Word: mission
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...Though French Foreign Ministry officials say Kouchner's visit to Iraq was not discussed during that encounter - and arose from a visit by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani - it's evident the mission was designed to smooth over multiple diplomatic rough spots with one dramatic gesture. "Now we are turning the page; there is a new perspective," Kouchner told reporters following his arrival in Baghdad Sunday, speaking language destined as much for U.S. officials as his Iraqi hosts. "We want to talk about the future. Democracy, integrity, sovereignty, reconciliation and stopping the killings...
Near the close of the 1960s, a squadron of young scuba divers headed out into the warm waters of the South Pacific, tanks of air strapped to their backs and syringes at the ready. Their mission, one lethal injection at a time, was to put a stop to an outbreak of crown-of-thorns starfish, a voracious predator of fragile tropical coral reefs. Those early efforts - along with a big printing of "Save the Barrier Reef" bumper stickers - helped establish what has since been considered one of the world's best-protected coral reefs...
...says he's more comfortable with the known risks associated with the gouge than with the unknown risks of an untried repair job, which would have required the astronauts to coat damaged tiles with heat-resistant paint and fill the hole with a caulk-like goo. The next shuttle mission, Shannon said, will likely include an in-space test of repair options, so mission managers can better understand what they're facing...
...making the decision Thursday night to fly Endeavour home as-is, skipping an untested-in-space repair job to the gouge on the shuttle's belly, NASA seems to have won the confidence of the whole shuttle engineering community. John Shannon, chairman of the Endeavour mission management team and the man who assessed the risk, made the call based on an abundance of testing and analysis over the past week, rather than from any rocket jockey arrogance, which was largely blamed for the last two shuttle losses. Among the 30 organizations from which scientists were called in for independent analyses...
Shannon spent five hours with a team of about 200 engineers and mission management folks going over the data on Endeavour's gouge, caused by the seemingly unstoppable shedding of foam insulation off the external fuel tank during launch. The gouge was determined to be of a size and in a location that would not create danger to the crew or ship. Shannon says the vote was not unanimous but "pretty overwhelming" for Endeavour to return home without repair...