as florida buckles down for the storm
Sep. 2nd, 2004 10:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slipstreamsurfrthis shows up on the discover website..
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20040830/hurricane.html
According to this article, if the Cape suffers a dirrect hit, it could be the end for the shuttle program.
Even with all the problems the shuttle program has, this would be a sad thing. Yes, NASA needs to seriously look towards the future of manned spaceflight and develope some seriously new technology. I am afraid that were the Cape to suffer severe damage that congress would just shut down NASA, or at least the manned spaceflight arm of NASA. What is it that Jerry Pournelle said once? "I always dreamed I'd live to see the first man walk on the moon. I never imagined I'd live to see the last." At least as far as NASA is concerned, if it loses a major portion of the space center to the hurrican or the resulting tidel surge, you can pretty much bet that they won't be the ones going back to the moon. Congress will see to that.
I guess one of the biggest problems I see with this article is with the site security aspect. I mean, they tell us that usually NASA would leave some 140 folks around to keep tabs on things, for this storm, they'll leave maybe 12, if that many. Come on folks! Do you advertise that you are leaving the facility unsecured, even with a cat 4 level storm coming your way?)
So now I guess we get to sit tight, and cross our fingers, and hope that everything holds together. At least there isn't one on the launchpad having to face the storm.
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20040830/hurricane.html
According to this article, if the Cape suffers a dirrect hit, it could be the end for the shuttle program.
Even with all the problems the shuttle program has, this would be a sad thing. Yes, NASA needs to seriously look towards the future of manned spaceflight and develope some seriously new technology. I am afraid that were the Cape to suffer severe damage that congress would just shut down NASA, or at least the manned spaceflight arm of NASA. What is it that Jerry Pournelle said once? "I always dreamed I'd live to see the first man walk on the moon. I never imagined I'd live to see the last." At least as far as NASA is concerned, if it loses a major portion of the space center to the hurrican or the resulting tidel surge, you can pretty much bet that they won't be the ones going back to the moon. Congress will see to that.
I guess one of the biggest problems I see with this article is with the site security aspect. I mean, they tell us that usually NASA would leave some 140 folks around to keep tabs on things, for this storm, they'll leave maybe 12, if that many. Come on folks! Do you advertise that you are leaving the facility unsecured, even with a cat 4 level storm coming your way?)
So now I guess we get to sit tight, and cross our fingers, and hope that everything holds together. At least there isn't one on the launchpad having to face the storm.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-02 11:44 am (UTC)I predict that the "US" space program will become a private affair in the event NASA is significantly damaged...sort of like Craig Ventnor and his race with the government to map the Genome.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-02 01:21 pm (UTC)It is kind of sad though, NASA has some of the best engineers out there. They have just been heavly handicaped by Congress. Even NASA will tell you that the Shuttle was never really suppose to last this long.
Still, I've got my fingers crossed that the storm veers away and they are spared. They've had enough bad luck in the last several years.