| Tuesday, May 12, 2009 |
05:57 - Keystone Astronauts
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/science/space/12shuttle.html?_r=2&hp
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Does this sound like a space agency that has its shuttle together?
The Atlantis astronauts will spend Tuesday examining the shuttle with cameras looking for any dings or nicks or holes caused by flying debris during the launching. The shuttle Columbia was doomed in 2003 because a hunk of insulating foam broke off the external fuel tank and damaged the tiles that protected the spacecraft from the searing heat of re-entering the atmosphere.
The astronauts carry a tool kit for fixing small holes or cracks in the fragile tiles. If there is something they cannot fix, they will hunker down and await the shuttle Endeavour, which is sitting on another launching pad, ready to blast off with a four-man crew and retrieve the Atlantis astronauts from danger.
“The sad thing is if we get to orbit and see something bad and get waved off and don’t get to fix Hubble,” Dr. Grunsfeld said. “That would be the saddest.”
Among other things, Endeavour would have to bring a spacesuit for Commander Altman, who takes an extra-large that is not stocked on Atlantis. The two most experienced spacewalkers on Atlantis, Dr. Grunsfeld and Dr. Massimino, would then escort their shipmates along a rope to the Endeavour in a two-day dance of swapping spacesuits that would include a sleepover for Dr. Grunsfeld on the Endeavour.
So:
1) if they find cracked tiles and have to be rescued by Endeavour, their mission plan does not allow for them to proceed with their Hubble repair even while they're just sitting around waiting for their ride to show up;
2) The Columbia disaster has apparently not resulted in enough engineering changes that they can be sure the tiles are trustworthy, leaving their only recourse a visual inspection from space and an "Okay, let's try it again" rescue by another shuttle using exactly the same launch procedures and subject to exactly the same risks;
3) The mission commander, whom they voluntarily chose for the mission, is such a big guy they have to stock a special non-interchangeable spacesuit for him, necessitating a God-knows-how-many-million-dollar spacewalk to swap suits should the rescue attempt become necessary.
Didn't they used to think these things through at NASA?
UPDATE: Lovely.
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Brian Tiemann
