Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!mvk
From: mvk@aix01.aix.rpi.edu (Michael V. Kent)
Subject: Re: Shuttle Status for 04/22/91 (Forwarded)
Message-ID: <aysgnza@rpi.edu>
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Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY
References: <1991Apr22.234907.29805@news.arc.nasa.gov> <rose.672376814@beowulf> <1991Apr23.133522.21767@zoo.toronto.edu>
Date: 24 Apr 91 00:43:14 GMT
Lines: 23

In article <1991Apr23.133522.21767@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <rose.672376814@beowulf> rose@beowulf.ucsd.edu (Dan Rose) writes:
>>This may be a naive question, but . . . Why do they have these planned
>>countdown holds?  Maybe "countdown" has a more specific meaning to
>>NASA than it does to me, but it seems like there's no sense in starting
>>a countdown until it's, well, time to count down.
>
>Well, the reason for having pauses in the sequence is to give some slack
>in case minor problems develop (which does happen with some frequency).
>However, it is basically a NASA quirk that the clock stops during these
>planned pauses.  They could just as easily be figured into the official
>clock time.

Not to correct the famous Henry Spencer :) but I believe the holds are there
on purpose.  The reason is that it is psychologically easier to extend a
planned hold than to stop the countdown in progress.


-- 
Michael Kent                                  mvk@itsgw.rpi.edu
McDonnell Douglas                             Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
St. Louis, Missouri                           Troy, New York
                               Apple II Forever!
