I'm extremely happy that they made it back safely but most of my feelings are summed up by Burt Rutan in his 2005 speech to the National Space Society (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2343976776379780431&q=burt+rutan).
We should truly be doing better than where we are.
*sighs* I wish it wasn't so desperately scary now. I remember feeling this way when I first realized just how much of airplanes and driving depending on other people not being idiots.
The one bit of comfort: our poor shuttles have been flying all this time with the falling-foam problem, and no one knew it until Columbia got hit. So the odds are good.
I know, I know, my dad's a blinkin' rocket scientist who worked on the shuttle program (and many other things) for decades, and and I'm still nervous these days. My brain knows that chances are overwhelmingly high the shuttles will be retired and replaced before there are any more mishaps. My heart still flinches with every launch now.
And it is time to be taking some of what we've learned in the last 20 years and getting their replacements flying. But our government will always have other priorities, like invading various countries in the Middle East until the region's destabilized enough that they don't have TIME to ponder other matters like space development, the medical system, the economy, the environment, or anything else other than "wow, look at the huge international mess."
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-17 01:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-17 01:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-17 02:19 pm (UTC)I was on pins and needles with a knot in my stomach when Discovery launched and was biting my nails all the way back to touchdown.
Its time for a MAJOR change. I'm not going to rest well during the rest of the shuttle fleet's missions.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-17 03:04 pm (UTC)We should truly be doing better than where we are.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-17 03:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-17 06:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-17 07:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-18 12:50 am (UTC)The one bit of comfort: our poor shuttles have been flying all this time with the falling-foam problem, and no one knew it until Columbia got hit. So the odds are good.
I know, I know, my dad's a blinkin' rocket scientist who worked on the shuttle program (and many other things) for decades, and and I'm still nervous these days. My brain knows that chances are overwhelmingly high the shuttles will be retired and replaced before there are any more mishaps. My heart still flinches with every launch now.
And it is time to be taking some of what we've learned in the last 20 years and getting their replacements flying. But our government will always have other priorities, like invading various countries in the Middle East until the region's destabilized enough that they don't have TIME to ponder other matters like space development, the medical system, the economy, the environment, or anything else other than "wow, look at the huge international mess."