[alancarp]

No, they can be used anytime they happen to be under the flight path.

Sorry, you're right of course - but I wasn't clear: the point I think Jael was making was in the ability of the shuttle to do an emergency landing prior to getting into orbit -- and thus incurring the necessity an atmospheric re-entry. In any case, it's Real Clear that nobody was gonna decide in the first 5 minutes of this flight that such a plan might have been needed.

[txradioguy]

Did anyone else see "Meet The Press" this morning? I was listening and not really watching, but I thought someone on there was starting to float a balloon trying to blame this on "Bush cuts to the NASA budget." Can someone verify this and who said it? I was wondering how long it would be before the RATS tried to hang this on W. I smell another "What did he know and when did he know it?" rant from Hitlery if this is true.