Friday, February 22, 2008

Nor'easter A'Blowin'

The east coast of the U.S. is experiencing miserable weather today. Freezing cold, ice, and snow. And the winds are so fierce in D.C. today, that the wind chill can be felt in Houston.

Wayne Hale, #1 shuttle hugger, has been sacked. A rift in the Force has occurred.

Of course, no one is really ever fired from the senior executive service. They are only re-assigned and moved from their home port to a remote location until they decide to give in and find other employment. In Hale's case, he will move to the ice coast and serve at Viceroy Gerst's side as a DoD liaison watching RS-68s come off the assembly line. That's what he gets for falling on his sword and getting in the way of the Constellation Program, protecting his test stands at Stennis and his floor space at Michoud.

And you can bet that Viceroy Hanley is walking a little bow-legged today. But he better watch his back now. The angry bear has been awakened.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ouch. Those cosmic discontinuities can be a real problem for the crew.

All that shaking, and the vibrations!

Hopefully nobody got their brains scrambled or anything bad like that.

Me said...

Incorrect and not based on any reality

Me said...

The outsider part of your profile is very applicable. Forgot to add clueless though

Anonymous said...

Hey look, it's James O. Behling.

I'd recognize that punctuation style and penetrating insight anywhere.

I was wondering when you would show up for the party. When you have something to contribute here, you just let us know, ok? We'll be waiting patiently for your insights.

Rocket Man said...

It is what it is. Feel free to ask Hale why he changed his mind about wanting to stay in his job until 2010 when the shuttle retires. Ask him if he wanted to change jobs. And then ask Gerst why Hale is the only guy that is capable of doing the new job. No, the Emperor did to Hale what he did to Skip Hatfield, what he does to anyone that does not stay his course.

Anonymous said...

According to this Article

http://www.floridatoday.com/snipped

Mr. Hale will be a 'communicator' not a 'manager'. nor even an 'administrator'.

Now, if Mr. Hale were put into a position commensurate with his talents and abilities as an engineer, manager and administrator, in order to 'develop' credible strategies for future flights to the space station or the moon, perhaps using existing EELVs and/or a new launcher such as the type I have graciously outlined for NASA in my recent

COTS Proposal :

http://webpages.charter.net/tsiolkovsky/

then that would indeed be cause for optimism.

But on the contrary, Michael Griffin claims eminent domain as the chief engineer, administrator and manager of all aspects of these processes, and the chances of him delegating or relinquishing these tasks, short of being fired by the next administration, is exactly ZERO.

What is interesting here is that credible launch vehicle and space program architectures that utilize both existing EELVs and second generation SSME powered conventional SSTO and stage and a half rockets such as I have proposed, really have very little need for Michoud floor space or Stennis test stands, primarily for commercial cost reduction reasons. But surely with the anticipated upcoming demise of VSE, ESAS and Constellation, these facilities will again become available.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with being a 'shuttle hugger', as long as that love is directed at the heart and muscle of the shuttle - the SSMEs, and only in future programs using existing engines in development test flights. Surely if Mr. Musk can field a new launcher with a new engine development program, then NASA should be able to field a new launcher using existing engines. That would indeed be an ideal task for the inestimable Mr. Wayne Hale.

Unknown said...

"Incorrect and not based on any reality"

Hale's disappointment and uncertainty about the duties of his new job in this article support the blog:

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0802/26hale/

It would appear that RocketsAndSuch got it right.