Posted by Jim at March 28th, 2008

Sometimes I read about the future and sometimes I feel like I live in it. I read this in USA Today:

Gridlock has come to outer space. Spacecraft now wait in line to dock to the International Space Station, and mission planners sometimes delay one launch to make way for another.

There one sense in which I think it indicates poor planning and another it which it seems pretty cool that I live in a time in which these problems are possible.

Wackier still, this quote:

Even without the Japanese ship, the congestion in space can lead to headaches. The European cargo ship and the shuttle use the same radar frequency for communications, forcing the European ship’s launch to be delayed until Endeavour blasted off.

If I were writing a story about various countries putting a space station together, I’d probably assume that different ships would use different frequencies or at least that it would be easy to switch frequencies. I would be wrong.