Return to Flight ... But to Where?
"T-3 hours ... and holding."
That's been pretty much the official mantra re the impending launch of Discovery -- NASA's "make or break" Return to Flight Mission, STS-114 -- all night ....
* * *
It's been about two and half years since Robin and I were awakened out of a sound sleep, a little after 7:00 AM Mountain (New Mexico) Time, by one of our "inside sources" ... and COMMANDED--
"Turn on your television -- quick!"
Still groggy, we tried to grasp the meaning of a set of brilliant, luminous streaks ... as they slowly crawled across the screen, with a super on the bottom informing us that this was "a live feed ... from Palestine, Texas."
With our awakening voice still on the phone, filling me in on "the sudden cessation of ALL communications from the returning Columbia shuttle"... I suddenly realized with a sicken heart exactly what I was seeing on our bedroom television ....
That was two and a half years ago.
So, all night ... from the commencement of the hours-long process required to fill the huge External Tank of Discovery with over half a million gallons of super cold liquid oxygen and hydrogen, to watching the count resume a little while ago, and the astronauts take their 20-minute ride in the shiny aluminimum NASA van from the astronaut crew quarters to launch pad 39-B ... it's been an all-night vigil of Hope--
Hope that THIS time -- unlike July 13th, two weeks ago, when a balky hydrogen level sensor forced a sudden scrub -- Discovery will get off the ground this morning ... and safely into orbit. And that, 13 days from now, she will return just as safely to Cape Canaveral ....
And thus, the New NASA Program -- which, in the wake of the Columbia Disaster two and a half years ago, as officially announced by the President of the United States, now plans on a human Return to the Moon in the not-too-distant future ... and contemplates an equally real (if more distant ...) mission of men and women to the planet Mars -- can finally get underway ....
As I told George Noory on "Coast to Coast AM" at about 2:30 AM Mountain Time -- when I did a five-minute Shuttle Update toward the end of his regular Monday night/Tuesday morning program -- it ALL rests on what occurs with Discovery ... THIS morning.
* * *
Since this is the official "Captain's Blog" of the Enterprise Mission, you're probably expecting to read something here on this crucial NASA Mission that will not be reported by the literally thousands of newsmen and women who have flocked to the Cape from all over the world to cover this "Return to Flight" Mission.
I shall endeavor not to disappoint.
And ... all eight fuel level sensors ... are working perfectly.
T-2 hours, 39 minutes and counting .....
I shall endeavor not to disappoint.
And ... all eight fuel level sensors ... are working perfectly.
T-2 hours, 39 minutes and counting .....
-0-
26 Comments:
Not sure if someone mentioned it before, but the problematic fueld sensor drama seemed a lot like the antennae unit problem on the Discovery in 2001 Space Odyssey,
failing, yet not reason for the failure could be discovered....
Best Wishes Discovery!
Forgive the typos above...
Sunking,
Forgiven .... :)
To Where?....Indeed
1960's technology that's restricted to near-Earth orbit...a program (& Agency) that's a part of the DOD....no manned space flights beyond near-Earth orbit since December,1972 (Apollo 17)...& counting!
Faulty O-Rings implode Challenger 20 years ago moments after enduring the high heat,speed,pressure,etc, of lift-off. Yet, a damaged Columbia is able to achieve orbit only to experience a similar fate barely 15 minutes from safety (touchdown)....despite a immediate post lift-off assessment by NASA ground technicians which concluded that no damage or danger existed....
hmmm............
Hello Richard :)
I don't mean to post as "anonymous" but can't set up a username on work computer.
I have been following you ever since I first saw your now famous UN briefing more than 10(?) years ago, and have come to see things in a dramatically different light due to your incredibly meticulous and courageous work. My question is... Do you think this whole Shuttle melodrama might be no more than a distraction NASA is using to confuse and occupy the media so they dont have to answer for the Deep Impact issues?
Thanks again for your wonderful work... you've made believers out of more than a few taxpayers here in Chicago.
- Chuck C
Here's to the men and women of the STS-114 crew who are putting it all on the line this morning.
Godspeed
Anonymous,
>Do you think this whole Shuttle melodrama might be no more than a distraction NASA is using to confuse and occupy the media so they dont have to answer for the Deep Impact issues?<
Important question.
We can only speculate, of course, but I believe that we are seeing two SEPARATE tracks of a much larger, highly complex "Plan."
The Shuttle launch, "return to flight," and persuit of the "new" NASA Vision, is one track.
The Deep Impact Mission -- and its expected results -- were another.
Then, "something unexpected" happened with Deep Impact. The originally scheduled Discovery launch, July 13th, would have been long after the normal unmanned mission pattern of a Deep Impact "wave of data and close-up images for the press" ... IF that "something unexpected " HADN'T happened. :)
But, it did.
Then, the "inexplicable" sensor failure on the 13th pushed today's Discovery launch back ANOTHER two weeks ... which has given a clear shot at any press WANTING to follow-up on the Deep Impact "Silence -- with NO "shuttle distractions."
None have ....
In a strange way, then, getting Discovery INTO space will actually HELP get more attention on Deep Impact.
As, the press will already be thinking "space." And manned space -- especially THIS mission -- is the ONLY space activity of NASA that gets more than a cursery attention from the press these days .... Other space stories will also now get "more attention," at least for the next 13 days ... IF they successfully launch Discovery this morning.
So, bottom line: no, I don't think Discovery was or is a "distraction."
The fact that Griffin is willing to waive the "four good sensor rule" to get it launched today is PROOF that NASA HAS to launch Discovery ASAP ... for its other, long term reasons ....
Stay tuned. :)
Off THIS topic but.... I just read this on cnn.com
Talking about the future of Deep Impact
"Mission principal investigator Michael A'Hearn said a possible extended project would cost about $32 million; the Deep Impact mission cost $333 million.
The July 4 collision 83 million miles from Earth gave off two flashes of bright light and carved a crater in the potato-shaped comet. A larger-than-expected debris cloud extended thousands of miles into space, and has prevented scientists from peering into the comet's interior."
I thought it was faulty imaging...? Or is it a debris cloud? Sheesh!
What about that spectrometer!?!?
Richard, can't wait to have your input... I'm staying tuned. ;)
Hola Senior H.,
Lets say NASA/JPL does release the spectral data... whats to say that it wouldnt be severely, or at least to some extent, falsified?
t minus 7 minutes and 20 seconds =P
>it ALL rests on what occurs with Discovery ... THIS morning.<
I must have spent a better part of the past week thinking the same thing! The consequences (besides the obvious and immediate ones, like the loss of 7 more brilliant and brave souls) of another disaster would be huge. Won't go into all my thoughts right now as it's now T-4 :)
I'm certainly hoping and crossing my fingers that it goes off without a hitch for every reason!
Btw, heard them say on the NASA TV stream that the Eco sensor responded OK this morning, what's the likelihood that that's actually true (rhetoric, lol)
T-2! Godspeed Discovery!
AND THEY'RE OFF! :-D
Mr. Hoagland, I've been following your work for several years now and I would just like to take a moment to say thank you so very much for everything! Keep opening those doors and we'll be SURE to keep an eye on that dodgy ol' geezer behind the curtain. I'm looking forward to hearing more 'bout DI now that everything appears to be going just fine with Discovery. I'm also looking forward to hearing other's comments about some of that fascinating footage from the camera on the rocket.
Ever Onward!
Richard said:
>The fact that Griffin is willing >to waive the "four good sensor >rule" to get it launched today is >PROOF that NASA HAS to launch >Discovery ASAP ... for its other, >long term reasons ....
What was the reason behind the call to band safety rules if
necessary in favor of a lift off?
Did it have to do with the window?
I was only paying half-attention, but watching it on T.V. I thought I heard the NASA guy say "this signals man's return to the moon, mars, and beyond..."
"Return to the moon" I understand, but how can we return to mars? Or "beyond"?
I may have misheard it though, I was having cereal for breakfast which makes a crunching sound inside your head.
steve...thats called american hallucinations...they have been everywhere already, they just are merely returning to claim back their land :P
Steve,
>I was only paying half-attention, but watching it on T.V. I thought I heard the NASA guy say "this signals man's return to the moon, mars, and beyond..."<
>"Return to the moon" I understand, but how can we return to mars? Or "beyond"?<
I'll check the tape .... :)
anonymous (Chuck C) wrote:
"I don't mean to post as "anonymous" but can't set up a username on work computer."
Chuck (and any other anonymous posters), you can just click the "Other" option, and type in a name, you don't have to "register" or anything. Took me a few posts before I realized that too. ;) Cheers.
As long as I'm on an offtopic "meta-post", perhaps I could take this opportunity to ask Richard a direct site-related question, if he's still reading this thread? ;)
Richard, I understand why the Enterprise forums require a membership fee, to prevent abusive posters from running rampant. I run a busy forum of my own, and feel your pain. ;) However, what I do not understand, is why you don't open it up publically for READING ONLY? Surely, this would help the information therein reach more people? It could also persuade more people (including myself) to pay for posting access, once they could observe first-hand what they would be paying for.
Just my two cents. Keep up the fantastic work!
Brian,
>Richard, I understand why the Enterprise forums require a membership fee, to prevent abusive posters from running rampant. I run a busy forum of my own, and feel your pain. ;) However, what I do not understand, is why you don't open it up publically for READING ONLY? Surely, this would help the information therein reach more people? It could also persuade more people (including myself) to pay for posting access, once they could observe first-hand what they would be paying for.<
Because ... I don't economically control the operation: Keith Rowland does. And, he receives ALL the revenue ... to maintain the Conference, and the server which Enterprise is hosted on.
I think your idea is great. It would likely get MORE subscribers to participate 9since it's REALLY cheap).
Propose it to him (in an e-mail to the Webmaster of "Go to Talk"). I'll do the same ... again.
?
richard c. hoagland said:
"Propose it to him (in an e-mail to the Webmaster of "Go to Talk"). I'll do the same ... again."
Aye aye cap'n, torpedo away. ;)
(I couldn't find a "webmaster" address, but I found Keith's email on the gototalk Contact Us page)
"now plans on a human Return to the Moon in the not-too-distant future ... and contemplates an equally real (if more distant ...) mission of men and women to the planet Mars -- can finally get underway"
hogwash;
how are we going to build the very expensive flight infrastructure necessary to send manned missions to the Moon, and Mars, with the Peak Oil problem looming over our heads like a guillotine blade?
Bush is a liar; he tells the public what it wants to hear, and then goes off and laughs behind closed doors, at their gullibility, and naivete.
Forget it folks, this species missed it's golden opportunity to colonize space decades ago, and we will not have a second chance.
The most likely future for all of us is the future displayed in the very thoughful film, "Zardoz".
I wish it could nave been otherwise.
When news that the nukes have been launched arrives at my rat hole, I will sit in my lounge chair and listen to Beethoveen's 9th Symphony.
I can die with a smile on my face, knowing that the human race was capable at times of producing works of artisitc genius that will live forever in eternity.
As for the Shuttles: the turkeys should have been dismantled following the first disaster, so I am ashamed as an American to see yet another flight of these orbiting junk heaps, these Rube Golberg rejects from a Loony Tunes cartoon.
Maybe the Government has found a cheap way to dispose of the Shittles, oops, I mean Shuttles; let them blow up in space.
It's not Saturday Night Live, it is the Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, Don Knotts, and above all Second City Televison rolled into one, with Bush playing Guy Cabellero.
"Beam me up, Scotty"
PLEASE!
< this species missed it's golden opportunity to colonize space decades ago, and we will not have a second chance. >
I see where you are coming from. But try to think out of the United States box.
There are other space agencies around the world, and we are on the verge of a grand new private sector of space exploration.
In terms of the United States govt and NASA... yes, perhaps our second chance is gone. But with them. There are still opportunities via other nations, and through the corporate private sector. And both these other elements have shown great interest in getting humans beyond the Earth's atmosphere.
We cannot lump all govts or all corporations in a grand generalized conspiracy. Some of them have clear space agendas completely opposite to the US one. Banking everything on the states is a waste of time. I'd be just as happy if Japan, India, or China made the man-mission back to the moon.
And perhaps focusing efforts or actions towards these other agencies, instead of banging our head's against Uncle Sam's, perhaps we'll make some headway finally.
Aye, Captain Hoagland!
I am so glad there is a similar voice in the wilderness and an outlet for expressing my frustration and pain over the pitiful amount of real progress and imagination in the US space program!
My Uncle was transferred to Long Beach, CA, as a scientist in the early sixty's to work on the shuttle, although no one then was to know what or why he was going to do out there. We only found out later. That's almost fifty years ago-half a century!
What has happened to our courage and smarts? Has the dumbing down of America hit NASA?
There seems to be no ability, willingness, or capability to move past the lumbering, old shuttle system to something new that would represent real progress, hope, and excitement that NASA use to represent to our country. Why, or what is the cause?
Who would have ever thought in 2005, we would still be using this archaic launch system?
Captain Hoagland, is there no better technology/engineering out there to take us into deep space safely and quickly, or is this pitiful program simply another example of how a bureaucracy can get bogged down in "little, stinky thinking" and will do almost anything, including risking its people's lives to keep its budgets funded?
Blessings to the NASA crew and we pray for a safe return for all!
OUMike,
>I am so glad there is a similar voice in the wilderness and an outlet for expressing my frustration and pain over the pitiful amount of real progress and imagination in the US space program!
My Uncle was transferred to Long Beach, CA, as a scientist in the early sixty's to work on the shuttle, although no one then was to know what or why he was going to do out there. We only found out later. That's almost fifty years ago-half a century!
What has happened to our courage and smarts? Has the dumbing down of America hit NASA?
There seems to be no ability, willingness, or capability to move past the lumbering, old shuttle system to something new that would represent real progress, hope, and excitement that NASA use to represent to our country. Why, or what is the cause?
Who would have ever thought in 2005, we would still be using this archaic launch system?
Captain Hoagland, is there no better technology/engineering out there to take us into deep space safely and quickly, or is this pitiful program simply another example of how a bureaucracy can get bogged down in "little, stinky thinking" and will do almost anything, including risking its people's lives to keep its budgets funded?
Blessings to the NASA crew and we pray for a safe return for all!<
There ARE real alternatives to the current Shuttle program for getting men and women into Space. This Nation simply has to make the decision that it's WORTH it ....
I will be doing an entire "Coast" on this topic, Sunday night/Monday morning, August 7th. We will be reviewing some REAL, very critical new technologies -- as alternatives to "rockets" -- which would bring the civilian space program up to the par with the "invisible, BLACK, military programs ..."
Stay tuned.
Oh, and I will be covering these same subjects in depth in a future "Captain's Blog."
i question the word 'structure' being used to describe the terrain on the comet-it inplies that a 'construction' took place- or maybe Lisse's words are not correctm in describing the srface details ? ?
dHas Mars Express release any data regarding Cydonia yet?
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