One thing to keep in mind is that while the report stated the astronauts violated the 12-hour "bottle-to-throttle" rule and posed a flight risk, it does not state what aircraft the astronauts were flying. It could have been the Shuttle, a Russian craft (Soyuz or Progress), a T-38 training jet, the modified Gulfstream jet used for landing tests, the NASA corporate jet, etc. The violation is still very serious, but it's not necessarily a case of drunken Shuttle flights. But then, it wouldn't be the first time. The Russians have been known to toast with Vodka on MIR and the ISS. -monkey
Something was said on the radio this morning about cables being cut to sabotage the flights. I don't see how that is linked to this but they were talking about it in the same breath.
There was a sub-contractor employee who cut some cables on a computer that was manifested for the next Shuttle flight. From what I've heard in the press conferences, the computer seems like a non-mission critical piece of hardware. There are sensors on the outer truss segments that monitor stress levels, and the data will be plugged into the models that are used to verify the structural life of the truss. Right now, the sensors have no method to send the data home, so they are storing the readings locally. This computer would act as a sort of middle man. The sensors will dump the data to the computer, and the computer will forward the data to the ground. The damage was identified by the contracting company and they disclosed the problem to NASA before the hardware reached Kennedy Space Center. NASA plans to fix the computer before flight. Since this is an active investigation, that's all the Program Managers were willing to say. They did confirm that this is not related to the machinists strike currently going on at KSC. -monkey
hi Monkey is this a fact or just an opinion based on anti-Russian sentiments kept well alive in US with Bond movies and such? Nashua
The other thing to keep in mind is that the astronauts really don't do much on the going up and coming down parts of the mission. I'm not sure about going up, but coming down all they do is press a switch to lower the landing gear. Everything else is done from mission control.
Not so. If you've ever seen the cockpit of the Shuttle, there's about a million little switches and knobs, each one with a specific function during launch and/or re-entry. The pilot and co-pilot both have a myriad of duties during both phases, and the mission specialists are trained to perform certain functions as back-up, should the need arise. While much of the re-entry and landing is computer controlled, the pilots still have to monitor any number of variables. They don't just sit back and enjoy the ride; they still have to fly the thing. As Nexxo said, it's been reported. As far as anti-Russian sentiments, I don't really agree with that. The Russians have been one of our best partners in the space program. Half of the ISS is Russian, half of the crew is Russian, and we rely heavily on Russian vehicles (Soyuz and Progress) for re-supply of harware, consumables, and crew transport. Without the Russians we wouldn't have a Space Station. They single-handedly supported us after the Columbia accident. -monkey
