Launch Countdown

Why was a Shuttle launch countdown three days long? The answer to this question hasroots back to the ‘elders’.

Those of us that were part of the final years of the thirty-year operational life of the Space Transportation System inherited some truly thoughtful processes from those who came before us. Some processes were born as early as the Mercury program, nourished through the Gemini and Apollo days, and adapted to the Shuttle needs.

In architectural design, it’s called “form follows functio...