Yesterday, NASA announced that the planned May launch of the Shuttle Discovery would be delayed yet again:
HOUSTON, March 14 — NASA on Tuesday postponed the next space shuttle launch from mid-May until July because of fresh concerns about the external fuel tank, whose defects caused the loss of the shuttle Columbia three years ago and have repeatedly delayed new missions ever since.
The shuttle program manager, Wayne Hale, said an anomaly in fuel sensors that shut down the shuttle’s main engines during launch caused engineers to halt preparations for the May 10 flight of Discovery and reschedule for a launch “window” that opens July
Remember when the manned space program was something we could be proud of ? Right now, it all seems like a massive joke.
Meanwhile, the unmanned program seems to be doing pretty well
PASADENA, Calif. — The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter passed the biggest test of its life by safely entering orbit around the Red Planet, joining a constellation of circling spacecraft. But other challenges lie ahead.Next month, the two-ton orbiter will begin another critical phase in its $720 million mission. It will spend seven months dipping into Mars’ upper atmosphere to shrink its current elliptical orbit to a circular one, which will take it as close as 200 miles above the surface.
The purpose is to get as close to Mars as possible to beam back detailed images.
“We got the capabilities that will knock your socks off,” said project scientist Richard Zurek.
The Reconnaissance Orbiter joins NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey and the European Space Agency’s Mars Express, which already fly around the planet. On the surface, the NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity continue rolling across the plane
There’s a lesson in there somewhere, one wonders if NASA will learn it.
Technorati Tags: NASA, Space Shuttle, Space
