Tuesday, August 09, 2005

you should have gone before we left the ISS

I'm watching NASA TV on my computer, and checking the live landing coverage on nasa.gov every few minutes. Here's the latest on the latter:
4:15 a.m. - There are two important decisions to be made by Mission Control within the next hour. The first will occur about 4:35, when the crew would have to start "fluid loading," in which the astronauts drink large amounts of fluid to help in their re-adaptation to Earth's gravity. Flight controllers held off on fluid loading prior to the first landing opportunity because the uncooperative weather indicated a wave-off.
In other words, you don't want them "fluid loading" if they're not coming down yet. Because, you know...