Super week

To kick it off (pun!) the Giants won the superbowl which is great because I love underdogs.  Today not much is going on but tomorrow is Super Tuesday where something on the order or 25 states are holding primaries for the next President.  That’s pretty cool.  And of course, the best thing this week (crosses fingers) is the launch of Atlantis.

When you’re a huge space/science buff you learn to expect delays in launch these incredibly complex machines.  The orbiter, being the most complex, needs extra attention when problems arise.  This case was a faulty fuel sensor in the large orange tank.  While there are multiple redundant systems, they will not launch if they know one is failing.  The purpose is that once in flight, you can have a failure and have backups.  If you launch with a failure and have a failure in flight you might be left with one system and no backup.  Another failure would be a “bad day” as they call it.  If the fuel sensors failed or sent incorrect data for instance, the engines might be shut off prematurely.  That’s a guaranteed bad day.  Another scenario might have the engines no shutting down properly.  The pumps spin at 36,000rpm inside those things.  I hear if they spin without fuel the damage can be catastrophic.  I’ll take their word.

After all the work is done to make these vehicles flight ready, after every screw, strap, bolt, pump, lever, knob, button, system, wire, cable, etc, is checked, there is only one thing left to do; pray.  Pray that all those items you check do not fail.  Once the vehicle is in flight, you can’t pull it over.  There is no pitstop and nothing on this planet can catch up with it short of another orbiter or a few other launch vehicles that take weeks of preparation to make flight ready.

No, space flight is not routine.  It will not be for a long time.  The guys that want tourists in space are visionaries and pioneers but people will die.  I guarantee it.  Everything is a calculated risk and you have money and lives on the line.  I doubt the high rollers in Vegas could stomach the intensity of saying “there is a 5% chance we’ll lose the crew if X happens but it’s better than the initial 7% so it’s within the acceptable limit”.

Godspeed!

[L]