Not much significant here, though America's space exploration programs have been having a very tough go of it lately...

Shuttle launch on indefinite hold; Y2K deadline looms (CNN)

Source: http://cnn.com/1999/TECH/space/12/08/shuttle.delay/

[for fair use, educational purposes only]

HOUSTON (CNN) - Following the discovery of a crushed hydrogen cooling line, space shuttle mission managers met Wednesday and put the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery on "indefinite hold." The launch team will spend 24 hours analyzing the problem and then make a final decision on when to launch Thursday.

NASA believes the crushed 4-inch line -- which recirculates hydrogen around the aft section of the shuttle to keep parts cool while the engines are firing -- could take at least five days to repair. But since this is an unprecedented problem, no one is certain how long that repair might take. NASA now says it needs to launch Discovery before December 17 in order to safely complete the 10-day mission and have the shuttle on the ground before any potential Y2K computer glitch could occur. The current launch date is shortly before midnight on Saturday, December 12.

The shuttle is slated to rendezvous with the Hubble Space Telescope -- conducting 4 spacewalks to repair and upgrade the nine-year-old orbiting observatory. Foremost among their tasks: replacement of the six gyroscopes that allow the Hubble to precisely focus on distant objects. The Hubble needs a minimum of three operative gyros. Four have failed - rendering the Hubble scientifically useless.

Should delays push the mission too close to the deadline, shuttle managers have been considering a shortened mission -- perhaps eliminating the fourth and final spacewalk and an on-orbit off duty day in order to fly the mission before the end of the year.

When the repair mission was announced in March, NASA aimed for an October launch date. But a short-circuit on sister ship Columbia seconds after liftoff prompted a fleet-wide wiring inspection and repair campaign. More than 50 nicks and exposed pieces of wiring were found and repaired in Discovery.

Other delays were prompted when engineers realized a small piece of a drill-bit had dropped into a cooling tube on one engine (it was replaced), two hurricanes, and now the crushed cooling line.

The seven-man crew led by Commander Curt Brown is already at the Cape and in quarantine. Family members were scheduled to join them tomorrow. Instead, it is likely the crew will be returning to Houston.

As one NASA source told CNN, chances of this mission flying this year are "50-50." A likely alternative launch date would be the second week of January. That would prompt a delay for Endeavour -- currently slated to launch on January 13 to conduct a radar-mapping mission.

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), December 08, 1999

Answers

I certainly don't want to trivialize NASA's projects, or the complexity of its systems -- but if all those smart people are having problems getting a mission launched on time, without bugs, why should we be so confident that the whole darn WORLD is going to be able to get its Y2K projects done to a sufficient degree that we'll have nothing worse than a BITR?

That, by the way, was a rhetorical question.... There's no need for the usual howling mob of flame-throwers to use this analogy as an excuse to begin flinging mud at each other once again...

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), December 08, 1999.

NASA should be relabled NLA, the National Liars Association.

-- timemachine (con@tin.uum), December 08, 1999.

Use it or lose it

-- clock (ticking@no.stopping), December 08, 1999.

What in the foggy blue morning were they doing that could crush a 4-inch line? How could they have not noticed it at the time? How long did it take to "discover" it? Was whatever crushed it damaged in any way, or are most shuttle components built strong enough that crushing a 4-inch pipe is well within their capabilities?

-- bw (home@puget.sound), December 08, 1999.

NASA = stupid

Give Bill Gates a shot at the space program....maybe something will get done. (with less bugs) LOL

-- C. Hill (pinionsmachine@hotmail.com), December 08, 1999.

This also reminds me of Koskinen and Rueben having trouble finding flights for New years. LOL

-- C. Hill (pinionsmachine@hotmail.com), December 08, 1999.

Well, at least KOS would enjoy it Ed.

BTW re NASA. There is something VERY weird about Mars. Either the engineers at JPL have gotten stupider in the last 20 years (a distinct possibility), or we don't know something about that planet yet that we should know.

-- nothere nothere (notherethere@hotmail.com), December 08, 1999.

"Okay, which of the astronauts recently bought a set of four-inch vise grips and then went to visit the shuttle hangar?"

Maybe there was a reason the crushed pipe wasn't discovered until this late in the process; it wasn't there before. It could be that a GI someone feels that such a move is needed to keep the astronauts safely on the ground. I wonder what they know that we don't.

Perhaps there may never be another manned space flight in my lifetime.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), December 08, 1999.