "We've got every objective accomplished on this mission."

Well, make that every objective but one. Collins and her team aren't home yet.

And until they are, no one anywhere around NASA - no one at home reading the papers or watching on TV - could possibly follow these brave human adventurers without some pang of nervousness from afar.

Or up close either.

"It's been a wild ride," Commander Collins conceded to reporters on Friday, as she and the gang worked their final clean-up chores.

"See you next week," she said, hopefully. "See you on the ground."

Sure, NASA's a creaky bureaucracy. Sure, the space agency's engineers failed to properly repair the foam that doomed the shuttle Columbia. And sure, the whole shuttle program is now a giant question mark.

But still.

Seven human beings were flown into space. They truly risked their lives. They did a bunch of important stuff up there. And now they're coming home. Only the cynical or the terminally blasé could fail to be moved by that.

Like his cheery boss Griffin, shuttle flight director Paul Hill was accentuating the positive from the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "The vehicle is in pristine condition," he said. "All tests are good."

But that mattered a whole lot less than the practical decision. The one that said, "Come home."

"We have cleared Discovery to re-enter," said Wayne Hale, chairman of the Mission Management Team.

And to the engineers who really said yes - not the administrators, not the politicians, not the bureaucrats - this wasn't a thoughtless decision. As you might recall, the last time an order like this was given, the consequences were disastrous.

Again, the mission-management people had their final checklist.

Raffaello module, crammed with waste, back in the shuttle cargo? Check.

Orbiter's heat shield up and in place? Check.

Thermal blankets on Discovery's outerskin? Um, one is torn and billowing but still serviceable for re-entry. Not so dicey that another repair space walk was called for.
Still, it's those torn blankets that are producing the biggest jitters now. Before the final go-ahead was given, eleventh hour tests were arranged at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

Engineers took several similar blankets and tore them like Discovery's. Each was hurled into a wind-tunnel machine, the velocity set at many times the speed of sound.
The conclusion? Highly unlikely to tear more or slam into the Orbiter. Highly unlikely? Can't we do better than that?

"You only get one shot at it, since we are only a big glider," Paul Hill admitted.

"During de-orbit, I'm sure I'll have a thought or two about Rick Husband and his crew. At wheel stop, I'm sure all of us are going to think a lot about the 107 crew," he said. He didn't need to explain to anyone at NASA that he was referring to the flight number of the doomed Columbia mission.

"We've assessed this risk to the very best of our knowledge, and we believe the risk is small," Hale said when he was pressed aggressively.

How small?

"Small," Hill said.

Griffin, the boss, still was relentlessly upbeat.

"I believe that this shuttle is in as good a shape as any that we have ever had, to execute what is always a very difficult maneuver, a re-entry from space," the NASA administrator said.

Here's hoping he - and all of them - are right. Landing is set for Monday morning at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Two thoughts in the meantime:

Wild ride.

Safely home.

Amen.

 

[minsue]

Thank you so much for posting this, Sarah. You've made my night.

 

[Guest]

Thank you so much for posting this, Sarah. You've made my night.

The video they are showing this morning of them being taken to safety makes me feel very good.

 

[Guest]

Updated link -

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&u=/ap/20050807/ap_on_re_eu/russia_navy_accident_40

 

[ABSTRUSE]

I've been following this story and it was so good to see that the Russian govt. let us and Britain help out for once.

A happy ending to a possible tragedy.

 

[R. Richard]

It is a happy ending that I am delighted to read. However, the details of the situation indicate that it will be just one of a similar sequence of emergencies unless the Russian government does something about the antiquated equipment and procedures of their navy and air force.

 

[Guest]

It is a happy ending that I am delighted to read. However, the details of the situation indicate that it will be just one of a similar sequence of emergencies unless the Russian government does something about the antiquated equipment and procedures of their navy and air force.

With the current condition of our shuttle program, I don't think we should be throwing stones at anyone.