Posted on 06/02/2007 11:45:27 PM PDT by anymouse
The local chapter of International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers representing employees in the NASA KSC area has rejected an offer from United Space Alliance. There is a 5 day cooling off period now in effect during which both sides will try and work out their differences.
Should no agreement be reached the employees could go on strike - perhaps as early as 9 June. The next shuttle mission is scheduled to launch on 8 June.
No word yet as to whether this threat of a strike will affect launch preparations for STS-117.
space ping
Outsource it to China.
N.A.S.A. seems paralyzed like so many very large government institutions.
a poster reason why...government unions are another nail in the coffin of the USA!!!!
Reagan had the right idea...vis a vis ~ PATCO!!!!
This news report would seem to contradict that-—
Bada Ping!
United Space Alliance sounds like a sci-fi invention.
Huh? It's not like the United Space Alliance partners really were responsible anyways...the orbiter is a NASA design. NASA made the call on not having a survivable escape module that can eject safely from a disintegrating launch or re-entry vehicle. They decided it cost too much weight.
NASA also made the call on not having protective "fairings" covering the delicate carbon-carbon leading edges. So far as I know, they didn't even explicitly justify their negligence.
The launch of Discovery with its numerous cameras surveilling the surface right up and through External tank seperation...showed that despite the most-recent-"fixes" launches still are generating a heck of a lot of dangerous debris. Debris effectively ignored until Columbia's catastrophe....
The post-Columbia "fixes" only slightly moderated the problem...
But fairings at least would address this sufficiently to solve the debris safety issue. More effective than the individual flake-source "band-aid" approach. So we don't have to lose another wonderful crew...
How many launches might be impacted?
Another strike? There was just some kind of strike 18 months ago, one that almost impacted the New Horizons launch. I had to pass the protesters as I entered the Cape to do instrument tests on the spacecraft...
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