NASA. . . wtf happened?

Astronauts fail to budge stuck cargo carrier

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Discovery astronauts were unable to dislodge a stuck cargo carrier system during their third and final space walk Monday, and carried on with their busy to-do list on the orbiting space station, NASA said.
Richard Arnold and Joseph Acaba, two former science teachers turned astronauts, emerged from the decompression chamber at 1537 GMT, some six minutes earlier than planned.
One of their tasks during a six-and-a-half hour walk in space was to unblock the external cargo carrier after Acaba and fellow astronaut Steven Swanson inadvertently inserted a restraining pin upside down on Saturday.

Visiting space shuttle Discovery astronauts Richard Arnold and Joseph Acaba ended up tying down the stuck cargo platform with tethers and left it for future spacewalkers to deal with.
"I know it didn't turn out the way we wanted it to, but you guys did a great job," astronaut Steven Swanson radioed to Arnold and Acaba from inside Discovery's crew cabin.

WTF?! Science teachers? "inadvertently" inserted a restraining pin upside down. "did a great job?" By fucking up the whole process?
I'm so sick and tired of hearing these NASA rah-rah sound bites every time I listen to a launch or watch NASA TV. These silly fuckers couldn't hold a candle to the great ones who preceeded them. They are so tied to their check lists and so damned incompetent that they end up doing stupid shit like this. During the last shuttle mission some bozo let a multimillion dollar bag full of tools drift away into space. Luckily they had another set otherwise the mission would have been over.
It really gripes my ass that this is the level of excellence within the astronaut corps these days. Moronic fools don't deserve to go into space following in the foot steps of great ones like Shepherd, Glenn and Lovell. Those were men who had immense tasks to perform and did them to perfection with zero mistakes. Had they done it any other way their asses wouldn't have made it back. Astronauts these days are nothing but cookie cutter pretty boys and girls who can smile for the camera. Sadly, to those of us who know something about space flight know that these imbeciles along with NASA administration and their uncreative engineering teams are ruining NASA.

in⋅ad⋅vert⋅ent [in-uhd-vur-tnt]
–adjective
1. unintentional: an inadvertent insult.
2. not attentive; heedless.
3. of, pertaining to, or characterized by lack of attention.

Related forms:
in⋅ad⋅vert⋅ent⋅ly, adverb

Synonyms:
2. inattentive. 3. thoughtless, careless, negligent.

I remember a time when NASA hired fighter pilots with engineering degrees or professionally trained scientists who learned to fly like fighter pilots as astronauts. That was back when astronauts trained and retrained for every aspect of every mission and "inadvertent" mistakes were NOT made. What excuse is there for going up into space and doing something so stupid as inserting a pin "upside down" that fucks up a major part of a mission?

I'd say NASA in general is in a state of inadvertency.

When the shuttle is retired in a couple years, the USA, the country who put men on the moon and brought them back six times, will be dependent upon Russia for all their manned spaced launches until they get their new manned rocket up and running, which is inferior to the Russian's 40 yr old rockets. Geez.

Oops: Colbert wins NASA space station name contest
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Mon Mar 23, 4:14 pm ET

AP – In this Monday, March 5, 2007 file photo, Stephen Colbert poses in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow, …
WASHINGTON – NASA's online contest to name a new room at the international space station went awry. Comedian Stephen Colbert won.
The name "Colbert" beat out NASA's four suggested options in the space agency's effort to have the public help name the addition. The new room will be launched later this year.

If this happens I will personally launch a protest against NASA that will shake their rockets. Name a space station module after some sarcastic, punk ass buffoon comedian?
To all you moronic dip shits who "voted" for this asshole; Fuck you you shallow minded idiots.
What kind of insult would this be to the memory of Gus Grissom, Ed White or Roger Jaffee and all those who gave it all for space flight. What kind of insult would it be to incredibly great astronauts like Neil Armstrong, Gene Cernan or John Young who are still alive today? Few realize or can imagine the almost super human tasks that these men performed.

I get so damned tired of the blatant dumb shit ignorance exhibited constantly in this pitiful downhill moving country of ours. . . what potential we once had.