Go/No-Go "round the room" final checks by Flight

Bruce Palmer wrote:

I think they had it in their mandate to dumb down everything so Joe
Taxpayer could get an idea of what was going on just by tuning in for a
couple of minutes during a mission.


On a refreshingly down-to-earth note, I just got my SpaceDev Corporation
newsletter; which proudly states that the motor for Spaceship One "burns
rubber (HTPB) and laughing gas (N2O)". It does not state if the rubber
for the fuel element is cast in the form of a giant plucked chicken, to
make it more compatible with the laughing gas.




PAO: "Liftoff! We have liftoff of the Space Shuttle Whatever on a
12-day mission to blah blah blah."

It makes me gag everytime I hear it. They must actually pay someone to
dumb down the mission descriptions. I wonder how much NASA would save
by eliminating the Public Affairs Ofice and staff?


"And they ate Sir Robin's minstrels....and there was great rejoicing."

Would there be any
significant downside to that?


Fewer breathless descriptions of what the inanimate carbon rod is doing
at any given moment?

Pat