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Shuttle To Fly Without Safety Revisions
HaloZero writes "In the face of safety concerns, NASA has decided to proceed with launching the Space Shuttle Discovery in July without changes to the external fuel tank. The article states that even though Discovery's last launch shed a huge 1-pound chunk of potentially devastating foam, they're willing to wait to change the spec on the disposable tank. The changes would modify the Ice/Frost Ramp assemblies, which prevent a buildup of ice on fuel lines and cables (as a side effect, they also have a tendency to dislodge large chunks of insulation)."
Have the guy responsible for shuttle safety fly with 'em. I hold any bets that those shuttles will be safer than driving through downtown NY rush hour... bad example.
But I guess you get the idea.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
She specifically talked about foam vs. ice. She said that going into it, they all assumed that ice would be the greater threat because of hardness and mass, but after running lots of simulations (it was a simulation conference where I met her) they discovered that foam's propensity to rapidly decelerate made it a much greater threat in terms of KE once the shuttle picked up speed but was still in the atmosphere.