I promised Kyle the Mainer that I'd tell the story of why the International Space Station is screwed. You will recall that on July 21st STS-135 ended the Space Shuttle program (these are the astronauts that are Stephen's guests tonight).
The plan was that going forward there would be a semi-permanent crew of 6 at the International Space Station supported by regular visits of Russian Progress unmanned supply capsules and the crew rotated 3 at a time by manned Soyuz capsules with 2 extra attached to the Station as 'life boats'.
On August 24th, about 8 days after this interview was taped, a Russian Soyuz launch vehicle (as opposed to capsule) with a Progress supply payload crashed shortly after launch.
No big deal said people at the time, we'll just stretch out supplies and launch another one soon. They even made jokes about one of the Russians having to borrow flight suits from an American.
It turns out that it was much more serious. You see, it was the second such failure in a row and the Soyuz launch program was suspended indefinitely a day later.
Not only that, the delay of the planned September crew rotation mission is a real problem which, as reported Monday the 29th could result in the complete evacuation of the ISS by November.
The problem you see is that the Hydrogen Peroxide component of the maneuvering thruster fuel on a Soyuz capsule degrades over time. Quite quickly in fact, it only has a safe life of 210 days. Both the 'life boat' re-entry vehicles are near their limit and must be replaced by units traveling with crew replacements.
So there is talk of evacuation and leaving the Station unmanned for the first time in over 10 years. There are 2 problems with this- the first is component failure. While the Station can be controlled from the ground, if there is a problem requiring maintenance the chances of having the entire platform de-orbit and burn up in the atmosphere start at 10% in the first 6 months and rise to 50% after a year.
The second problem is that there are already people questioning the utility of the ISS and the need for a crew at all.
So this is why the Space Station is screwed. Keep it in mind as you watch tonight's interview.
A lot of the links are to my Evening Editions but we do other things.
Today on The Stars Hollow Gazette
* On This Day In History September 1 by TheMomCat
* Punting the Pundits (daily) by TheMomCat
* Evening Edition (daily) by ek hormbeck
* Countdown with Keith Olbermann: Worst Persons 8.31.11 by: TheMomCat
Features for September 1, 2011-
* Roubini: We're Going Into A Second Recession by: TheMomCat
* "(W)e want to look forward and not back." by: ek hornbeck
* Mass Exodus of Teachers In Wisconsin by: TheMomCat
The Stars Hollow Gazette
DocuDharma Digest
* Muse in the Morning by: Robyn
* Cartnoon by: ek hornbeck
Featured Essays-
* On This Day In History September 1 by: TheMomCat
* "Why is it so hard to see that train a comin'?" by: ek hornbeck
* Obama Concedes Election More Than a Year Before It Happens by: Archangel M
* Public Policy Polling by: ek hornbeck
* FDIC Objects to BoA Bailout & Files Suit by: TheMomCat
DocuDharma
Thank goodness there's no Formula One this weekend since I'll be spending most of it, starting tomorrow, on the TV server install I've been talking about.
Tonight's Episodes
* Jon- Mark Adams (8/8/11)
* Stephen- STS-135 (8/16/11)
I'll handle Labor Day Monday's repeat and then hopefully Tuesday we'll have the lovely and talented TiaRachel as our mistress of the late night 'fake' news.