Posted on 12/17/2004 10:28:29 AM PST by SmithL
CAPE CANAVERAL -- NASA's departing boss, Sean O'Keefe, said Friday he does not regret canceling the last shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope -- or anything else during his three years on the job.
O'Keefe's decision nearly a year ago prohibiting astronauts from repairing the Hubble, on post-Columbia safety grounds, was by far his most controversial and was challenged by a prestigious scientific panel just last week.
"The decision that I made I intend to stand by," O'Keefe said at a news conference. He said a pair of design reviews for a potential robotic mission to prolong Hubble's life, scheduled for March and August, "will tell us a lot more about this rather than guessing."
Unless astronauts or robots get to Hubble within a few years to install fresh batteries, gyroscopes and other equipment, its breathtaking observations of the cosmos will cease.
"I don't know that there's a whole lot that I would have done differently," O'Keefe said. "I don't spend any amount of time, I've got to tell you flat out, really thinking about woulda, coulda, shoulda's and looking backward. Every minute you spend looking backward is time wasted from not looking forward."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Any NASA watchers out there that has the scuttlebut about the likely candidates to replace O'Keefe.
Watch for some environmentalist to get the post.
Hey NASA, launch some rockets.....
Sure, we spend millions upon millions to get Hubble up there, they screw that up, and when it's working right this dolt decides to throw it away.
Like Kofi Annan, can't we just not appoint anyone and let this fossel fade away? Provide incentives to the private sector and sell of the Florida and Houston land.
Well then you open up your wallet and pay for the $1B flight. While you're at it you and 6 of your buddies train up and fly the mission, just so you can save your precious telescope. Get some prospective, man!
space ping
First off, I would love to train and go up there, thanks for the invite. Next, that's a tax I don't mind paying, becuase it's in the cause of exploration, science, and discovery. Better that than paying welfare cases sit on their behinds all day watching Oprah.
Then you know nothing about the space program or NASA. O'Keefe was the best administrator since Webb.
Agreed...guy out here in Kalifornia name of Burt Rutan would have a Hilton in space on 1/10 the budget
Well, why not park the Hubble in a stable orbit, and wait until the Shuttles are going to be decommissioned anyway and risk the last fight or two when it no longer will matter since they will go off-line anyway? All we would risk losing is a museum display. Of course the astronauts' lives would be at risk, but there are more than enough that would volunteer for such a mission. Risky flights didn't stop them in the 1960s when the risk was even higher.
Besides the risk is only a 1 in 50 possibility of a catastrophic failure. It's not like it's even odds or anything.
You missed my point. You would have to personally pony up the $1B for the mission and you would have to do the real work of training for the flight and actually do it.
It's easy to sit back and complain and expect others to do what you wouldn't do yourself, but when you put your money and life on the line - then you are entitled to complain about others not doing it. Until then you are just another sidewalk supervisor and our opinion should be taken with as much seriousness as every other bloke with a gripe and no clue about what they are talking about.
If I had it ($1B+) I'd do it. And I have several friends who'd join me. Pity you wouldn't.
Well, I for one would happily put a few more dollars in the till to keep putting men in space, and moreso to send men to Mars. Even you.
No body is stopping you, just write out a check to the IRS and I'm sure they will cash it. :)
Of course it will take a bit more than a few dollars to fuel up a shuttle, let alone pay the standing army of NASA and contractor workers necessary to get it off the ground.
Since you're offering to pay for the flight, I'm sure you would want to go for the buget package rather than the gold-plated version. But then again it's easy to "shoot for the Moon" when you are spending someone else's money.
Have a merry christmas.
And when the dear Shuttle blows itself to pieces and comes crashing down on top of an Elemntary School where then would all those fools be? By some grace of G-d we did NOT have that happen in Texas with the last flight, and we can not so risk ever again with that beastly craft.
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