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Columbia Coverage

Posted by michael on from the thunder-on dept.

ke4roh writes "Space.com offers a list of questions and answers about the events and hardware surrounding Columbia's destruction Saturday. They address suspected causes, foam, tile, and some of the alternatives had NASA known the ship would not be able to re-enter the atmosphere." viewstyle writes "PC Magazine has a pack of stuff put together on the space shuttle accident, as they recognized the fact that the space program inspired a lot of tech people in general. What's pretty cool is the section written by a guy there who worked on the computer components in the shuttle." And naturally, the idea of a space elevator is back in vogue again.

6 of 615 comments (clear)

  1. FRITZ POST! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    zet is not funny!

  2. Quatrain 1,81 by EyesOfNostradamus · · Score: -1, Troll
    They were doomed from the start, due to tiles falling off:

    D'humain troupeau neuf seront mis à part,
    De iugement & conseil separez:
    Leur sort sera divisé en depart,
    Kappa, Thita, Lambda mors bannis esgarez.

    From the human flock nine will be sent away,
    Separated from control and advice
    Their fate will be sealed on departure
    K-Th-L make a error; the dead banished

  3. Re:They knew by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I'm still waiting for the claims that anti-semetic NASA officials just wanted to kill the Israeli astronaut. I thought the parent would get there eventually, but stopped just short.

  4. Alternate Theory For Disaster by Gigant0r · · Score: -1, Troll

    A graphical representation thereof

  5. Re:30 seconds of telemetry by spakka · · Score: -1, Troll

    I've been hearing a lot about the 30 seconds of telemetry that was too weak for the computers to display during the shuttle break-up but that is now being analyzed from backups. Does anybody have any more information on what this data?

    "Allah akbar!"

  6. Re:Temperature detectors... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    "All things considered, the shuttle is an extremely well built and carefully looked after machine with an exceptional safety and performance record. I don't feel anyone is at fault for what happened... it was just the luck of the draw."

    Excptional safety record... provided you take that in context. There have bee about a hundered shuttle missions and two of them have resulted in the catastrophic loss of the spacecraft, a one in fifty chance of total failure isn't exactly stellar.

    That said, we have to look at what they're doing... Those things are flying gas bombs that we lob into orbit, and then try to bring back in one piece. That we have a working re-usable spacecraft at all is still impressive.