NASA Acknowledges Space Shuttle Risks

AP on Yahoo ^ | 4/5/05 | Marcia Dunn - AP

[cripplecreek]

One of my toys when I was a little kid was an old 20 guage shotgun that the firing mechanism removed. When I say little I mean 6 years old or so.

[bvw]

(1) This is hardly spaceflight. Mercury, Gemini, Apollo -- those were space flights. This is non-science, low-earth-orbit unusefulness, deadly and absolutely wasteful.

(2) The risk involves every civilian, mother and child, man and boy under the flight path. We were incredibly fortunate that the last Shuttle crash did not end a single innocent live on the ground -- parts fell in inhabited areas!

(3) This is a jobs program that quells more space-related endeavor than it enables. Better to put that sinecured ossified bureaucracy to work scanning luggage. Combine the Shuttle program with the baggage shuttles.

[Doe Eyes]

What NASA needs to do is send some of these "engineers" up on a flight. Then they will get off their collective a$$es and fix the problems on the Shuttle and tanks when THEY are in True Danger

My experience has been, the engineers want to fix everything, but the managers think it costs too much.

[solitas]

There will never be spaceflight if we can't accept the risks.

"we" were accepting the risks previously (AND using a different, more durable, kind of foam - environmentally-unfriendly though it was) and there were HOW many successful landings?

Since the wings don't matter on launch (with the rockets essentially 'shoving' it into orbit) how about some kind of sheathing to, if not totally protect the surfaces) at least mitigate gouging? Lose the sheathing in-orbit or let it burn-off on reentry.

[ChefKeith]

Then we just add them to the crew, maybe strapped to the outside for aero testing purposes.

[Springman]

Ping.

[FreedomFarmer]

I guess I'm at a loss to understand their reasoning.

On one hand, I can safely work as a government engineer for life, and retire to obscurity,

or,

tell me up front there is a 90% chance of being a well known, celebrated, roman candle, and for having big brass ones.

Hmmmm,

10% chance for success, or 100% chance of bordom.

easy...

Kick the tires and light the fire!

[KevinDavis]

Life is risky no matter what.

[taxesareforever]

It would take years and a total redesign of the fuel tank to completely eliminate foam loss and to ensure the 2003 Columbia tragedy would never be repeated, Muratore and other officials said.

That's the price that must be paid in order to remain enviromentally correct. NASA went green and the space shuttle went down.