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Shuttle Launch Pad Damaged During Discovery's Launch

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the time-to-upgrade dept.

pumpkinpuss writes "Launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center suffered unusual damage during the shuttle Discovery's blastoff Saturday. Pictures from a NASA source show buckled concrete and numerous concrete blocks or bricks, presumably from the flame trench, littering a road behind the pad."

20 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. Re:anyone know? by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 5, Funny

    42

  2. So, in other words... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The shuttle shit a brick?

  3. Obvious explanation for the bricks by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 5, Funny

    Given how scary space travel is, it's no surprise that the astronauts left behind a trail of bricks all over the pad.

    --
    Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
  4. In Other News by JoshOOOWAH · · Score: 5, Funny

    38A continues to beat on the ceiling with a broom and indicate that NASA should "[K]nock off that unholy racket!"

  5. Re:Considering the pounding the pads take by SGDarkKnight · · Score: 5, Funny

    about 50 meters above the launch pad.

    --

    ...A no smoking section in a restaurant is like having a no peeing section in a swimming pool...
  6. toilet by tjw · · Score: 4, Funny

    Looks like the ISS occupants got their new toilet parts just in the nick of time.

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    XJS*C4JDBQADN1.NSBN3*2IDNEN*GTUBE-STANDARD-ANTI-UB E-TEST-EMAIL*C.34X
  7. Re:Thermal Cycling by Yetihehe · · Score: 3, Funny

    Aren't you by any chance a cat?

    --
    Extreme Programming - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Developers
  8. "No problem sir!" by just+fiddling+around · · Score: 3, Funny

    .... that'll buff right out.

    --
    You're not old until regret takes the place of your dreams.
    1. Re:"No problem sir!" by Gilmoure · · Score: 3, Funny

      Now Biff, I want two coats of wax this time...

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
  9. Re:Thermal Cycling by PachmanP · · Score: 2, Funny

    That said, I still would not suggest using your home as an alternate shuttle launch site.

    --
    You're thinking small. Why miniaturize the laser, when we could instead enlarge the sharks? -John Searle
  10. Re:how? by imipak · · Score: 2, Funny

    No, the launch was effected. I watched it myself.

  11. Re:how? by AntiRush · · Score: 2, Funny

    Next time try heating a piece of glassware to an unholy temperature, and then dropping it into an ice water bath. You know what happened last time Richard Feynman tried that... they still haven't lived that one down.
  12. Missing W by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1, Funny

    I heard that the departing Clinton administration stole all the "W" keys from White House ("hite House"?) keyboards. But wrecking the Shuttle launch pad on Bush's way out is really vindictive, especially considering all the damage Bush's regime already did to the Shuttle program.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  13. Re:how? by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 3, Funny

    Or dip a dead rat into a vat of Liquid Nitrogen, and drop him into a watering dish!

    Whee!

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  14. Re:Thermal Cycling by hughk · · Score: 2, Funny

    Especially since making concrete effectively weather proof hasn't been all that hard for a very long time. You can still go to Italy and find concrete from the Roman times.
    They were worshipping Saturns not launching them!
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    See my journal, I write things there
  15. Re:Modern concrete is advanced stuff by Amouth · · Score: 2, Funny

    hehe.. when a molde fails .. call it art and move on :)

    --
    '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
  16. Re:anyone know? by SleptThroughClass · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... starting almost 42 years ago.

  17. Re:how? Ouch! by JavaManJim · · Score: 2, Funny

    Scary! I looked at my Pyrex measuring cup. Its a hefty thing with lots of mass and lots of glass. I would seriously not want to make that thing mad. I am glad your wife is OK. Jim

  18. Re:how? by Linker3000 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm now confused; so did someone spit on the launch pad, drop their marbles on it, did a lightbulb shatter - or was it hit by a frozen rat?

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    AT&ROFLMAO
  19. Re:how? by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Funny

    The plane leaves a 'wake" that is like two horizonal toranados.
    An Oldsmobile shaped vortex, that I gotta see!
    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."