AP: Shuttle repair successful - Unprecedented shuttle repair a success

AP on Yahoo ^ | 8/3/05 | Pam Easton - AP

[Calvin Locke]

...but isn't needed for landing...

And the odds of them being [hopefully] right?

[varon]

what is the point of our space program?

To help build a space station from which humanitarian aid can be dispensed to illegal space-Mexicans ;-)

[RightWhale]

The back-up annunciator is also out, and this means the Space Shuttle will not be allowed back on the construction site until it is repaired. The annunciator is a custom design by a now-defunct company, which means the entire spaceship will have to be redesigned and the entire crew retrained. The delay could be years.

< /Vonnegut >

[IamConservative]

They were careful to make sure Robinson's helmet and feet did not contact the fragile ship.

This implies a pretty fragile system. If a bump from a helmet could damage it, what about frozen particles from a waste dump of a previous shuttle flight? It is amazing that the shuttle has never been hit with space debris. Based upon this article, it would lead one to think it could destroy the shuttle.

[MarineBrat]

Very good analysis on those posts!

[RightWhale]

Fortunately space is pretty much a vacuum. That's why it is called space, there is little else there to identify it as something.

[RightWhale]

to not stagnate we must grow

That is the nature of organizations. That is what civilization is--an organization. It is growing like one of those slaves they used to put into a jar when they were babies so when they got bigger they would be jar shaped. Like birds, too, they are aerodynamic because they spend their formative days inside an egg and take on that shape. Eventually they want to spread their wings and that means breaking out of the shell. I don't know if jar-slaves can fly. :)

[King Prout]

?????

[RightWhale]

Civilization is organic, not stochastic.

[King Prout]

ah...