Shuttle program back on track!
 

Don't miss the launch of STS 114
Mission is scheduled for 3:51 p.m. EDT July 13

Set your players too:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

Direct link for Mplayer:
mplayer -cache 4 -playlist http://www.nasa.gov/55644main_NASATV_Windows.asx

KC

Well..not exactly: http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/0...tle/index.html
CNN title says it all: Shuttle launch delayed until at least Saturday

NASA said the sensor device was showing low fuel levels despite the exterior tank having been filled just hours before.

Hmm, I have the same problem with my truck too... Mybe they should use the old dip-stick method...

Besides, I kept telling them to replace that one remaining windows box onboard... sheesh!

KC

I guess it pays to be careful. They seem to be running out of spacecraft...

What a difference it would have made if they had simply used the already-proven first stage booster rocket from the Saturn V. It's a rocket that you can actually turn-off, unlike the giant fireworks rockets they use today. Furthermore, the first-stage was equipped with a simple guidance system that would allow it to reliably "hit the ocean" if a crew had to do something else that is currently impossible... namely, to eject the darned thing and fly back to a controlled (albeit dead-stick) landing at the Cape.

This would also have enabled the shuttle's engines to be conserved for maneuvering purposes (the first-stage has more than enough power to lift the shuttle on its own), and it would have eliminated the weak-point in the heat shield that is caused by the need to run fuel-lines through it from the external tank.

Both of the disasters were directly linked to the choice of solid-fuel boosters and an external, unshielded tank. Maybe what NASA should really do is to belatedly re-engineer what was (known to be) a fundamentally flawed design from the start. A sophisticated shuttle really deserves a proper launch-system, which it has never had.

sundialsvcs,

NASA can't use the Saturn V technology because the government destroyed the blueprints (all the Originals and copies).
They did this to prevent spies from stealing them to create nuclear tipped ICBMs.

So the US is stuck with the shuttle launch technology it has.