Discovery discovering

Discovery nears space station.:

"The foam is not believed to have hit Discovery, but its existence means it is back to the drawing boards for NASA.

'Until we're ready, we won't fly again,' shuttle program manager Bill Parsons said.

'I don't know when that might be.'

Tuesday's Discovery launch was the first shuttle mission since the three-shuttle fleet was grounded after Columbia."

We heard Adelaide astronaut on the news this morning speaking from the shuttle and people were ringing in from Port Hughes because they got a really good view of Discovery passing by us. Adelaide saw bugga all because we had fog. Fog. On the day we might have seen our first glimpse. Or maybe not. The Port Hughes people were up early and all sounded wide awake and so pleased. This is a big thing for us. Whoever spoke later on behalf of NASA was a might short and tetchy but not rude. NASA people are usually remarkable friendly and very giving in their interviews. I guess it must have been a bit of a strain and will be a bit of a strain because so much money has been spent and these guys have put in their all to get something magical happening in our century. I think NASA has provided us with great vision and information even though some of the adventures have been fraught with disaster. People do not see it any longer as pioneering, but it is. It's just that NASA does a very professional job and so it's awful when it all goes wrong. The Discovery is docking with the Space Station. It all seems so unbelieveable they got in a shuttle and went up into the heavens and are going to be talking to people on a space station. Whether the shuttle debris will or will not be a problem is to be seen and I guess part of this is to see how much people can work out. It will be something we have to do in the future... ascertain situations from great distances given the data we can collect. Training our brains to perform differently. This is why the guy from NASA was getting a bit short. People wanted cut and dried answers and he was trying to say he had none because they had reams of data to analyse and weren't about to make a stab in the dark. They were trying to make the best possible assessment. I figured he was just tired from all the shuttle shuffle and what it must have entailed. So we'll see. May they all be successful, everyone who is involved in this mission.