A Comedy of Errors

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"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." -Morrow
"Take care of the minutes, and the hours and years will take care of themselves." -Anonymous
"Love doesn't make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile." -F.P. Jones

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2005-07-31
what happens when you piss off a flight director

23:22

I want to join the Paul "Hitman" Hill fan club.

28:23

For all of the hoopla about debris hitting the orbiter and grounding the fleet, let me remind you of a few things.

1) The fleet is ALWAYS grounded between flights until it is given a GO to launch. Each flight undergoes rigorous inspection before being cleared for launch. If there is something found to be unsafe, it's postponed until the risk is mitagated.

2) Pushing the boundaries of exploration always incurs a great deal of risk. And the Space Shuttle, for it's 100+ flights and age, is still just a test vehicle. The astronauts realize this. They know exactly what they are getting themselves into. If/when it gets too much for them, they leave. If they believe in what they're doing, shouldn't you?

3) You can never, ever, ever reduce risk to zero.

4) Debris has been shed on countless flights. Just didn't have the cameras and inspection capabilities to see it before. I'm not saying that things shouldn't be changed to minimize it, but the orbiter, in general, is a pretty robust vehicle that can take a beating and keep going.

5) Most importantly: WE ARE FLYING NOW. There is a space shuttle orbiter circling the Earth right this very minute.

I love my job. I love what I do. I don't always love the day-to-day paperwork and late hours and long meetings, but the shiver that I still get when we launch, walking into Mission Control (esp. the Apollo control room), or even just driving past the rockets in front, makes it all worth it.

Many of my friends have mentioned that they might (don't send me hate-mail, all; I said might, not would) leave NASA if the fleet was retired after this mission. That might be right for them, but not for me. I truly think that I'd stay put and ride it out and see what happens. I can't imagine working for anyone else (notice I didn't say anywhere else; if NASA wanted me to work for them in France, that would really be okay with me). It it came right down to it, I don't know for sure. I can't honestly say until I'm really in such a position, of course, but it's hard for me to imagine working for a different company. I still believe in NASA and exploration and space. And it's nice to find, in the sea of media negativity, someone else who does, too.

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