Okay, so I'm sure that our pals at the NASA public affairs office figured that they'd never have to deal with news as bad for their precious image as when the now infamous star-crossed lover drove 1/2 way across our great land to confront a romantic rival. Well folks, today might have eclipsed that.
So first was a report supposedly released today that indicates sometime in the past, a couple of shuttle fliers tied on a few too many the night before riding a rocket into the unknown. As sketchy as the details are, one has to wonder what this report really says. Am i saying it didn't happen? Absolutely not. It probably has. But it's about as vague as one could imagine, since no one in the public has actually seen it.
A few hours later, a story breaks that a sub-contractor sabotaged a laptop due to fly in a couple of weeks. He clipped wires inside the damn thing, as well as an identical non-flying unit. Okay, dude has some gripe. whatever.
What irritates me to some degree is not that these stories came out, but their timing. I'm glad this info is out in the public domain, seeing as how we the taxpayers fund this work. But why now, on the eve of the conclusion of the FRR (Flight Readiness Review), which is a 3 day fun fest where the zillion shuttle managers meet in one big telecon to decide whether or not the launch should proceed. The date has been set for 7 August. Right around the corner. When in addition to more space station stuff the first Educator Astronaut will fly, 21 years after serving as Christa McAllife's backup for Challenger's flight. Sure, they need to draw attention, but now? That computer fiasco happened a week and a half ago. The medical report has been due out for months now.
There's a stroke of brilliance!!! Let's boost the public's confidence right before we fly one of the most visible missions since Columbia! It's almost as if they hope something bad will happen. Odds are they'll be disappointed. It's just shit like this that makes one want to bitch-slap some sense into these people.
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