Shuttle Endeavour was due to launch early this morning but engineers couldn’t fix a liquid hydrogen leak.
Despite troubleshooting efforts, engineers were unable to achieve a decrease in the liquid hydrogen leak.
Color me crazy but if I were set to ride a rocket built by low-bid contracts I would want the leak fixed not just decreased to some acceptable level! The engineers attempted to stem the flow of liquid hydrogen from the vent using console commands but apparently the valve wasn’t in the mood to respond to computer code and the leak persisted.
But the leak was way out of spec again, and so we were just not comfortable pressing on.
Commander, you need to go talk to the techs and tell them that any leak is out of spec! They need to keep the fire where it belongs.
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Love that part about “we” were not comfortable pressing on. And they’re the ones on the ground??? Yeah, just hop in here and shoot off to space with a piece of duct tape on that valve, it’ll be fine, don’t worry!!
Engineers. Geez.
Easy to criticize what you don’t understand! Whether you know it or not (or whether it just lessens the ability to compain if you admit it), the astronauts, the engineers, the ground crews, the return crews, the managers and on and on- they are a team. No doubt the astronauts carry the greatest personal risk, but those folks on the ground bear varying amounts of physical risk and all the emotional risk. If you had only been there after Columbia broke up… love to see you criticize then!
Mikey, I may not understand all the ins and outs of it, but pretty sure this blog host knows quite a bit about it.
No one is trying to step on your toes, only saying it’s a different situation. Glad that you all are a team, but there’s risk and feeling bad after and then there’s risk and death.
My father is an engineer. I wasn’t degrading the engineers – I was attempting to point out how ridiculous it sounds than any level of leaking fuel would be acceptable for a launch.
And yes, I do know what it means to be a part of a tight team and come home missing a few.
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