I have grown to hate seeing that phrase posted on FR, almost always by people with ZERO knowledge of the subject at hand.
I ask myself this with no hint of derision or sarcasm, because I truly don't know. Is it safer to fuel up hours or only moments before launch?
Liquid propellants warm up and bleed off constantly on the pad, that's a potential disaster in itself. For a long wait, enough fuel could escape that more is needed to complete the mission. You have to add fuel on the pad, do you evacuate the capsule? If you do, now you're really behind, you miss your window.
You gotta think about stress on the rocket, condensation and ice buildup too. Maybe the minimum time is actually safer, even if it's a risk to load a manned rocket. Which risk is greater?
Yeah but in this case it was posted with a image of EXACTLY the subject at hand.
LOL, I know. It is considered shorthand for obvious “unforseen effects” of things, usually from Leftists.
You know, they have an infestation of some kind of bug, so they bring in some other bug that is known to eat that bug, and the bug they bring in generates bigger problems and the whole ecological system falls apart.
Who could have ever seen that coming? Well...EVERYBODY with half a brain?
My brother and I both work in IT, and we humorously use the expression with each other as our finger hovers over the enter key, knowing full well what could possibly go wrong!