Crack Found in Shuttle Tank

hpulley writes "The shuttle's new fuel tank, supposedly redesigned to be safer, has a crack in it. Pictures were sent to the manufacturer who decided that it is too small to be worrisome. Hmm, what caused the Columbia disaster, pieces of foam? Meanwhile, there will be a second shuttle on standby, just in case the first one has problems after being hit by foam, etc. If the first shuttle has a design flaw, what's to say the second one isn't afflicted by the same problem? Won't there be a good chance of them stranding the rescue crew in addition to the original crew? If an aircraft crashes and the redesign to fix it crashes, would you send another of the same type to rescue it? Of course not! The ISS is going to be a smelly, scary place with the regular complement and two shuttle crews onboard and no way home but a Russian Soyuz capsule that isn't slated to launch again until September and has seats for just three..."

Comments

Re:NASA the madia

[MarcQuadra]

Next thing you know, it'll be illegal immigrants.

That's a winning party platform right there:

"We let them take our jobs, we pay for their education and healthcare, and they don't even speak our language! I say we round them up and use them as SHUTTLE FUEL!"

Re:Why?

[PeanutGallery]

Most likely the maximum hazard is that they will see a very small amount of ice growth

The same substance that made Challenger's engines go "plooie"? Glad its harmless.

Disclaimer: I work for NASA, but any opinions are my own and haven't been approved by anybody. I'm just trying to inject a little sanity into this discussion...

So at the next meeting could you pls ask "When are we gonna stop beating these dead horses? No more bandaids. Lets sell the last of the shuttle fleet to musuems (while there's enough of them left to sell) and move on with life."

Then ask for a raise. Big bloated gov't agencies love "go-getters". ;)