The Last 10 Days In The Space Shuttle's Bunker?, Atlantis apparently to be scrapped in 2008 |
The Last 10 Days In The Space Shuttle's Bunker?, Atlantis apparently to be scrapped in 2008 |
Guest_BruceMoomaw_* |
Feb 21 2006, 03:05 AM
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http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20060...lantis_spa.html :
"Under orders to retire the shuttle fleet by 2010, NASA plans to cancel shuttle Atlantis' next scheduled overhaul and mothball the ship in 2008. "Rather than becoming a museum piece, however, Atlantis will serve as a spare parts donor for sister ships Discovery and Endeavour to complete assembly of the International Space Station. " 'People are already calling us and asking us can they display one of our orbiters in their museum after we're done. I'm not giving anybody anything until we're all agreed the station is complete and the shuttles' job is done,' shuttle program manager Wayne Hale told Kennedy Space Center employees during a televised address on Friday. " 'We're going to keep (Atlantis) in as near flight-ready condition as we can without putting it through a (modification and overhaul) so we can use those parts,' Hale said. ____________________ Jeffrey Bell has recently finished a piece for "SpaceDaily" proclaiming that the wholesale cancellation of other NASA projects in the FY 2007 budget to keep Shuttle and ISS going is actually just part of Michael Griffin's Machiavellian strategy to get both of the cancelled, by making it clear that they can be saved now only at the cost of a swarm of other projects (including Bush's lunar program) which are now more popular. Certainly that is the overwhelming message being conveyed, whether Griffin planned it that way or not -- I haven't seen a single newspaper editorial yet that favors retaining Shuttle at this point. (Bell also claims to see other, subtler evidence of this strategy in Griffin's moves over the last few weeks -- and also signs that he definitely plans to throw ISS from the train as well, by just giving it to the Russians half-finished in a few years and paying off the ESA and Japan for their unlaunched space lab modules. These include the fact that he's cancelled work on the unmanned cargo variant of the Crew Exploration Vehicle that will be necessary to take up replacement Control Moment Gyros to the ISS after the Shuttle is no longer available.) |
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Guest_BruceMoomaw_* |
Feb 25 2006, 11:47 PM
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Well, I guess I'll have to stay "provocative" without "ranting", which will be an interesting balancing act.
Frankly, I'm a little baffled that I've set off such indignation here. Go to virtually any political blogsite on the Web. THERE, by God, you will find ranting. Most political blogsites serve not as a site for reasoned debate, but as coffeeklatches for people who already had the same ideological belief to congregate and stroke each other's egos by agreeing with each other, in much the same way that troops of chimpanzees cement their social ties by grooming each other. Occasionally a member of another rival ideological troop comes over and challenges the blog group, at which point there is much screaming and jumping up and down and throwing of sticks until the intruder retreats again. Two nights ago I read the suggestion that the main achievement of the Web will turn out to be the extent to which it's made it easier to assemble lynch mobs on a worldwide basis, and I'm afraid he's right. But the extent to which the members of this particular group are upset by any forceful comments at all -- by anyone, with any belief -- seems to me to have a certain Girlie Man quality to it which I really think we can't afford intellectually. |
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Feb 26 2006, 12:21 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239 |
Well, I guess I'll have to stay "provocative" without "ranting", which will be an interesting balancing act. Frankly, I'm a little baffled that I've set off such indignation here. Go to virtually any political blogsite on the Web. THERE, by God, you will find ranting. Most political blogsites serve not as a site for reasoned debate, but as coffeeklatches for people who already had the same ideological belief to congregate and stroke each other's egos by agreeing with each other, in much the same way that troops of chimpanzees cement their social ties by grooming each other. Occasionally a member of another rival ideological troop comes over and challenges the blog group, at which point there is much screaming and jumping up and down and throwing of sticks until the intruder retreats again. Two nights ago I read the suggestion that the main achievement of the Web will turn out to be the extent to which it's made it easier to assemble lynch mobs on a worldwide basis, and I'm afraid he's right. But the extent to which the members of this particular group are upset by any forceful comments at all -- by anyone, with any belief -- seems to me to have a certain Girlie Man quality to it which I really think we can't afford intellectually. Bruce: Chimps *are* fun, but Bonobos have a better way of dealing with conflict! There's something about the WWW which causes mild remarks to be taken as gross insults, and gross insults to be taken as far worse. Perhaps it's the lack of social cues, perhaps it's the *truth* leaking out. Maybe we do all want to eat the brains of every stranger from the next valley, and rape our sisters. And then our brothers. Oh, joy! In the meantime, may I say that I, personally, appreciate heresy. I like provocation. I enjoy robust, cruel and entirely unforgiving debate. The only thing I don't enjoy is... ...boredom. Going on and on and on and on about some fixed notion, without any let up - now, that *does* bug me! But earnestly giving hell to the sloppy-minded, no problems! Please keep up the iconoclasm! Bob Shaw -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
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Feb 26 2006, 03:06 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 809 Joined: 11-March 04 Member No.: 56 |
There's something about the WWW which causes mild remarks to be taken as gross insults, and gross insults to be taken as far worse. Perhaps it's the lack of social cues My impression is that some people find themselves in interactions on the internet which they would not normally engage in -- perhaps they have little social interaction outside of the 'net and therefore have little practice in arts like politeness, tact, and diplomacy in speaking; or perhaps they are under the impression that ordinary rules of social interaction do not apply on the internet, because you cannot see the person you are talking to -- and you are frequently disguised by one form or another of voluntary anonymity. The truth is, of course, quite the reverse; print tends to be a harsher medium than speech, and it takes all the tact you can manage not to come across as a fool, a buffoon, or someone careless of others' feelings. Frustration with discovering that people may take offense where you believe yourself to be doing no more than speaking the unvarnished truth may lead some to adopt intentionally abrasive personas; but this is probably not the best response. It's good to remember that what seems trivially obvious to one person may be a difficult and controversial point to another; and that minds are changed, not in a flash of logic, but through the slow persuasion that comes through an accumulation of irrefutable evidence. Or, as the old adage has it, more flies are trapped with honey than with vinegar. |
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