WEEKLY WHINE

I can tell you this

Things always happen. In my experience, I've found that things can happen at exactly the wrong instances. When this is the case frequently, it can result in something like the Chandra X Ray Observatory being delayed for a very long time.

I always find things that happen at exactly the wrong instances. Sometimes this interrupts my work, my enjoyment, or merely my inactivity. This is especially a problem for me because I tend to formulate my plans several days in advance. At the last opportunity for it to occur, something happens that completely destroys all my plans. It can be annoying.

Sometimes it's worth it. There are occasions when I have had the opportunity to do something interesting and fun without planning for it. Of course, I usually have more interesting and more fun when I plan it.

When someone else is responsible for my interesting and fun, it's not customised for me. I know what is interesting and fun for me. Sometimes other people do as well. Only sometimes, though.

Thus, I have many occasions when my interesting and fun is destroyed by someone else's interesting and fun. But also common are the occasions when my noninteresting and nonfun is destroyed by someone else's interesting and fun. I like those occasions, although they can often result in my having something else to do that I would have done.

There are also occasions when nothing at all happens. I don't like those occasions.

As I type this, Astronaut Cady Coleman is asking the Mission Control Center about their computer. It seems that drive D: has no volume label. I don't know whether they would like to fix that or anything, but perhaps there will be some complex solution to this problem. I understand their plight; all of my disks have volume labels.

Going back to whatever it was to which I was referring earlier, I have plans that should be disrupted on some occasions and plans that should not be disrupted on others. I imagine that there are many people like this who have complex requirements with respect to their plans. My plans are sometimes important enough for control like this.

It seems that Coleman is now checking out some messages that Houston transferred to Columbia. These include some kind of "execute package" or other. Someone should really be explaining these things so we know what astronauts do.

To supplement NASA TV, there should be a television network that is dedicated to space exploration. This network would cover a variety of space events, including Space Shuttle missions, Mir, everyone's unmanned spacecrafts, everyone's launches, and so on. There is already a new site, space.com, run by former CNN guy Lou Dobbs. This space network's activities might be similar to those of space.com. [Yes, you have to put "space.com" in lowercase.] It would have live coverage of such conferences as the Fifth International Conference on Mars, held this past week here at Caltech.

This network would probably be a lot like ESPN, except that it would be about space. The Space Exploration Programming Network, SEPN. It would have news reports at various intervals during the day during which the recent events in space would be summarised: SpaceCenter.

"Here's Columbia on the launch pad a few hours ago. Three - two - one - and it will go into space real fast."

Okay, maybe it won't be that much like ESPN. It would, however, offer "bonus coverage" of, for example, Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 capsule being raised off the floor of the Atlantic. There might be something of a picture-in-picture, wherein they show Columbia's preparations for launch in a box in the upper right hand corner during the efforts to pull the Mercury capsule onto the ship.

The network's on air talent might include such interesting people as retired Astronaut Story Musgrave. Musgrave, a veteran of STS-6, STS-51F, STS-33, STS-44, STS-61, and STS-80, has long been one of the most popular and interesting astronauts. He has been retired for almost two years now and may be an interesting commentator to team with, for example, the legendary Walter Cronkite, or the popular Miles O'Brien. Stay tuned.