[jackbill]

A new design for the insulation factor is needed since it is clear that this flimsy-any-kind-of-other-foam-as-well design is too dangerous to the shuttle now (same problem was there for the first 100 flights though.)

I don't think so. We didn't have the problem until the enviros made NASA get rid of the original insulation - which never failed. Since the change, there have been failures on every mission.

You could look it up.

http://capmag.com/article.asp?ID=2942

[LM_Guy]

Your are totally right but it was really due to the change in environmental laws that was to protect the ozone layer and not due to Clinton/Gore but instead it was Reagan (my hero).

Why did the shuttle's foam insulation flake off? In response to an edict from the EPA, NASA was required to change the design of the thermal insulating foam on the shuttle's external tank. They stopped using Freon, or CFC-11, in order to comply with the 1987 Montreal Protocol , an agreement designed to head off doubtful prognostications of an environmental disaster.