Comments on: Delays For Shuttle Program?

By: alphonso richardson

alphonso richardson — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:50:20 +0000

Hey guys, it could be worse – they could've been serviced by the guys @ Heathrow Airport's new Terminal 5 in the UK!!

By: ANTHONY SAY'S

ANTHONY SAY'S — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:17:39 +0000

I think that nasa does delay allitle to much some times,but overall safety is the most important issue here,you all know how we all felt when the challenger (becouse of presure from administration to launch)went down and from columbia (becouse they didnt want to take the time to look at the ship with there cameras)came apart in front of our eyes so lets just be glad that they care about our crews rather than schedules..go nasa !!!

By: RUF

RUF — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:00:43 +0000

Remember, NASA is a government program, and I challenge anyone to cite an example of anything the gov't can do, and do well. Also, NASA is run by administrators and buearucrats — not engineers and scientists any more.

'nuff said….

By: von Dawson's Express

von Dawson's Express — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 23:17:15 +0000

There's always an excuse with NASA, am getting bored with it all, I don't think they will make it to the moon… It seem's to take for ever. We should have had colonies on both the moon and Mars by now.
Think I'll take up train-spotting, at least something happens there!
As for production tolerances thats a crock of shite, I have worked on Military equipment for some 33 years and it was never a problem.
I don't think theres any old style 'bosses' to tell people to get of there lazy arses into gear and get on with it, COME ON NASA MOVE IT!!!!

By: Greg

Greg — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:20:26 +0000

How many years do they need to retool after the Katrina disaster? How incompetent are these companies that NASA contracts with?

By: William Wagner

William Wagner — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:56:48 +0000

Private companies do the manufacturing now. NASA contracts each component out to various companies; like Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Michaud, etc. They don't assembly-line the parts: they have techs who, in addition to their other jobs, build shuttle components.

With low numbers of production comes less financial incentive to assembly-line the parts. Why have a factory that only needs to be used once a year for a short period of time???

And, while I'm not sure about the ESA, I know neither the Chinese nor the Japanese have a bus that could send a manned mission out into space, and we haven't perfected a robotic "repairman" yet, although we're working on it.

By: owen

owen — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:18:24 +0000

We should give funding to private companies to start up production of space shuttle components. This would create alot more jobs in the space industry so more people would get the qualifications required to work in the industry stopping these types of problems from happening.

By: joe

joe — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 11:36:50 +0000

sounds like something useful they need ot throw some more money at. It's amazing how delays dissappear when there is a financial incentive,

By: peter morley

peter morley — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 09:56:37 +0000

why not let esa service Hubble telescope,or the chinese or the japanese

By: Alex Black

Alex Black — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 04:37:50 +0000

The Russians have been using the assembly-line style of rocket and capsule manufacture for decades, and it has served them very well indeed. It was a clever, obvious, and cheap (relatively speaking) method of running a space program. There are a *few* things we could learn from them.

By: William Wagner

William Wagner — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 02:44:34 +0000

Having worked on space equipment, let me just say: putting together something like this isn't like putting together a car. The error tolerances are much smaller, as you can possibly imagine.
Plus, since most of these components are custom made, we are falling into the same manufacturing model that we had in the early 1800's: a few skilled craftsmen hand-build each part. And, of course, if one component isn't quite right (but isn't determined to be wrong until it hits the component assembly phase), you have to dig up one of those craftsmen and get him to build another part, by hand, of course.

Now, if we could set up a regular factory for spacecraft, you'll see the delays shrink. Unfortunately, this will probably require a number of people having their own shuttles, which I don't forsee any time soon.

By: Richard Callaby

Richard Callaby — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 01:20:52 +0000

Too bad that the shuttle program is going to be delayed yet again! I am getting tired of all these delays. We spend billions on the space program, although not nearly as much as the military, so shouldn't we expect some redundancy and better production cycles? I think as an American tax payer we should. Just my opinion of course.