The Art Neuro Weblog

Ain't That The Way?
They aborted the scheduled spacewalk today, thanks to a stuck switch. I guess it's better to be safe than sorry. However this looks bad:

American astronaut Michael Fincke, making his first spacewalk on Thursday, was outside the airlock for less than two minutes before Russian ground controllers ordered him to return, along with Russian colleague Gennady Padalka.

Mission Control in Moscow detected a drop in pressure from Fincke's primary oxygen tank, which might have indicated a dangerous leak.

But NASA said on Friday that an auxiliary switch for feeding oxygen to the Russian suit had been left in an "on" position, even though an indicator showed it was "off."

Mission managers a re meeting on Tuesday to reschedule the space walk.

They Say 'Better Late than Never', But There Is Such A Thing As Too Late, No?
NASA is considering offering cash prizes to offer cash prizes to milestones reached by private concerns. now this is a good idea if it wasn't for the fact that it comes in the wake of the SpaceShipOne achievement of Monday. Should NASA be in a positon to be handing out such prizes? Why didn't they think of it until now? Ddin't they thik that the Ansari X Prize might produce serious contenders? All in all, quite bizarre that this news comes to light now.

Meanwhile in the Land of Free Enterprise
The Scalar group has published details of the flight record for SpaceShipOne's historic Journey. It is interesting to note that the trip was not trouble free, as a key system did fail, but a backup system carried the day. In order to claim the Ansari X Prize, SpaceShipOne must still do the trip with 3 people, and do it again within 2 weeks. The Challenge is still on.

- Art Neuro