Return to Flight -- NOT Yet ... Maybe ... NEVER!?

So, the Shuttle Fleet is grounded because of foam coming off the Tank ... again.

Is this truly a surprise?

What is surprising is that the Space Agency told us ... while Discovery is still in orbit!

In striking contrast to the actions of the JPL management and scientific team controlling the increasingly mysterious Deep Impact Mission these past few weeks, NASA Shuttle managers overseeing the on-going STS-114 Discovery Mission have displayed a remarkable candor concerning both the potential problems with Discovery ... and the immense impact of these problems on the larger Shuttle Program.

Like -- telling us IMMEDIATELY they were "grounding" the entire Shuttle Fleet (!) -- as soon as the television images and digital stills were downlinked from the Mission, even before they were analyzed competely ....

John Shannon -- Space Shuttle Operations Manager -- foreshadowed this truly remarkable development when he stated at the first technical press briefing, the afternoon of Discovery's spectacularly successful launch:

"... I didn't come in with a lot of answers today. I came in trying to send a message that this is a test flight. And, we're very early in a six-day process. We're gonna share that with you as we go through it.
"We're not gonna keep data behind closed doors and try to understand it fully before we bring it out, we're gonna have you walk the trail with us. And we're gonna bring the information in as we know it, and let you share in it [emphasis added]...."

The Deep Impact Team should take a MAJOR hint ....

* * *

This "new" NASA does however raise some fascinating questions for an "old" NASA watcher like me:

Like ... why the sudden, almost embarrassing "openess?" Why the committment, so early in the Mission, to literally "let it ALL hang out?"

And ... why begin such a"new policy" ... before the current crew was back safely on the ground ... when such a policy could literally cost lives (see below) -- if not the entire Shuttle Program?!

I'm referring, of course, to NASA's (inexplicable, to me) amazing rush "to tell the whole world" -- and thus, all the literally thousands of NASA personnel working for the crew around the clock, trying to keep them safe in orbit, and to get them home alive ... and while the astronauts are still in flight! -- that NASA was suddenly, indefinitely--

Why did NASA make its shocking announcement (certainly, to many of its NASA personnel, if not the Discovery crew itself) ... at (to me) precisely the wrong time--

Morale is critical in any successful organization, certainly in a large-scale, complex operation such as a "manned" space mission. Literally thousands of people are involved in the Discovery Mission, from the managers at the top ... to the lowliest guy who sweeps the floor in the VAB, who's now specifically tasked with the critical job of looking for debris which could damage even one of those extremely fragile tiles ....

Why deliberately put all those people in a psychological tailspin -- by "blurting out," within literally hours after lifetoff -- at the very Beginnings of this long-anticipated Mission -- in effect, that "countless NASA personnel and NASA contractors' efforts had been wasted over these preceeding two and half years ...? Why tell them so precipitously, that the entire Shuttle Program has once again been grounded--

In other words, why deliberately kill the essential morale of all those countless folks, at the NASA Centers and contractors offices all across the Nation and around the world ... whose single-minded attention HAD "just moments before" been solely focused on getting this crew home safe and sound ...!?

For, after all the anticipation of the stakes involved in this critical "Return to Flight" Mission, with the stunning NASA announcement, instead of concentrating on their jobs -- analyzing "the condition of the tiles," or "the aerodynamics of the TV footage of the foam release--

--"Did it strike the Shuttle's wing ... or didn't it? Is the protrusion of those 'gap fillers' seen in the approach Station imagery REALLY going to cause a problem on Return ...?"--

--how many of those previously, deeply involved NASA technical and management personnel were suddenly, severely, inevitably distracted by the major personal question planted in their minds:

"I wonder if I'll even have a job tomorrow morning ... on this dying Program ...!?"

Space Agency Deputy Shuttle Program Manager, Wayne Hale (above) could -- in complete consistency with Shannon's early promise -- still have shared all the data it acquired from the Mission: the close-up tile images, the radar, the surface scans of all the tiles by laser, the low-light-level television close-ups of the wings, the underbelly of the Shuttle, etc., etc. This would have kept all the media deliriously happy, while simultaneously keeping NASA's word ... but NOT giving away NASA's right to make a reasoned, thoughtful policy decision on behalf of both the safety of the crew still flying ... if not the political future of the entire Shuttle Program ... when the crew was safely back on terra firma.

Then -- and only then -- in my opinion, should such a major, far-reaching Shuttle Program decision have been publicly, officially announced ... when that announcement, by its timing, could not further endanger an already over-stressed crew ... and their critical human support system throughout NASA!

And, such a "reasoned process" would have allowed the literally tens of thousands of dedicated NASA employees -- the much discussed "NASA family," all over the world, who had given their "all" over the last two and a half years to make this flight finally happen -- a well-deserved chance to celebrate, even for just a little while, all the things which have gone right with this new Mission.

For the truth is that, for an "aging" spaceship over twenty years old and comprised of over 2.5 million separate parts, Discovery is doing a superb job of actually flying ....

This, of course, will seem to some like a serious departure from my previous, often stated, decades-old position concerning "NASA's openess."

Watching the traditional "Sunday morning" televised interviews between Fox News, NBC, ABC and three members of the Discovery crew yesterday morning -- including, questions concerning their own emotions when they received the news that the Shuttle Program has been grounded while they're still in orbit -- it was obvious that the announced decision was causing more than a bit of stress among the crew, contrary to their own carefully worded statements in response to this very "loaded" question.

When each member was directly asked if the "grounding announcement" had "surprised or disappointed them," they all responded that they were "pleased that the Agency had taken such forthright action ... even while the Mission was on-going."

During these Discovery media interviews, one of the first things I noted was the abnormal "blink rate" of this crew.

Compared to interviews conducted on the ground, recorded previously, that NASA TV has been running literally for months late at night before this flight (and which I've had occasion to watch more than once ...), all the crew's rate of eyelid blinking has dramatically increased during this specific Mission.

If anyone (besides myself) taped these interviews, simply look at ALL the indicators outlined in the FBI paper -- especially, the curious and truly fascinating increased blink rates -- and let me know your thoughts.

While certainly not definitive in and of itself, combined with the rest of the indicators of "less than total candor" discussed in the FBI paper, when applied to the STS-114 crew's media responses, these observations are most intriguing ... if not unsettling.

Because, why should this specific crew "feel troubled or frustrated" (as the FBI article describes, as one reason for such increased blinking ...) -- if, as NASA has been emphasizing since the high-profile "Shuttle Program grounding" several days ago, "though the foam loss means that problem MUST be fixed before another Shuttle flies ... this Shuttle and this crew 'dodged the bullet' ... and are in great shape to come home."

And, what if Eileen Collins and her crew -- despite NASA's reassuring public assertions to the contrary -- already know this?

The other possibility, of course, is that this covert "eyelid indicator" of increased stress among the crew is, despite their own assertions to Tim Russert on "Meet the Press" yesterday morning, directly the result of the amazing NASA decision to announce the grounding of all Shuttles -- including their own "rescue vehicle," Atlantis (even now being quietly prepped for a low-probability mission to go up and get this crew) -- before they had returned!

As I was pondering this (to me) MAJOR mystery about this Mission, I got a very enlightening (if somewhat disconcerting ...) phone call last evening from one of my long-time "NASA sources."

He reminded me that, about two years ago -- after the Columbia tragedy, and as the realization shockingly dawned within NASA that the Shuttle's days were numbered -- we had a key discussion regarding some in NASA's "hidden agenda," regarding both the aging Shuttle Program ... and that other unspoken "NASA albatross" -- the International Space Station (ISS).

We'd discussed his discovering "a covert plan inside NASA," to "somehow" ground the Shuttles -- permanently -- long before the President's eventually-announced retirement date "of 2010!"

This would immediately free up (according to these planners) a LOT of (currently limited) NASA money to vigorously pursue the President's new Space Vision -- "back to the Moon ... on to Mars ... and Beyond" -- by providing funds desperately necessary NOW to develop the critically-needed successor to the Shuttles: the "Crew Exploration Vehicle" (or, CEV) ... years earlier than is now possible financially!

Such a critically-needed development program would represent the first new commissioned US "manned" spaceship (when actually flown ...) in more than thirty years! Without it, the President's "New Vision" will be permanently stuck in low Earth orbit ....

Moreover, if the Shuttles were to be pronounced "permanently unfit to fly again" -- far earlier than the President's current deadline of 2010 -- this could also free NASA from another "financial blackhole" (according to my source): the continuing need to keep pouring money into the "exploration dead end" (as the Administration really views it ...) of the International Space Station itself!

If the Shuttles were declared "unfit for further service" -- because their "foam and tile problems" were deemed SO severe that they literally COULD NOT BE FIXED "within any reasonable timeframe or expenditure of funds ..." -- the current US committment to its "international partners" in the Space Station Program, and its dependence on the Russian Soyuz vehicles to carry US astronauts to and from the Station, could be legally terminated!

With the Shuttles again grounded with much fanfare in the last few days "because of the foam and newly-revealed tile problems," and the Treaty exemption for the current US use of Soyuz vehicles literally running out ... all it would take for the United States to be able to "gracefully" back out of the entire International Space Station Program (again, according to my source), would be if the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty exemption could not be renewed (it's at the President's discretion ...), and for the entire Shuttle Program to be permanently suspended--

Does this explain the otherwise completely inexplicable ... a Space Agency so eager to declare the entire Shuttle Fleet "inoperable," that it couldn't even wait for Discovery to successfully come home?! Does it explain the sudden rash of "NASA openness" ... which, in this scenario, has actually been laying the groundwork for another "sudden public revelation": that even Discovery is unsafe to fly home ... without a "fix" in orbit ... in her current, increasingly ambiguous condition ..!?

And does this now explain the increasingly intense pressure on Eileen Collin's and her crew, "leaking out" in their subliminal communication: their unconscious increased blinking ... revealing their intense "feeling troubled or frustrated ..." -- because of their direct knowledge of their REAL Mission ... which, in this scenario, is only to provide sufficient excuse to NASA--

And, given the Machiavellian nature of this obvious conspiracy (there, I've said it!) -- just how far would this "small cabal" in NASA go ... to accomplish their ultimate objectives?

On the nationally broadcast "Coast to Coast AM," with Art Bell, last night Major Ed Dames -- former military intelligence officer attached to the Defense Intelligence Agency -- "predicted" (via "remote viewing") Discovery's chances of returning safely to Earth as "only about 15%!"

Putting aside why a "professional remote viewer" wouldn't KNOW if the Shuttle will return safely (does he not "see it?"), Major Dames obvious former/current intelligence connections provide a far more credible source for such disturbing information, which only supports our own, totally independent source -- regarding a possible "hidden agenda" within NASA, being carried out by a tiny minority of personnel -- to potentially attempt in some way to "compromise" this Mission.

Of course, the "remote viewing angle" provides total "plausible deniability" for Major Dames -- in terms of his true sources -- should the unthinkable actually happen ....

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

STS-114 Mission Commander, Eileen Collins, had a curious request fulfilled this "morning" (it was actually last evening, 11:39 PM, July 26th, Houston time ...) -- when Mission Control "uplinked" its first selection of traditional wake-up music for the Discovery crew ... to begin their second day "on orbit":

Before launch, Collins had requested for their first day's wake-up, a selection of specific music -- from the Bill Murry hit comedy of a few years ago, "Groundhog Day."

The "inside joke" was supposed to be that -- by finally launching successfully from Cape Canaveral yesterday morning -- Collins and her whole Discovery crew had "escaped from the NASA-Groundhog Day-type timeloop" that had kept them all "in quarantine since the scrub of their original launch, two weeks ago, on July 13th."

As I watched this "explanation" live over NASA Television from the high desert here in New Mexico, I couldn't help thinking that Eileen Collins was really trying to say something MUCH more profound ... about the entire U.S. Space Program ....

For--

What struck me even earlier yesterday morning, watching the "picture perfect" launch of the first Space Shuttle to climb into orbit in over two and a half years, was that we're ALL stuck in "a NASA-created, Groundhog Day" type timeloop!

These strange feelings began as I watched throughout the night (over the NASA satellite link, from more than 2000 miles away ...) what I'd once witnessed "up close and personal" while covering these launches for good ol' CBS: the seemingly hectic and disorganized preparations "at the Cape" for yet another NASA mission; the blur of sights and sounds of engineers, scientists, and other NASA management and personnel -- to say nothing of the press -- gathering once more from all over the world to launch another crew of Americans from the Nation's only "Spaceport."

Many of us who had covered NASA during those events, and across all-too-many-years, had likened this "pre-launch, all-night ritual" to a kind of recurring "interplanetary Woodstock."

On satellite television late last night, it sure looked and felt like I remembered ....

Multiple television network "cabanas," built on the small hill overlooking the formerly dirt and gravel parking lot (where we used to park our fleet of rental cars ...), now filled with countless "remote trucks" -- television units from all over the United States (if not a good part of the Planet ...), each topped with the inevitable "uplink" ....

Then ... across this amazing "sea of dishes" loomed the might "VAB" -- that huge Vertical Assembly Building (still the largest structure in the world!) -- where, more than two generations ago, NASA had assembled Von Braun's amazing Saturn 5's ... then and now, the worlds most powerful vehicle ever built ... the rocket which, almost 40 years ago, had launched from here a dozen elite astronauts on their amazing roundtrip journeys to the surface of the Moon.

Farther out ... across three and a half miles of pitch-black "palm trees, grass and alligators"... lay the launch pads of the Saturn 5's themselves. In my mind -- seeing Pad 39-B in the distance, over-exposed like that, pinioned in the blinding lights of dozens of those million-candle-power klieg lights against the humid Florida night -- it was a Saturn 5 out there ... and not a NASA Shuttle ... about to send another crew of Apollo heros to the Moon ....

It all came back as I watched those NASA TV cameras pan the scene ... the same bustle of immense energeies about to be released ... the same excitment before a coming launch ... the same launch vehicle bathed in those familiar starward stabbling flood lights ... the same VAB.

Only one thing was ultimately different, as I came slowly back to where we really were: all this activity was focused on the Shuttle -- which, unlike the behemouths I'd personally witnessed repeatedly leaving for another planet, decades earlier, would -- even if successfully launched on time, this time ... once again, only endlessly circle in Earth orbit ....

Where had we gone so wrong? Why, in the 21st century -- after almost 50 years of doing this (!) -- was the feeling of this place ... this technology ... the press covering the story ... even the Agency itself ... so much the same?!

I flashed on my first Shuttle launch from this same place I'd seen firsthand: the first flight of Columbia ... STS-1 ... in 1981.

That was also the first time I was inteviewed (and ultimately wound up working for) CNN ... years after my Apollo stint at CBS.

Only later, did some smart guy realize that -- if they didn't paint the tank -- they could literally save several thousand pounds of excess weight ... and take that weight as extra payload into orbit ... in the Shuttle ... instead of on the Tank!

This was also the flight where we first learned to dread "the Tiles" -- or, in NASA-speak, the Shuttle's critical "Thermal Protection System" (TPS).

After that first launch of STS-1 -- Columbia -- on April 12, 1981, the crew soon spotted (and sent down via on-board television, images of) several missing tiles ... on the rear "OAMS pods" of the Columbia Orbiter itself (below the vertical tail ...).

This immediately raised the spectre of additional "missing tiles" on the underside (the belly) of Columbia ... where there was no means (back then ...) of checking the extent of any losses of these essential Shuttle elements -- the only means of shielding the returning spacecraft from the searing heat of reentering the atmosphere from orbit.

This revelation, in turn, launched a veritable "feeding frenzy" in the press, regarding "the dire consequences of even one crucially-placed 'missing tile' on the fate of the returning Shuttle ... and her crew."

It was only after Columbia had returned safely from her mission, and did not burn up, that we learned that key spy satellites ("intelligence assets," as NASA termed them) had been pressed into quiet, covert service on Columbia's behalf -- to photograph the critical underside of NASA's first Space Shuttle while in orbit ... to verify that all the tiles were there ....

They were.

Now, jump ahead a quarter of a century ... to July 26, 2005. And, what is the topic of the day ...?

Why ... missing Shuttle tiles!

The fact that a new television camera on the Tank, looking at the underside of Discovery as she "rumbled toward Earth orbit" (in the words of AP's story ...) apparently has shown "a piece of heat shield tile breaking off from the underside of the shuttle ... [leaving] a one-and-a-half inch white spot near the nose landing gear doors ..." (below), once again has sent the assembled press into a flurry of stories, painting "dark possibilities" for the "Return to Flight Mission," if not the ultimate safety of the astronauts themselves.

How is this still possible ... a full quarter of a century after the first Space Shuttle Mission of Columbia ... and its continuing problem -- ultimately fatal -- with "the tiles?"

Because, as Eileen Collins was sublty reminding us last night, for that last quarter of a century -- if not for the full half century since NASA was created -- we have made essentially NO FUNDAMENTAL SCIENTIFIC OR TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS in getting off this planet into Space!!

We're still using the same obsolete rocket technology -- if not the same obsolete vehicles themselves (!) -- as we were using a quarter of a century ago ... to go ... nowhere.

We're stuck in "Groundhog day" ....

And are thereby doomed to relive the same fears and technological impediments which have kept us in Earth orbit since the brief glory of Apollo.

This, of course, is what the President's "new Vision" -- ennunicated just short of a year after the catastrophic demise of Columbia and all her crew ... ironically, to the same bitter fate we all worrried about over twenty years before (!) -- is now supposed to change. But, not if the Space Agency continues to pursue -- as NASA, even after the President's announcement, seemed intent on doing -- the same archaic tools ....

The same obsolete (rocket) technology of "throwing stuff away ... to go nowhere ...."

The one bright glimmer, in an otherwise desolate landscape regarding this stunning lack of any real progress for so long ... was the curious statement made by Mike Griffin yesterday morning, immediately after Discovery's return to space. Griffin is, of course, the new NASA Administrator -- charged by the White House now with carrying out the President's New Vision -- "back to the Moon ... then on to Mars ... and Beyond ...."

After Discovery had successfully achieved Earth orbit, Griffin -- at the obligatory "congratulatory press conference" about an hour after launch -- cautioned the packed auditorium of assembled media and press not to take Discovery's apparently "easy return to flight" for granted.

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

I've witnessed first-hand a LOT of launches from the Cape, over many, many years -- including, more than a few of the incomparable Saturn Five. I can truthfully say that I have not been as nervous before a launch ... for over 30 years.

This (below) is probably my vote for "Picture of the Day": Discovery lifting away from the External Tank, as relayed by a miniature color TV camera mounted on the Tank.

It says it all: Return to Flight ....

So, Discovery's away ....

God Speed her brave crew ... and safe return ... in 13 days.

Stay tuned.

"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 .....

-0-

Friday, July 22, 2005

They're back ....

After a week of NO new updates -- suddenly ... the official JPL Deep Impact website has sprung to life again, with ... NEWS!

Wait ... ah, actually it's not "new" .... It's merely a distant "Hi-Res" frame from the same Fly-by spacecraft "movie" of the (now) old July 3rd Impact, released a few hours after the Impactor struck the Comet ....

Ah, but look, they've rotated it 90-degrees ... so it looks new (well, to someone not following the Mission very well ... like maybe the entire press corp!) ....

The "illusion" of new data being presented to the tax-paying public ... you know, the folks who spent $333 million dollars for "another view" of this same image .... (and, notice how the "new" image is actually blurrier than the old view. I guess that's to keep it consistent with the "new" story suddenly coming out of the Deep Impact folks, that "the camera blur is really hopeless now and can't be fixed ... so don't actually expect any new images at all!"

But, see ... they've added another fascinating, multi-layered caption -- "First Contact" (now, there's a preganat title ...) -- which (finally) goes on to explain that "peculiar geometry" of the bright "flash" seen in the original image. It's, they say, "a result of light given off at impact saturating some of the pixels in the camera's imager ...."

Of course, with "4500" really new images "somewhere in the bowls of JPL" which, except for a few priests (oh, sorry ...) "scientists," no one outside the project have even seen as yet ... why they're "scraping the bottom of the barrel" and publishing the same darn frame ... again ( remember, just rotated) is getting very puzzling ....

Certainly, to the millions of folks who still believe that NASA would NEVER ... actually ... lie to them .....

So, I'm sure there must be some suitable, scientific explanation for this "apparent recycling" of the same image ... again ... from "someone" officially knowlegable on the Project ....

He looks like he'd know "something" about "how difficult it is to go through '4500 blurry digital images' and find even one new one... suitable for publishing" .... His explanation can't be any weirder than what we've been getting from the actual "scientists," now can it?!

The successful "mid-course correction" of the Fly-by spacecraft, carried out (as we reported a couple days ago) on July 20th.

As the official press release notes, this will bring the surviving half of the Deep Impact spacecraft back past the Earth on December 31, 2007 ... prior to a formal decision on the part of NASA Headquarters at that time regarding where to send it next ....

In fact, what it really says is that "they're putting the entire spacecraft on E-bay!" Just so YOU can participate in a real space mission ....

Still laboriously going through those ~4500 (now bad ...) images from this Mission (not to mention all those extremely boring spectra ...) -- and they're still thinking far ahead ... all the way to 2007 .... so they can offer the opportunity to someone else to also take more close-up "blurry images" ... of some other unknown place ... that, of course, they then won't be able to reveal to anyone outside the Project ... because, they'll also be "too hopelessly blurred" for public viewing ....

How do they come up with this stuff??! I mean, where else these days can a tax-payer get so little ... for so much?!

Cuz, I'm going to be on "Coast" tonight ... explaining this whole thing (if I can ...) to maybe ten million other, equally puzzled tax-payers -- who just might consider this the Final Straw ....

Hey, you don't suppose that's the reason JPL finally put up something "new" on their website after a whole week, do you ...? That they heard I'm doing "Coast" tonight?

Having had a few hours now (from early this morning, at about 3:00 AM!) to do some serious thinking about NASA 's fascinating "offer" -- to essentially put the entire Deep Impact Fly-by spacecraft "up for open bid" -- here are some of my immediate reactions.

NASA's Director of Solar System Division, Science Mission Directorate, Andy Dantzler, made the "offer" in the latest NASA press release on the Deep Impact Mission. Specifically, NASA states:

I mean, whoever is going to officially "propose" to take over new management and science operations of this spacecraft is entitled to a "full disclosure" of exactly what its capabilities still are, right? But, unfortunately, that's precisely what NASA doesn't seem to want to tell anyone about this Mission at this point!

Just hours before the successful targeting of the Impactor, the night of July 3rd, JPL Project Manager, Rick Grammier, gave an interview to The Washington Post. In it he admitted that they had months earlier detected "a problem with image sharpness in the hi-res camera system" aboard the Deep Impact Fly-by spacecraft in space, but that the Mission engineers "had devised a mathematical technique to correct the problem."

In fact, Grammier reported, "we get somewhat better quality [now] than before [launch] ...."

The "nasty surprise," of course, came about two weeks after this assessment and Deep Impact's "big finish," when the on-line science journal, New Scientist, after talking with Deep Impact Principal Investigator, Michael A'Hearn, reported that--

But, in an even more inexplicable twist, just ten days after seeing all "4500 close-up images" taken with this specific camera of Comet Tempel 1 -- but four days before the dismal New Scientist report, another member of the Deep Impact Science Team, Dr. Donald Yoemans, boasted that the Deep Impact cameras--

In any other context, this would be viewed as "MAJOR contradictions among principal witnesses to critical information"; similar crucial contradictions among key White House personnel seem to now be forming the basis for a developing Federal indictment for perjury in the much-discussed "Carl Rove/Valeri Plame Affair," being avidly covered in all the mainstream media this week ....

But, equally blatant contradictions surrounding a $333 million-dollar NASA Mission -- and whether its data is now "wortheless" or "... impressive" -- not to mention, who's to blame if somebody really screwed up ...?!

Of course, without revealing the actual raw Hi-Res camera data -- both on the previous aberration problems, as well as the "fix" that Project engineers devised -- any scientific team proposing to take over Deep Impact mission management at this point would be effectively "buying a pig in a poke." And to do so, without seeing the actual raw imaging data after Impact, would be just ludicrous.

Of course, no one in their right mind would submit an official proposal to NASA under those circumstances ... and NASA ought to know that -- shouldn't it?

We haven't seen a frame from the critical spectrometer data ... post-Impact!

How would any serious scientist, or scientific team, be able to propose a realistic budget for "mission operations," "science acquisition," "fly-by parameters," or any of a hundred other essential aspects for any new cometary (or planetary) observations ... without knowing how both these critical science systems -- the cameras and the spectrometer -- actually performed at the moment of critical Impact ... now almost three weeks ago?!

As Robin's asked more than once: "IS this a skit from 'Saturday Night Live!!'"

I will be highlighting this critically-needed campaign on tonight's "Coast to Coast AM."

Thursday, July 21, 2005

James "Scotty" Doohan -- Chief Engineer of the fabled "Starship Enterprise," the legendary vehicle that became the real enduring "star" of that 20th/21st Century cultural Phenomenon called "Star Trek"-- died yesterday morning at his home in Redmond, Wash., just outside Seattle, at 5:30 AM, PDT, July 20, 2005. He was 85. The cause of death was cited as pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease.

It is curiously fitting that "Scotty" would "beam up" for the last time yesterday ... July 20th ... the 36th Anniversary of Apollo 11.

For, almost a year ago -- at a "Special Salute to James Doohan," to raise funds for the Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research at Rockefeller University, in New York City -- Neil Armstrong, the First Man to Walk on the Moon on that amazing night in 1969, spoke in warm tribute of "Jimmy" ... and the pivitol role he played on Star Trek.

"I commanded three different types of spacecraft, flying as fast as 25,000 miles an hour. None of them had warp drive," said Armstrong, who, like Scotty, is an engineer. "The Enterprise was 100,000 times faster than anything I ever flew. Our craft did not have the ability to leave the solar system. It did not have a transporter to descend onto a planet. It would have been far more effective and less traumatic if we could have 'beamed down' (to the Moon, rather than use the Lunar Excursion Module).

"When I get that command (of a starship) -- I want a chief engineering officer like Montgomery Scott."

Perhaps more than any other character in the immortal 1960's television series, Doohan inspired several generations of young students to go into careers which could actually one day make the "Star Trek Universe" come true; indeed, after decades of appearing as "Scotty" on both the original TV show and in the hit spin-off films, Doonhan was specifically honored for this important influence on real science and engineering with an honarary doctorate in engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering. The School readily admitted that its actions were motivated by the fact that "half our engineering students cite 'Star Trek' -- and the influential role of Doohan's indomitable character -- as their prime reason for going into engineering!"

James Doohan, as a boy in high school growing up in Canada, had excelled in math and science -- an interest and talent that more than casually assisted his much later, uncanny ability to be totally convincing in the role of the Enterprise's Chief Engineer. More than once, Gene Roddenberry -- Star Trek's creator, and Executive Producer of the original television series -- told me (see below) "Jimmy's insistence on believable treatment of engineering problems aboard the Enterprise resulted in serious modifications to several scripts ...."

In fact, for those who have sought -- without much success -- to identify the "magical quality" that enabled Star Trek to influence so many millions over the years and all around the world ... this "shared vision" among all the cast, not just Doohan, with Roddenberry's somewhat revolutionary ideas (in 1966) -- of a Universe open to the wonders of unfettered exploration, and a multi-racial human "family" willing to take on new challenges to create a Galactic society that worked -- went significantly beyond the usual "actor" roles in Hollywood ....

Doohan's insistence on "believability" in his role in Star Trek's scripts was not the exception among the Star Trek cast; it was the rule ....

Regular readers of the Enterprise Mission, or listeners to me on "Coast," know of my own long-term relationship with "Star Trek," my personal friendship with Roddenberry ... and many of its cast -- including Jimmie Doohan. That, of course, is why you're currently aboard the Enterprise Mission ... "boldly going where someone has gone before ...."

Some, however, may be less familiar with the fact that, because of this continuing relationship, in 1976 I became critically involved in initiating a political campaign -- along with several Washington DC policy advisors who were my friends and also Star Trek "fans" -- to convince then-President Gerald Ford to rename the first of the newly-developed Space Shuttles, "Enterprise" -- over NASA's strenuous objections -- in honor of (among other historical precedents we cited for the White House) "Star Trek's fabled starship" ... and its considerable political constituency (we felt) for space.

Or that, several months later -- after triggering an unprecedented torrent of mail to NASA Headquarters and the White House (over 400,000 letters, according to The Washington Post) -- following the Republican Primaries (which ultimately selected Gerald Ford, NOT Ronald Reagan, to be the 1976 Republican Presidential Candidate), and the mind-boggling Bicentennial Landings of the unmanned Vikings "to search for Life on Mars"--

This is why the Enterprise Mission logo features both "immortal ships" -- Gene's creation from the Star Trek Universe ... and our first, historic "people's" NASA Shuttle ....

Why the "Star Trek Enterprise" is "unbound, unchained to Earth" and ... "heading out."

And, why NASA's Shuttle is "eternally locked in an endless orbit of the Earth" (the "E") -- representing how, compared to Gene's unlimited vision of a real space program and Humanity itself, NASA is an obvious prisoner of its own, still secret fears ....

Our objective in beginning that campaign ... and then winning, over NASA's (then) bizarre opposition ... was extremely simple: to "truly democratize the NASA Mission" -- to make NASA's programs more open to all Americans, and its data truly accessible to everyone -- an objective ... after 29 years ... we are still attempting to achieve.

The same goal that Jimmy Doohan -- through his indelible role of "the ever-ingenious Chief Engineer of that other pioneering Enterprise ... on Star Trek" -- and his demonstrable inspiration of countless NASA scientists and engineers because of it, "boldly going where no one had gone before ..." also sought tirelessly to achieve ....

For, a little known aspect of James Doohan's life -- beyond his valient war record in World War II as a Canadian Artillary Officer who lost a finger in the D-Day Invasion, after he was shot six times; beyond his skill with languages and dialects (Doohan convinced Gene at his audition for the role that only "a Scottsman" could be a proper engineer for Enterprise ...); beyond Hollywood ... and after his last Star Trek film, in 1994 -- was James' continuing interest in the vast potential to society for real "Star Trek-type" scientific and engineering breakthroughs.

Appearing with Sir Arthur C. Clarke and a couple of dozen other major scientists around the world currently researching this potentially incalculable (and thus incredibly controversial) energy breakthrough, the former "Chief Engineer of the USS Enterprise" took viewers through a 70-minute tour of the actual "cutting-edge science and laboratory engineering" now being pursued ... which will one day lead us all into a real "Star Trek Universe."

A VHS video of this seminal documentary "Cold Fusion: Fire From Water" is available through Infinite Energy Magazine.

In keeping with Jimmy's own ultimate wish, "to boldly go ...", within hours of James Doohan's death, news stories carried the announcement by his wife, Wendy, that Jimmy's ashes would be sent into space on "his own final voyage ....":

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Well, you KNEW this had to happen ....

NASA's Deep Impact Fly-by spacecraft will carry out a small mid-course trajectory correction today, Wednesday, July 20, 2005 ... which will bring it past the Earth in January, 2008, prior to flying by another comet (still unselected) several years after its successful mission to Comet Tempel 1 ....

Full AP Story here.

July 20th ....

Wouldn't you know ....

On another subject: in a fascinating adjunct to our exposure in yesterday's Captain's Blog -- of the deepening, obvious contradictions between different members of the Deep Impact Imaging Team, re the status of the spacecraft imaging system and its actual images of Comet Tempel 1 -- we can now present another key perspective.

Published by The Washington Post BEFORE the successful July 3rd climax of the Deep Impact Mission, the official assessment of JPL's Project Manager for the Mission, Rick Grammier, on the state of the imaging system just prior to arrival is additional evidence that "all is NOT well politically in Mudville AFTER the close-up images of Tempel 1 came in ...."

"...The 1,325-pound spacecraft, built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colo., has performed almost flawlessly. Engineers detected a blurriness in one of its cameras early in the mission, but they compensated by mathematically sharpening its images. 'In fact, we get somewhat better quality than before,' said JPL's Rick Grammier, the Deep Impact project manager [emphasis added] ...."

Huh!!??

Stay tuned.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

It's become a political cliche in situations like this to quote now former President, George Herbert Walker Bush (41) .

In the 1980's, to the endless amusement of the pundits and the press (those folks again ...), Mr. Bush had the misfortune to refer to some of his political problems as "getting into deep doo doo ...." The press have never let him forget it .... Nor has Dana Carvey, of "Saturday Night Live."

As I write this, NASA seems to have found some of George Bush's left over "doo doo" ... flying around its recently "completed" Deep Impact Mission to Comet Tempel 1.

The "doo doo" is now getting noticably deep ....

* * *

Just five days ago, in an interview with Space.com -- done ten days after the spectacular climax of the Deep Impact Mission, Sunday night, July 3rd -- Donald Yeomans, Supervisor of the Solar System Dynamics Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, and a member of the Deep Impact Science Team, was quoted as definitely affirming that the cameras aboard the Fly-by spacecraft--

"... have shown their abilities to provide impressive imaging [emphasis added]."

However, in the on-line science journal, New Scientist it was reported yesterday that--

"NASA's Deep Impact may fail to live up to its billing as the first mission to look inside a comet. Computer processing designed to correct the spacecraft's defocused camera cannot fully correct the images taken just after impact. If the situation cannot be rectified, there will be no way of seeing the newly formed crater - one of the mission's major goals [emphasis added] ...."

This is becoming a black comedy ... of sorts.

OK, which is it:

"Impressive imaging" ... or, "hopelessly defocused pictures?!"

How could Yeoman's glowing description of the images -- made ten days after Sunday night, so he obviously had plenty of time to examine each one of the "4500" we now know were taken of the Comet -- be so diametrically contradicted just days later?!

The New Scientist article goes on:

"... Scientists had hoped to use the flyby spacecraft to see the bottom of the resulting crater in order to glimpse the comet's interior composition. They also wanted to see the crater's sides to look for layering, rather like the geological strata on Earth ...."

Composition is measured by "spectroscopy" not "images" -- a small detail never mentioned in the entire New Scientist article!

Instead, Deep Impact's Principal Investigator, Michael A'Hearn is quoted as supporting the article's main premise:

What's most astonishing about this piece-- more than the startling contradictions between Yeomans and A'Hearn over the quality of the imaging -- is, again, the complete lack of any mention of that far more crucial instrument aboard Deep Impact:

The infrared spectrometer!

For, despite A'Hearn's obvious attempt to "lower expectations" as to what Deep Impact really saw on Tempel 1, the fact is that it would have been the spectrometer -- not the cameras -- which returned the most critical, quantative science data on what we were told all along was The Reason for this entire Mission: to observe and record what came out of Tempel 1 on Impact!

To someone not knowing that NASA had just flown a washing-machine-sized spacecraft directly into a Comet, at 6 miles per second -- and had thereby blown an immense quantity (tens of thousands of tons is one estimate ...) of interior material far out into space -- reading A'Hearn's latest, carefully worded statement in New Scientist would give the distinct impression that he and his colleages still "haven't a clue" as to what happened after Impact that night -- based on the (now) "too fuzzy, and probably irretrievable, Deep Impact pictures" -- and probably never will!!

Lost in this deliberate "spin," of course, is the fact that Deep Impact was NOT "a fly-by mission of the Moon, or Mars, or even a Saturnian satellite ..." -- where the spacecraft would have looked down on a long-dead surface, seen lots and lots of craters ... of a variety of sizes and depths -- and attempted to reconstruct what happened to produce them (indeed, from measuring their sizes and depths) "billions of years ago!"

Instead, we were there -- live! -- that Sunday night two weeks ago, courtesy of NASA TV ... as the enormous energies of the NASA Impactor visibly blasted the guts out of Tempel 1 ... spewing those tens of thousands of tons of Comet across hundreds of thousands of miles for everyone to "O-o-o-o" and "A-h-h-h-h" about.

All the while, a highly crafted and specifically designed spectrometer, carried on the Fly-by spacecraft -- a precision instrument created to provide precisely the unique chemical composition information A'Hearn and company were seeking from their (our!) $333 million dollar experiment -- was watching and recording each millisecond of this Event from close range ... which got closer and MUCH more detailed, as the spacecraft swept past the Comet only 300 miles away 14 minutes later ... as the interior cloud blasted out of it by the Impact expanded past the Fly-by spacecraft ... forever into deep space.

To NOT mention this 'little detail" in this article -- that somewhere on Earth there now exists an exquisite compositional record of exactly what this Comet is made of -- but to leave the reader with the deliberate impression that, because "the images are a bit blurry," Deep Impact cannot tell us what it went all that way to find out ... is grossly incompetent science reporting at best--

Or, part of a deliberate and increasingly desperate NASA effort to hide what REALLY happened Sunday night ... in a cloud of ever expanding "doo doo" ... at worst!

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