NASA Takes Risk With Shuttle Launch ("We are playing the odds.")

[DeepModem Mom]

WP/AP: NASA Takes Risk With Shuttle Launch
By MIKE SCHNEIDER
The Associated Press
Friday, June 30, 2006


In this photo released by NASA, STS-121 Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak, left, and British born, U.S. astronaut Piers Sellers inspect cables in the mid-body of space shuttle Discovery on Launch Pad 39-B Thursday June 29, 2006, at Cape Canaveral, Fla. The seven member crew is making final preparations for the launch on Saturday July 1 to the International Space Station. During the 12-day mission, the crew will test new equipment and procedures to improve shuttle safety, as well as deliver supplies and make repairs to the station. (AP Photo/NASA, Kim Shiflett)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA chief Michael Griffin is taking a calculated gamble by going ahead with the launch of Discovery, overruling two top managers who fear foam flying off the fuel tank might harm the space shuttle.

The world will soon know if his gamble pays off.

Discovery was set to blast off from Kennedy Space Center at 3:49 p.m. EDT Saturday, the first launch of a space shuttle in almost a year and only the second since the Columbia disaster in 2003....

***

Faced with a 2010 deadline to finish building the international space station and end the shuttle program, Griffin wants to get the shuttles flying again and believes a delay now would create schedule pressure toward the end of the decade....

***

"We are playing the odds," Griffin said Friday. "What you pay us for as taxpayers is to understand those odds in great detail ... It's called risk management."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/30/AR2006063000123.html

[truthisfreedom]

1. sounds somewhat truthful.

i hope it goes well.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. Aha.

Playing the odds on a mission to study shuttle safety.

Fucking pricks.

[superconnected]

3. That doesn't breed confidence in NASA.

I would opt out if I was on that crew, because they said that.

[w4rma]

6. What they are saying is true. It's what their management is *doing* that

should cause you to opt-out imho.

[ikri]

4. The last time they "played the odds"

Was January 28 1986 when ignoring engineering advice they launched Challenger.

That went well didn't it?

[w4rma]

8. Actually it was only 3 years ago when they did this exact same thing

From the above article:

The board that investigated the Columbia accident faulted NASA three years ago for placing schedule concerns ahead of safety, squelching dissent and steamrolling over the concerns of engineers who had worried that foam from the huge external fuel tank had hit the shuttle during launch.

When Columbia was reentering Earth's atmosphere, fiery gases penetrated the wing where the foam had knocked a hole, causing the shuttle to disintegrate. All seven astronauts were killed.

[Poll_Blind]

5. I have the saddest, and I do mean truly sad, reaction to what...

...appears to be ass-covering at NASA (from Griffin) about this.

NASA chief Michael Griffin is taking a calculated gamble by going ahead with the launch of Discovery, overruling two top managers who fear foam flying off the fuel tank might harm the space shuttle.

  So I thought I'd look at his bio-page at NASA. I'm still not convinced his decision to over-rule the two "top managers", especially after only being on the job 14 months, is based on anything other than the same sort of sloppy approach to have a great PR splash that cost the Challenger crew their lives and countless American children (and adults of course) trauma.

  NASA funding is being gutted so bad you'd think they were related to Veterans Affairs, and the pressure to create good publicity about our space agency is taking its toll on the quality of decisions being made.

  I'm shooting from the hip on this one much more than I would with other posts, which I try to research as thoroughly as possible, but that's the impression I get.

PB

[mbperrin]

7. And then after blowing everything up, it will be time for "wiser heads"

to take NASA away from civilian control and hand it over to Donnie the Rumfilled and his fun-lovin' Armageddon Wackos at the Pointagon!

Bastards have always hated that LBJ insisted the military NOT control space when he was still in the Senate.

[tbyg52]

13. I think you've hit the nail on the head...

Starve it, then claim it's so messed up that whoever they want to take over must take over.

[biscotti]

9. A whistleblower came forward last week

More NASA Officials Say Shuttle Not Safe
Agency Rejects Request For Safety Documents

POSTED: 7:01 am EDT June 30, 2006
UPDATED: 1:12 pm EDT June 30, 2006

Key NASA officials who oversee the agency said they don't believe the shuttle is safe for launch, according to a Local 6 News report.


E-mails sent to NASA's administrator from the agency's inspector general's office obtained by the Orlando Sentinel said they didn't believe shuttle Discovery should launch without more work to prevent foam insulation from breaking off the external fuel tank.

NASA already had a "no go" for flight from the agency's top safety official and chief engineer. However, NASA managers went ahead and gave the "go for launch" for Saturday.

http://www.local6.com/news/9451529/detail.html

[cobalt1999]

10. ...when isn't sitting on top of a rocket, "playing the odds"?

Maybe it was growing up in the sixties, but it is DANGEROUS no matter what. They played the odds for each and every moon landing too. Some in NASA only gave Neil and Buzz a 50/50 chance of survival.

If you are going to launch people into space, do what you can and then cross your fingers.

[DeepModem Mom]

11. I believe, however, in an article I posted previously...

the point was made that this was the first launch with a no-go from the safety guy and the chief engineer. You're right, of course, that this is very dangerous business, always.

[Gloria]

12. Jeezus.....it's literally like a watching a wreck happen everyday

with this administration.....I anticipate hearing "Heckuva job, Michael" as they fish shuttle pieces out of the Texas grasslands....

"risk management"....that's their favorite CEO talk...