Space Shuttle Columbia

[Boff]

swedish news put it down to falling debris, damaging the heat shielding on take off.

one of those heat shielding tiles can absorb up to 200 or 300 degress C and a person can then pick it up with their bare hands, so they really do save the ship.

if one of the tiles where ever to be damaged.........

[Minister Rik]

They gotta let them cool down first though?

[Pegster]

Its probably like high quality tin foil but does the reverse Ever noticed u can peel off tin foil with youir hands when u just BBq'd chicken in it

[Penno]

I hoped they knew nothing about it but indications are both they and NASA new it was starting to go wrong.

[Fishwick]

that ex_nasa bloke that is ona news a lot, said thateven if the heat shielding was damaged (by the piece of insulation that hit the wing on take off) there was noting they could do about it...

cos heat sheild repair kits were scrapped in 1997 due to budget cuts !!!

now that pretty shocking if u ask me

[Teddy]

it will all turn out to be money cut back related in the end in that due ot a smaller budget repair kits etc were removed. The problem iwth space exploration is the vast cost each mission costing hundreads of millions of tax powers $'s. Money has to be saved or the mission would not go ahead. The International Space Station will cost billions to fully complete and if they are to do it then they must continue to cut costs and keep launching, im sure the astronaughts who died would be best honoured by finishing it.

[Fishwick]

itsa question of logistics with the shuttles grounded tho, the ISS needs constant work, and the rusians only have 2 rockets capable of carrying ppl.

if u cannot garentee the saftey of the occupants living there, then they will have no choice but to take them off and mothball the project

the yanks will have to invest in the russian programme as i see it, to keep it alive, wether they will or not is another matter.

[Fishwick]

omg, is that right, i just heard on the news someone say "we have had no problems with broken heat tiles severly effecting re-entry on the previous 112 mission"

was this really the 113 mission, talk about a jinx, specially after appolo 13 !!

im gona go and confirm this at the NASA webby, if possible. weird if its true huh?

[Fishwick]

crikey, it is true, this was shuttle mission #113

unlucky 13, now thats spooky

kennedy space centre flight summary page

i bet that the last time they use the number 13 in a shuttle context

[Ewoks Revenge]

It was these money cut back that meant the replacement for the shuttle was canned

[Cannon Gray]

That was an awful disaster and maybe this is the reason NASA doesn't build spacecraft for space flights anymore.