Friday, July 08, 2011

Why does the last space shuttle flight have the smallest crew in a quarter century?

An exhaust plume surrounds the mobile launcher...Image via WikipediaI'm back in the Geek Trivia game full throttle on two fronts: TechTalk radio and TechRepublic's Geekend, asking why the final space shuttle mission will only carry four astronauts into orbit, which hasn't happened since Michael Jordan still wore Carolina blue.

Quoth the Geekend:

"Not since the maiden flight of Challenger in 1983 has a space shuttle operated with just a four-man complement. This reduced crew size can accommodate the extra payload on STS-135, but the payload isn’t the reason Atlantis is flying with the smallest crew in 28 years. That’s just a bonus."
I divulge NASA's secret in efficient text form via the Geekend, but go into more auditory detail on TechTalk. The latter podcast also includes an unrelated interview with the authors of The Techno-Human Condition (affiliate link), which is a fine primer on transhumanism. It's worth a listen above and beyond my trivial contributions.

No comments:

Post a Comment