Re: Space Shuttle Grounding....depressing....

When they first flew the shuttle they came back with lots of tiles
gone. Same on other flights. The Columbia just took a REALLY nasty hit
that overwhelmed any redundancy factors built in.

This foam thing that led to the re-grounding is horrid, yes - and is
magnified by the fact that in 25 or so years of shuttle operations, no
adjutant or follow-on craft was built, though designs have been around
at least this long. With only one US craft, delays with the shuttle
have meant suspensions of manned US space flights, and the recent one
meant the International Space Station was dependent on the Russians..
who are using the old style boosters the shuttle was supposed to
replace.

I wonder if NASA is reacting too wildly to the latest thing, with the
insulation and so forth, but then agan they have every reason to be
cautious now and I cannot fault them for that. Here's hoping they get
things licked and get the ship up there now home safe with all hands,
as well as completing the rest of the shuttle flights successfully.
Bush's initiative is the right idea, getting them back on the path Von
Braun and so many have wanted for us for so long. The shuttle is key to
the next steps on that path, I wish NASA the best with them.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Nasa announces night launches back soon, rescue shuttles temporary
    ... In the months after Challenger NASA released the revised flight ... I guess they are gambling that there simply will not be enough flights left ... > Shuttle until it can be fixed. ... >> CAPE CANAVERAL-- NASA plans to have a rescue shuttle ready for just the ...
    (sci.space.shuttle)
  • Re: Could the shuttle come back ?
    ... if I thought that NASA was actually going to build something that was ... re-usable and had a high flight rate, I'd run from the shuttle. ... Branson's Virgin Galactic has yet to fly suborbital tourist flights. ... Put a trapeze hanging below ISS and tell folks to grab it on the ...
    (sci.space.shuttle)
  • Re: Shuttle launch delayed until July
    ... >>wants to retire the fleet by 2010, ... >>aren't going to be any non-ISS shuttle flights besides possibly HST, ... different this time because NASA does not have the shuttle to fall back on ...
    (sci.space.history)
  • Re: new astronauts?
    ... most, "overview-level" shuttle training. ... If both contingency logistics flights ... For the MSes, it ... Right now it looks like NASA will ...
    (sci.space.shuttle)
  • Re: Belated look at the OSXhints April Fools front page
    ... it is ingrained in all culture. ... It's 2 catastrophes in 121 flights. ... The shuttle is known to be very dangerous - mostly because of the solid ... Those are two specific weaknesses of the design - well known, ...
    (uk.comp.sys.mac)