CONGRATULATIONS, Discovery!

[Rainbow Man]

I just watched the space shuttle launch on NASA TV, wow! First launch I've seen since the original Columbia mission back in...what was it? 81? Of course, that was on analog TV, and not digitally, across the internet. Dang, it seems like such a long time ago now.

Everything seemed to go as smooth as clockwork, so whoo hoo for the skilled aeronautical technicians and managers of America, and for the human race on another great achievement!

Now we can only hope for a safe landing too in uh, 10-12 days?

Well done, a most impressive and exciting show! Like an action movie.. Only ten times BETTER because it was real!


Peace.

 

[nutball]

There's a saying in rocket science "getting it up is only half the fun". Recent history suggests that even launches which appear to have gone like clockwork can have hidden secrets.

Let's applaud NASA for their achievements when the shuttle lands in the number of pieces laid out in the mission specification.

 

[London Geezer]

Let's applaud NASA for their achievements when the shuttle lands in the number of pieces laid out in the mission specification.

Amazing. I have been in this country for 7 years now, and british humour, cynicism and articulation still surprises me at times.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Amazing. I have been in this country for 7 years now, and british humour, cynicism and articulation still surprises me at times.

There's a joke about Americans going to Disneyland, pointing at Mickey Mouse and saying "Hey, there's Mickey Mouse!" The Brit goes to Disneyland, points at Mickey and says "Hey, there's a man in a mouse costume!"

 

[Humus]

First Swede in space too. Yay! ... or something. Swedish media doesn't talk about anything else.

 

[nutball]

Amazing. I have been in this country for 7 years now, and british humour, cynicism and articulation still surprises me at times.

Sorry if my comment seems off-colour!

I've been involved in some (unmanned) missions myself during my career writing software and that sort of thing, and seen five years of my future funding put on top of 10's of tonnes of high-explosive and someone else light the blue touch-paper. Nerve-wracking times! I've also seen colleagues lose their jobs and/or future career prospects due to failures of various missions (through no direct fault of their own, just bad luck).

The media seem to be of the mind that the launch is the be-all and end-all of a space mission. They turn up in droves because the prospect of filming a massive explosion and some crying scientists (whose jobs have just gone up in smoke) which makes for good TV. If they don't see their bang they presume that that's it, everything is over and it's wait until the next one. (For my mission the media left the launch party before the payload had even separated from the last stage, which was only 40 minutes after lift-off!).

For many people the launch is just the start of the hard work, and it's often days or weeks later that you find out that something has gone badly wrong, and that what seemed to be a text-book launch wasn't so after all. Fingers are rarely uncrossed until all the mission objectives are completed (which can be years later).

With the Shuttle the media interest is prolonged because of the prospect of filming from crying widows, rather than just crying scientists. Human interest, you see. Makes for good TV (plus there's often the political witch-hunt afterwards to find someone to blame).

So yes maybe I'm a bit cynical, but I think it's premature to congratulate people for a good job done well before it's certain that the job is actually a good one! :smile: