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BREAKING NEWS FROM SPACE!!! - NASA grounds shuttle fleet indefinitely
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| starsearcher |
....uh oh...now that's bad news!!!!
God I hope they get the astronouts back safe...if anything there's always good ole' trusty and working Russian equipment to bring them back safely ;) |
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| VERTiG0 |
Why are they building them out of foam?
Why are they building them out of ceramic tiles that can be damaged by FOAM?
ing NASA.
PS: Turn child molesters or something into astronauts and send them into space if they're not going to build new shuttles. That way, if one of the shuttles blows up, nobody gives a .
I think it's a winning strategy. |
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| starsearcher |
| quote: | Originally posted by VERTiG0
Why are they building them out of foam?
Why are they building them out of ceramic tiles that can be damaged by FOAM?
ing NASA.
PS: Turn child molesters or something into astronauts and send them into space if they're not going to build new shuttles. That way, if one of the shuttles blows up, nobody gives a .
I think it's a winning strategy. |
yes except that it costs a billion $ :p |
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| El Kay Dee |
| quote: | Originally posted by starsearcher
yes except that it costs a billion $ :p |
a boing 747 costs 35 billion.....now relate that cost to a shuttle :eyespop: |
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| Transmotion |
| quote: | Originally posted by El Kay Dee
a boing 747 costs 35 billion.....now relate that cost to a shuttle :eyespop: |
i think you are mistaking the price of a boeing 747 .. it cant be 35 billion |
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| Euphorica |
yeah a 747 doenst cost 35 billion :eyes:
ahahha
the NEW Airbus A380 doesnt even come close to that
est. 264 million
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A380 |
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| rabbitjoker |
Shuttles grounded again by fuel tank debris
SF Mercury News
Posted on Wed, Jul. 27, 2005
By MARTIN MERZER
[email protected]
CAPE CANAVERAL - Dangerously large chunks of foam insulation peeled off Discovery's newly designed fuel tank during blastoff and the shuttle program will be grounded again until the defects are studied and repaired, NASA said Wednesday.
The dramatic and unexpected disclosure raised new questions about the troubled shuttle program and about NASA's ability to resolve the issue responsible for the loss of Columbia and its seven astronauts.
''Until we fix this, we're not ready to go fly again,'' said Bill Parsons, the shuttle program's manager. ``You can say that means we're grounded.''
Mission managers said two chunks of debris flew off the huge external fuel tank, one of them about three feet in length and about 10 inches wide.
The large piece was not believed to have struck Discovery and the shuttle and its seven astronauts are in no known danger, NASA said. The flight is continuing and a normal landing is expected, the agency said.
''It didn't cause any damage to the orbiter that we are aware of at this time,'' Parsons said. ``But it does cause us pause and will make us take a step back and look at what we have to do.''
He said he could not estimate how long that would take, but no more shuttles will fly until the issue is resolved.
The agency spent about $1.5 billion on modifications after the loss of Columbia, with most of the work focused on the fuel tank. Officials said they were confident that the tank was safe to fly.
''You have to admit when you're wrong. We were wrong,'' Parsons said. ``We're telling you right now, it should not have come off. It did come off. We have to do something about that.''
Discovery's first full day of flight was devoted almost entirely to damage inspection as the crew conducted a sweeping survey of the shuttle's wings and nose and engineers at Mission Control methodically examined video images and other launch data.
Using a camera attached to a new 50-foot extension to the shuttle's robotic arm, astronauts spent nearly seven hours beaming images of the wing edges and nose cone to Mission Control.
These areas, covered in a high-tech material called reinforced carbon-carbon, are particularly vulnerable to damage inflicted during liftoff by debris from the external fuel tank.
A piece of fuel-tank insulation punched a hole in shuttle Columbia's left wing, initiating the chain of events that destroyed that ship and killed its seven astronauts in February 2003.
Meanwhile, NASA engineers in Houston examined images from more than 100 cameras -- most of them newly placed -- that recorded Tuesday's liftoff. Looking for signs of impact, they also studied data from sensors placed on the wing edges and elsewhere on Discovery.
They were attempting to assess the significance of three debris incidents seen Tuesday -- a 1 ½-inch chip of tile that popped off the edge of a landing gear door, the larger scraps of insulating foam that peeled from the fuel tank and a collision between the tip of the tank and a bird.
The inspections will continue Thursday as Discovery prepares to dock with the International Space Station.
Two astronauts aboard the station will photograph the shuttle's underbelly and other surfaces from 600 feet away as Discovery commander Eileen Collins maneuvers the craft into an unprecedented back flip. |
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| ChemEnhanced |
| I can't believe they spend approx. 1.5 billion dollars to build the space shuttle plus another half million on fuel just to get the thing into space and the great scientific minds building the thing can't get stong enough glue to keep it from falling apart. |
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| starsearcher |
| quote: | Originally posted by ChemEnhanced
I can't believe they spend approx. 1.5 billion dollars to build the space shuttle plus another half million on fuel just to get the thing into space and the great scientific minds building the thing can't get stong enough glue to keep it from falling apart. |
Sure they can...but you know how the American system works...lowest-csot company wins the contract...reassuring isn't it? |
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| Euphorica |
| quote: | | Using a camera attached to a new 50-foot extension to the shuttle's robotic arm |
bugger...the CANADARM |
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| Dj Smitty20 |
| quote: | Originally posted by El Kay Dee
a boing 747 costs 35 billion.....now relate that cost to a shuttle :eyespop: |
the entire British Airways airline isn't even worth that! |
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| TrickDaddE |
Shuttle = Old School
NASA time for some new technology!!! |
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