Shuttle Launch Likely in Early 2004, NASA Says

Washington Post.com ^ | Wednesday, June 18, 2003; 3:51 PM | By Broward Liston

[Ramtek57]

Shuttle Launch Likely in Early 2004, NASA Says Reuters Wednesday, June 18, 2003; 3:51 PM By Broward Liston CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA is likely to launch its first space shuttle since the Columbia tragedy in the first three months of next year and expects to announce a launch date in about six weeks, a top space agency official said on Wednesday. That scenario would mean a one-year stand down after the Feb. 1 Columbia crash, compared to a nearly three-year wait following the 1986 Challenger accident. "You ask for a gut feeling? We can put this together in the first quarter of '04," Michael Kostelnik, NASA's deputy associate administrator for the shuttle and space station programs, told reporters. The agency had previously targeted December for the launch of Atlantis on a flight to the International Space Station. But a recent decision to launch the mission during daylight limited the number of available days in that month to just two. "Right now, almost all the technical fixes can be done in the December time frame," Kostelnik said at the Kennedy Space Center...

[Ramtek57]

Maybe they will require an spacewalk inspection of the shuttles before they return to earth so we can avoid this from happening again. Then they need some better contingencies. The only contingencie they had last time was to gather information. They didn't tell us that a disaster had just happened, they told us, we have a contingency. That they were gathering information. I didn't like that contingency. They need better contingencies. Like a space walk to check out the shuttle to see if it could return to earth safely. And also like, if there is a problem with the shuttle, have a contingency for a rescue plan or go and park it at the space shuttle and hole up there for a while.

[DoughtyOne]

Since this is NASA talking, I'll just ignore it. They can't tell the truth any better than Bill Clinton.

[ARCADIA]

Take off... perhap
But, will it return for a landing?

[DoughtyOne]

...coming to a field and stream near you.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Shuttle Launch Likely in Early 2004, NASA Says

The January calendar looks wide open. :-/

[Spangler]

...except the equipment needed for EVA activities is heavy, and if it is carried on all missions it would limit what the shuttle could carry and what it could do on various trips to space.

Myself, I am in favor of parking an emergency go-to vehicle at the station that could pick up personnel stranded in a shuttle found to be crippled in a ground inspection done by telescope.

The wounded vehicle could be parked in as high an orbit as possible while repairs are planned then made. The shuttle could then be remotely landed to minimize the risk of the failure of the repairs.

In a worse case senario, the bird could be retired to perminant orbittal work as a tug, or other chores.

(Just my two cents worth mind you.)

[ElkGroveDan]

Where's Montgomery Scott when you need him?

[Spangler]

"Where's Montgomery Scott when you need him?" Drinking something green with an alien new to a human body perhaps? ;-)

[Ramtek57]

Good ideas for a contingency plan.

[boris]

"...except the equipment needed for EVA activities is heavy, and if it is carried on all missions it would limit what the shuttle could carry and what it could do on various trips to space."

A teleoperated sphere with high-pressure nitrogen and some valves and nozzles, and a TV camera on it. Drop it off and let it scrutinize the shuttle for you.

Light, simple, and cheap.

Which is why NASA won't do it.

--Boris

[Spangler]

Thanks. All I know is that eventually we will need vehicles that work solely in space with no need for the sort of thrust required to achieve orbit.

With an engine swap and other modifications, shuttles could have a second life after they no longer are needed for orbittal achieving workhorses. A cost benefit analysis should be done on this or simular proposals in any event no matter how one feels about this sort of idea.

I remember well the book "Marooned" about an Apollo mission unable to leave orbit, and hove NASA scrambled desparately to save those men. A bird already up there with the ability to fetch anyone stranded makes much more sense since the Columbia did it's 'Edmond Fitzgerald' routine over Texas.

We all would feel a whole lot better if our collective hearts were not wrenched from our chests again by the deaths of people and machines of this high caliber.

[DPB101]

NASA won't have to hype this launch with gimmicks to get viewers.

[KellyAdmirer]

Only an utter moron would launch the shuttle in January or February. A complete, absolute fool. Which makes the announced launch date being in one of those two months almost a dead certainty.

[Brett66]

Just flying to the space station would make a Columbia-type disaster more survivable. I believe that will be the shuttle's only destination from now on. It's still a dangerous vehicle and it's inevitable that another disaster will occur. It will probably be of a totally different nature than the Challenger or Columbia and NASA will have no clue that it's about to happen. Maybe a valve on it's thrusters sticks open and it slams into the $100 billion space station. Ooops. We may see the end of government run human space programs at that point, but that'll be fine. We'll have more privately operated human space efforts and that will give us the chance for routine human space travel,unlike the billion dollar per launch shuttle boondoggle.

[Rudder]

Since the Columbia disaster, how many high-ranking NASA officials have been given the boot? Who (by name, specifically) has been found responsible for the events that led up to the tragedy?

Until these questions are answered pubically, NASA should be grounded or, better yet, reconstituted with new management.

[ElkGroveDan]

Nope Scottie is stuck in the memory buffer of a transporter data loop in a small craft that has crashed into a Dyson sphere in an uncharted solar system. He could be there for centuries. Clearly we need to fix this ourselves.