Question????

I have to give a "persuasive" presentation on why it is impoprtant to
support the space program despite the various dumb mistakes, tradgedies, and
other mishaps.

Does anyone know of a place where I can find a complete listing of all STS
missions since day one??

I have dug around all over NASA's site, and had little luck. the closest
thing I have found is a year by year breakdown. I would like an entire list.

And as if that weren't enough, I would also like to know exactly how many
STS missions there are total. though, I suppose that could be gathered from
the complete list...

Anyway, any help would be appreciated....

thanks,


--
-------------------------------------------
Sean G.
Who is neither nasty, tricksy, nor false!

"Sean G." wrote:
Does anyone know of a place where I can find a complete listing of all STS
missions since day one??

Sean -- I have what you're looking for on my website.

Specifically: http://space.balettie.com/ShuttleHistory.html

Each flight also has a link to a NASA PAO page with more info.

Roger
--
Roger Balettie
former Flight Dynamics Officer
Space Shuttle Mission Control
http://www.balettie.com/

On Tue, 15 Jul 2003 21:41:05 -0500, "Sean G."
wrote:

I have to give a "persuasive" presentation on why it is impoprtant to
support the space program despite the various dumb mistakes, tradgedies, and
other mishaps.

....Use my favorite one: if you're against space exploration, you're an
anti-American Godless heathen communist ******* deserving of a painful
death followed by hanging your carcass from a tree to provide food for
the buzzards.

Oh, and you'll go to Hell for denouncing NASA, too.


OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

"Lefty Skywalker" wrote in message
...
Sean G. wrote:
I have to give a "persuasive" presentation on why it is impoprtant to
support the space program despite the various dumb mistakes, tradgedies,
and
other mishaps.

Does anyone know of a place where I can find a complete listing of all
STS
missions since day one??

I have dug around all over NASA's site, and had little luck. the closest
thing I have found is a year by year breakdown. I would like an entire
list.

And as if that weren't enough, I would also like to know exactly how
many
STS missions there are total. though, I suppose that could be gathered
from
the complete list...

Anyway, any help would be appreciated....

Hey, this sounds like something to discuss!

1. Why go to space?

a. "Because it's there." It's big and interesting and there's lots of
stuff out there we don't know a thing about.
a. Space contains vast quantities of resources, especially metals and
sunshine.

2. Why send people to space?

a. People can do things robots can't, from mechanical, cognitive, and
political perspectives. Perhaps most interestingly, people can claim
territory - especially if launched from a nation that hasn't signed any
of those silly 1960s treaties.
b. There's no lightspeed delay to the robot when you're actually on
Mars. Hence, no silly boulder-collision incidents, an opportunity to
catch kilos-to-pounds conversion mistakes, etc.
c. Space is interesting. If you can walk outside on Titan with a heated
parka and a breather, isn't that worth doing? (And if you can also
strap on a set of wings and fly, well hell!) If there's life on Europa
or Ganymede, shouldn't a person be there to see it first?

3. Is NASA the right way to do it? (Cover your eyes, Bill.)

a. NASA was subverted out of NACA to do the moon shots. They've been
dicking around in LEO ever since.
b. NASA's shuttle program is an abject failure, at least compared to
what they said they were going to do.
c. Every attempt to replace the shuttle gets canceled a few years after
it starts. Meanwhile, the three remaining airworthy shuttles are
nineteen, eighteen, and eleven years old, respectively. They are
textbook hangar queens, going a year between flights.
d. NASA wasted nearly a decade and billions of dollars on "Faster,
Cheaper, Better", which resulted in the loss of Mars Observer, Mars
Climate Orbiter, Mars Polar Lander and Deep Space 2, and the
cancellation of missions to Europa, Pluto and the Kuiper belt.
e. NASA reports to the President and is mainly a prestige toy for
American politicos. Dems build it up in the wrong direction with
boondoggle products, then the GOP slashes the budget and takes credit
for what got done. So Nixon cancells Apollo, Reagan slashes the
Shuttle, and Shrub slashes the Station
f. Ah yes, the station. Built on 1970s Russian hamster-tube
technology, the station is almost worthless. Due to the budget cuts by
Shrub, there is zero chance of meaningful science taking place there.
It's in a Russian-style orbit so the Shuttle can't lift nearly as much
to it as it could to an American orbit. Columbia, which was an early,
heavy iteration of the Shuttle design, couldn't make it to the Station
at all with a worthwhile payload. With the Shuttle down and out, the
crew is forced to rely on Russian capsules which haven't changed design
since even longer than the Shuttle has been around.
g. Let's not even talk about Columbia. What's happened since is far
worse than the accident itself. The real outcome, however, is to
showcase what a mess the Shuttle program is in the first place.


--
Daniel O. Miller

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the
fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true
science. Whosoever does not know it and can no longer marvel, is as good
as dead, and his eyes are dimmed." - Albert Einstein

WWYD?

(hotmail addy is a red herring; I'm at em see aych ess aye)


Suggestions for improvement then??

I think some good common sense folk in amongst the nerds at NASA would be a
great help....


*dream sequence Monday AM at Kennedy, the water cooler*

Bill the nerd: "I have been tasked with finding a ballpoint pen that will
write in zero-grav applications, for further use in space! Isn't that
exciting?!"

Sean G the normal guy (slightly hung over and praying for less humidity):
"Umm, yea Bill great. Will you use the millions of dollars worth of grant
money to fix the masking tape on our glasses?"

Bill: "No WAY, wow, that would be like, misappropriation of government fund
and stuff, I could NEVER do that."

Sean G: "So beer and lap dance lunches at the Pink Palace are out from now
on, huh? Damn. Your turn to buy too. All because of a pen."

Bill: "You know about that?!"

Sean G: "I started the tradition. That and a few others around here..."

Bill: "I can't wait to get to work on defying the laws of gravity that
restrict use of ballpoint pens in space. I wonder how I'm going to figure
the physics of the whole thing." *mind starts churning*

Sean G: "Straightening your tie and getting rid of the flood pants, and
pocket protector might help."

Bill: "Like, wow, I wonder who will be on my R&D team? How long you think
we'll have until deadline?"

Sean G: "Bill, I think you should hire a Russian consultant. He could solve
you problem in about thrity seconds, and we could then get back to the
covert work of misappropriation we were discussing earlier."

Bill(shocked): "A Ruusky?! How the hell could a Russian solve my problem
that fast?! Have they figured it out? When??"

Sean G: "The Russians use pencils in space, Bill."

*end dream sequence*

AS I understand it, something closely akin to this happened. We waste vast
amounts of money overthinking simple problems, while often, the solution is
basic. An example would be the metric conversion mars debacle.

That is my suggestion...get some common sense folk in amongst the nerds.
I bet it would work wonders.


--
-------------------------------------------
Sean G.
Who is neither nasty, tricksy, nor false!

"Sean G." wrote in
:

Bill(shocked): "A Ruusky?! How the hell could a Russian solve my
problem that fast?! Have they figured it out? When??"

Sean G: "The Russians use pencils in space, Bill."

*end dream sequence*

AS I understand it, something closely akin to this happened.

Nope, everything you wrote above was horse****.

NASA didn't develop the "space pen". The Fisher Pen company did, using its
own funds, then sold pens to NASA and the public.

Pencils in micro-g are a bad idea. They shed graphite dust that can be
inhaled by the crew, and can float into sensitive electronics. The
Russians wised up and started using Fisher Space Pens years ago.

That is my suggestion...get some common sense folk in amongst the
nerds. I bet it would work wonders.

This is my suggestion: study actual history instead of fiction and urban
legends.

--
JRF

Reply-to address spam-proofed - to reply by E-mail,
check "Organization" (I am not assimilated) and
think one step ahead of IBM.

"Roger Balettie" writes:
Specifically: http://space.balettie.com/ShuttleHistory.html

Just so you know, Roger's site is a good place to go for this info.
He's not saying this just because it's his site.

Jeff
--
Remove "no" and "spam" from email address to reply.
If it says "This is not spam!", it's surely a lie.

"jeff findley" wrote:
Just so you know, Roger's site is a good place to go for this info.
He's not saying this just because it's his site.

Thanks Jeff...

Actually, I just made an update on the history page
(http://space.balettie.com/ShuttleHistory.html)... I had the STS-98 payload
mistakenly listed as "Unity", rather than "Destiny"... a cut-and-paste
error!

It's been corrected (thanks Julian!).

Roger
--
Roger Balettie
former Flight Dynamics Officer
Space Shuttle Mission Control
http://www.balettie.com/

"Roger Balettie" wrote in message
. ..
Actually, I just made an update on the history page
(http://space.balettie.com/ShuttleHistory.html)... I had the STS-98
payload
mistakenly listed as "Unity", rather than "Destiny"... a cut-and-paste
error!

It's been corrected (thanks Julian!).

Roger,

Just an idea... How about adding a link to this page he

http://members.aol.com/WSNTWOYOU/mainmr.htm

That would make your page the handiest & most complete individual mission
reference site on the Internet, I think.

In news:Sean G. typed:

It was half meant to be a joke. I think I realize the implications of
pencil shavings floating around sensitive electronics.

But that doesn't really explain the footage of astronauts playing
with food then does it?

My god what a catastrophe a wayward zero-g banana would cause if
what's his name didn't actually catch it with his mouth that time and
it whizzed past him and into the big red button or something.

Oh, and yeah, microscopic graphite is REAL hazardous...better get them
schoolkids using those Fisher-Price pens instead. Wrote your
congressman on the hazards of microscopic graphite dust right away.

You should be a little MORE uptight...really, you should.

Hey rube, and what turnip truck did you just fall off of? What a
maroon.
--
Mike
__________________________________________________ ______
"Colorado Ski Country, USA" Come often, Ski hard,
Spend *lots* of money, Then leave as quickly as you can.

"Mike Speegle" wrote in message
...
In news:Sean G. typed:

It was half meant to be a joke. I think I realize the implications of
pencil shavings floating around sensitive electronics.

But that doesn't really explain the footage of astronauts playing
with food then does it?

My god what a catastrophe a wayward zero-g banana would cause if
what's his name didn't actually catch it with his mouth that time and
it whizzed past him and into the big red button or something.

Oh, and yeah, microscopic graphite is REAL hazardous...better get them
schoolkids using those Fisher-Price pens instead. Wrote your
congressman on the hazards of microscopic graphite dust right away.

You should be a little MORE uptight...really, you should.

Hey rube, and what turnip truck did you just fall off of? What a
maroon.
--
Mike
__________________________________________________ ______
"Colorado Ski Country, USA" Come often, Ski hard,
Spend *lots* of money, Then leave as quickly as you can.



Rube??

That supposed to be me??


--
-------------------------------------------
Sean G.
Who is neither nasty, tricksy, nor false!