The Washington Times Commentary
By Michael Cutler, a retired U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) senior agent who led major INS drug-trafficking investigations for more than two decades.
Most of us have seen how mission control at Cape Canaveral conducts a countdown before the space shuttle is launched.
Many engineers, scientists and other essential personnel sit before their consoles monitoring various factors that determine if the launch should be made. Generally, they respond with a "Go" or "No Go" response when asked by the flight director if their respective element of the launch is functioning properly. Generally, each of these highly trained personnel is backed up by a staff of many others sitting in a back room along with banks of computers.
Posted by tyne at June 22, 2007