Cape Canaveral, FL – NASA has called off Friday’s launch of space shuttle Endeavour because of a heater failure.
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Commander Mark Kelly and his crew were on their way to the launch pad, when NASA halted the countdown. The astronauts’ van did a U-turn, and returned the astronauts to crew quarters.
NASA spokesman George Dillard says the next try will be Sunday at the earliest.
NASA reported earlier that two heaters on an auxiliary power unit were not working. Engineers could not understand the problem, and the launch was halted.
Kelly is married to wounded congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. She is already in Cape Canaveral. President Barack Obama planned to watch the launch but had not yet arrived.
These continued manned space missions are not only placing the astronauts at risk, but they are a tremendous waste of the taxpayer’s money. From 1957-1969, we were in a race with the Russians to be first in space, and to eventually land men on the moon. In fact, 12 American astronauts landed on the moon from 1969-1972, and safely returned to earth. Moon rocks were brought back. Yet, in over 40 years, the public has never been apprised as to the content of the moon rocks. Since that time, billions upon billions of additional taxpayer dollars have been poured into the space program, and for what? It is a huge waste of money, and it should be cut to the bone!
“Yet, in over 40 years, the public has never been apprised as to the content of the moon rocks”
There have been numerous articles in both the general and scientific literature on the chemistry, physics, and lunar geology of moon rocks.
The “billions upon billions” of dollars have given us satellite communications and GPS as well as insights into cosmology, meteorology, geology, basic sciences, etc.
While the role of “manned spaceflight” is debatable (the cost of life support vs the benefit of direct human control and intelligence), the benefits of a US presence in space are tremendous.