Egads. Saw that in preparation for their next expl...er, launch, the Nasholes had to shoo away vultures? If I were scheduled to go up in that can, I'd seriously think about developing some sort of illness to stay on the ground. With events of the past few years, debate about how much foam falling off will damage the shuttle (BTW, didn't that cause the last 'splosion?), the vultures can't be a good sign. Not superstitious, but damn. Nothing says your program is circling the drain like vultures circling about.

Kinda like a RICKAMAVEN thread then. LOL

it is a little known fact that every time the shuttle launches, hundreds of raccoons, possums, mice, and other small ground-dwelling animals are charred a nice medium rare...........the vultures congregate there out of habit.........waiting for lunch...umm, I mean "launch".

It's funny how the engineers are expressing serious doubts about the foam, and the head honchos are overiding their decisions. Kind of reminds me of Challenger . . .

Did you see the latest video on CNN that shows a vulture / bird strike on the nose cone of the big tank of the last launch? Killed the bird dead . . .

Also, how many launches have you seen when the blast off happens, hundreds of birds scatter . . . It's been like that for years . . .

Love that tid-bit, andy . . .

I was just reading about how workers in the area, with quite a bit of traffic, used to pick up road kill and just toss it a ways off the road for the vultures to feed on. Now they've taken to disposing of them to discourage the vultures from hanging around, citing rule #1 of pest control as eliminating the food source.

How about making rule #1 of space-going vehicles safer so that a 4 to 6 pound bird doesn't create the possibility of blowing up the craft? The idea that such a bird could cause such catastrophic results is mind-boggling. Next they'll be building a stone henge in danger of being trampled by dwarves.

Good luck in getting rid of vultures. Unbeknownst to many, the many miles surrounding the shuttle pads is a protected wildlife sanctuary. Along with ospreys, alligators, and sandhill cranes, theres about 50,000,000 turkey vultures. Possibly National security should step in to deem if the vultures directly afecting the lainch site are in fact a sleeper cell of Al Quaida. Praise be to Allah.

Breaking News . . .

Engineers may have found a 4 to 5 inch crack in the foam on the space shuttle Discovery’s external fuel tank, sources tell CNN . . .

Re: # 4 . . .

NASA confirms workers have found a 4 to 5 inch long crack in the foam insulation covering a bracket on Discovery's external fuel tank. Mission managers are discussing the issue and will decide if the launch will be delayed . . .