CA>> Have been a bit surprised at the lack of interest in this
CA>> echo of the sloppiness of the recent space shuttle launch? 

ML> sloppiness?? 

 CA> After something like 3 years to prepare there were problems
 CA> with the fuel guages, 

low fuel sensor... and a backup to the backup at that...

 CA> a chunk of foam falling off during the launch, 

normal... has happened on every launch... and how many of them have there
been in total??

 CA> pieces of 'cloth' sticking out between the tiles, 

another normal occurance... they've been found/seen after landing and they
apparently caused no problems during those decents... so why make such a
big deal of them this time??

 CA> and some 'blanket' heat shield that was torn. 

ii can't speak to that... yes, it shouldn't have been... it should have
been repaired... however, i'm not aware of how or when it got torn or how
it was discovered... it wasn't discovered on the launch pad, was it? they
didn't fly with it, did they?

 CA> I'd call that sloppy. 

it ain't sloppy like a sloppy joe... i can't call it sloppy... however, i
will agree that someone (several of them) weren't doing their jobs
completely...

)\/(ark