USA Today is reporting this week about the cost of launch delays, and we're curious what you all think. Here's a quick excerpt from the story by Traci Watson.
You can read the full story here. Please, click on comment below to weigh in if you have thoughts. Thanks.
Gridlock at the nation's launch pads is getting so bad that NASA plans to have space shuttle Endeavour bump a high-priority moon mission, costing taxpayers money to keep workers on contract.
The bottleneck at U.S. launch pads in Florida has already led to costly delays in launching some of NASA's scientific spacecraft and could force the agency to spend millions of dollars to avoid postponing long-awaited missions to Mars and Jupiter, say NASA officials.
Delays are costly mostly because they require NASA to keep paying the large team of contract workers who take care of a spacecraft and get it running after it's in space.
Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral 
1 comment:
True, bit isn't it just a statement of the bl**ding obvious?
It's an expensive business and the bottlenecks are largely outside NASA's control.
There is a lot that can delay launches. Mechanical problems, weather, orbital windows (“Captain, I canna change the laws of physics!”)
I expect the Range's tracking systems could be upgraded to support two simultaneous launches, but would it be worth the cost? No.
It's certainly a problem, but one without any real solution.
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