Ok, so by now, y’all know that the weather has delayed the shuttle launch til tomorrow. It was s’pposed to fly today at 3:49 pm, & they called it at 3:41 pm. If you’re in the ‘cockpit’ (or whatever they call it if it’s a shuttle), then that’s gotta be a major buzz-kill. I mean, all your internal systems are a go-go. Your adrenaline’s all hopped up, you’re super anxious; having trained for this moment for years.

That’s one thing. But here’s the other. The shuttle launches from the Kennedy Space Center in FL. I heard yesterday that out of the 365 days a year, FL has the most thunderstorms (over 250 a year). Why would they choose to spend millions (prob billions) of dollars to establish a NASA base in a place where they know they’re going to experience so many weather issues? And that’s just the thunderstorms; not the hurricanes, which could level the entire structure of the base to the ground.

Total sidenote: I live right next door to the NASA base here in Cleve. And I think it’s really cool that more astronauts have call OH their home state than any other state in the Union (including Armstrong, Glenn, & the dude from Apollo 13 who told Houston they had issues).

Ok, back to the topic. Here’s the whole reason for this post. There were 2 NASA officials who flat out said NOT to go on w/ this launch. Not b/c of the weather. But b/c of safety issues w/ the foam. I mean, don’t they remember the tragedy that just recently happened? The 2 ppl that said not to do this launch are the chief engineer & the chief safety officer. Um, if you didn’t want their opinion anyway, why’d ya ask?!? This happens constantly; ppl ask someone what they think & then do whatever they want anyway. But in this case, the ppl they asked were trained experts that they hired just to prevent a disaster (like Columbia) from happening again. Well, the ppl who voted to go on w/ the launch are the administration hot-shots, like the senior managers & such. It’s more important that NASA & the Space missions look like they’re progressing.

Who cares what the safety & engineer experts have to say, right?

Related stories:
CNN story
Reuters via Washington Post
NY Times