Originally Posted by banzaitoyota' post='826988' date='Jul 5 2006, 06:20 PM

the earth is flat you know!

Originally Posted by psyclo' post='826914' date='Jul 5 2006, 10:30 AM

We had a professor at my university that worked on the Apollo program and he explained to us how hard it is to not have a failure.



He started by asking if we thought having a 99.9% success rate for components was adequate. As that sounds like a damned to good rate we of course all said yes, he then went on to explain just how many individual components there are on just the Apollo rockets. If they used success rates of 99.9% as a standard they would never have gotten of the launch pad. When designing components they need to meet some ridiculous success rate, it's something on the order of 99.9999%



Crazy stuff. I liked how they showed the launch on TV showing telemetry and such. Kinda like an F1 race, it made the launch more exciting than just seeing the camera on the main tank. Also, I think the commentary explaining just what was happening made it more interesting and understandable for the lay person watching it.



So props to them for getting a good TV deal, NASA needs to get some kickass PR going if they want to stay a legitimate and even reasonably successful agency. I don't think most people understand the need for their existence, mainly because they don't know how much kickass stuff they do, or just how complicated and difficult it is, especially with such a stingy budget.

Originally Posted by 1988RedT2' post='827047' date='Jul 6 2006, 08:19 AM

I don't know what the big deal is. We set off a bunch of fireworks on the 4th. They all went off. Why doesn't NASA just get the Chinese to build them a great big bottle rocket?

Originally Posted by j9fd3s' post='827056' date='Jul 6 2006, 10:38 AM

you ever LANDED a bottle rocket?

Originally Posted by phinsup' post='826979' date='Jul 5 2006, 05:19 PM

if people were meant to fly we'd have wings and feathers, if we were meant to go to space we'd be able to breathe there.

Originally Posted by z-beater' post='827134' date='Jul 6 2006, 03:24 PM

My sentiments EXACTLY... Boats are different because we can swim!

Originally Posted by j9fd3s' post='827155' date='Jul 6 2006, 09:51 PM

and get eaten by sharks!