That thing is so very large and complex that if one takes the failure rate of each component and multiplies them it would seem to me that three or 4 things would always be "down".

There can't be redundancy on the major parts, either.

I'm trying to think of other complex systems which came in on budget and time and am having a bit of a problem with it. The US Shuttle, Boeing and Airbus planes all seem to have slipped even though NASA, Boeing and Airbus set the original schedules themselves.

I think I find myself not at all surprised it's down with a failure. (I am wondering what is happening to the rest of the system while it just sits there.)

And I wouldn't have been surprised if it had worked out of the box.

I am sorry it's down, though. I'm interested to see if they find that Higgs Bozo.

Arf