NYT: High Tech in the '70's, Shuttles Feel Their Age(but lift off Tuesday)

[DeepModem Mom]

This article seems worrisome....


High Tech in the '70's, Shuttles Feel Their Age
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: July 25, 2005

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., July 24 - Like an increasingly creaky baby boomer who can still run a marathon, the space shuttle is a delicate organism that can do miraculous things. But as the Discovery prepares to lift off Tuesday morning on the first shuttle mission since the loss of the Columbia two and a half years ago, it is clearly feeling its age.

The launching is scheduled for 10:39 a.m. Tuesday, but the question of malfunctioning fuel level sensors is still hanging over the process....

***

Age-related complaints abound. Workers have sweated over the shuttle's main engines, which endure some of the most pronounced stress of any component. Documents for the Discovery's flight readiness review in June showed that engineers had found and dealt with tiny cracks along seals in the main engines and ruptures in some of the engines' nozzle tubes.

In the solid rocket boosters, corroded bolts have been discovered in the motors' nozzle joints. Elsewhere, a leak was discovered in a flexible hose used to deliver oxygen to the crew before the launching of the shuttle Endeavour in 2002; corrosion was later found in similar hoses.

The flight readiness documents state that these issues and many more have been addressed and do not constitute a threat to flight. And agency officials have readily acknowledged the difficulties of maintaining a system with parts designed and created so long ago....Just last week, the agency's inspector general issued a report describing continuing problems with a kind of wiring used throughout the shuttles as a "safety risk."...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/25/science/space/25shuttle.html?hp&ex=1122264000&en=441b5135b4d2dc83&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. The best that the US can do are these museum pieces.

It's tragic that we have not moved beyond antique junk, but we have plenty of money to spend to kill people in Iraq.

[lapfog_1]

3. Shuttles should be in Air Museums around the country

Two to three weeks of Iraq war funding is all the money needed for
Shuttle replacement.

Give money to the Russians to fund their Energia heavy lift rockets,
and fully develop the "spaceship one" fly to orbit concept for
taking people.

For non LEO trips, let the heavy lift take the vessels and fuels
to the space station (thereby making it useful for something) and
then fly the astronauts (if you MUST have astronauts) up and take
off for the moon or elsewhere.

Probably only a few billions of dollars to do that, and the cost
per spaceship one type flight would be a fraction of the shuttle.
The cost of the heavy lift rocket is lower too, and would give
the Russians something useful to do with their space program and
scientists.

Waaay too radical of an idea for the Bushistas.

[RPM]

4. it's hard to get new spacecraft when...

the republican presidents want to both starve the NASA beast and spend all the money blowing up Iraq and other 3d world nations.

"elections have consequences"

[daleo]

2. If Republicans are in power, they will keep using them until they crash.

The three that are left I mean - that is the only way to maximize the return on investment.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. LAT/AP: NASA Plans Launch Even if Problem Recurs

NASA Plans Launch Even if Problem Recurs
By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer


CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA plans to launch the first space shuttle flight in 2 1/2 years, even if it is plagued by the same fuel gauge problem that halted the previous countdown two weeks ago, officials said Sunday.

Discovery is set to lift off Tuesday at 10:39 a.m., the same time Columbia took off on its doomed mission in 2003.

Deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said the fuel gauge problem has been a vexing one -- engineers still don't know exactly what caused it -- and he's repeatedly asked himself, "Are we taking care enough to do it right?"...

***

At an evening news conference, Hale and other NASA officials found themselves defending the decision to launch with a fuel gauge failure. They stressed that they will proceed with a liftoff only if the problem is well understood and involves the gauges in question -- anything else will result in a postponement.

NASA's own launch rule -- in place since the 1986 Challenger disaster -- requires that all four hydrogen fuel gauges in the external tank be working properly. Going with three out of four would result in a "deviation" of the rule, Hale told reporters....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top13jul24,0,1296112.story

[Javaman]

8. Everyone worries about the fuel gauge...

But no one mentions the door that fell off the shuttle just before the last launch, because it was DUCT TAPED to the shuttle!!!

[karlrschneider]

6. From a purely pragmatic standpoint, 1 broken gauge out of 4 probably

isn't really all that "hugh" a problem...I've flown hundreds of different kinds of aircraft and can't recall any that had even 2 fuel gauges. Howver, that said, I do agree that it would be a hell of a lot better to design a new generation of space machines and retire these tired old things.

[librechik]

9. the fuel gauge automatically shuts off the engines

if it reads empty. Whether it's empty or not. That's a pretty important gauge.

[Barrett808]

11. Yeah, what's up with that?

Presumably, they'll disable the cut-off feature...

[rfkrfk]

7. this is rubbish, the shuttles have had very little use ...

as compared to what was expected at the start
of the shuttle program, to have happened by 2005.
the shuttles are low-miles-creampuffs

[DeepModem Mom]

10. CNN just reporting that Laura Bush will witness shuttle launch --

she's heading to Florida.