NASA admits landing risks

The Dallas Morning News ^ | 8/5/2005 | By BRUCE NICHOLS

[Swordmaker]

HOUSTON – As with space shuttle Columbia in 2003, Discovery will land early Monday with a problem that NASA engineers don't fully understand. In this case, it's a loose piece of heat-shield blanket that they decided not to fix.

The decision to land came despite acknowledgment from engineers that they can't be absolutely certain there won't be problems.

[Swordmaker]

. . . this time, the preferred landing track takes Discovery to Florida over Central America, the Caribbean Sea and Cuba. NASA decided after the 2003 Columbia disaster to avoid populated areas if possible.

Guess we won't be able to see Discovery's re-entry...

[MinorityRepublican]

Oh gee. I guess we better pray for Discovery's safe trip back to Earth.

[Paleo Conservative]

Guess we won't be able to see Discovery's re-entry.

Not in the US.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts114/050805landingtracks/

[Capn TrVth]

Hey Discovery!

Safely of course! GODSPEED!

[Hexenhammer]

Well gee, entering the atmosphere at 15 times the speed of sound is dangerous? Thank you Dallas News for pointing out the obvious...

Keeping the reentry over empty areas seems stupid if god forbid anything should happen. Seems like picking wreckage out of a marsh or a field is a heck of a lot easier than fishing it from off the bottom of the Caribbean.

[Prime Choice]

a loose piece of heat-shield blanket that they decided not to fix.

It is not a "heat-shield blanket." It is a thermal blanket. And the main cause for concern was what it would do when it was subjected to multiple-Mach stresses which occur on re-entry and the banking the orbiter does to slow down.

Several experiments were conducted in ARC wind tunnels to determine if there was any cause for concern. None of the wind tunnel tests yielded any appreciable risk to the orbiter or her crew. If there was any danger, Discovery would not be preparing to re-enter the atmosphere at this time.

This is nothing but media hype. Don't buy into it.

[Prime Choice]

Seems like picking wreckage out of a marsh or a field is a heck of a lot easier than fishing it from off the bottom of the Caribbean.

Such conditions did not prevent us from collecting the remnants of STS 51-L in 1986.

[CasearianDaoist]

It is also seems a bit cowadly. There is this timidity that is creeping over NASA.

[ARCADIA]

Guess we won't be able to see Discovery's re-entry.

It looks like they are trying to keep it over water. They don't want shuttle bits and astronaut parts raining from the heavens in the event of a disaster.

[ARCADIA]

Several experiments were conducted in ARC wind tunnels to determine if there was any cause for concern.

Can we actually do a wind tunnel test at Mach 15?

[cabojoe]

This is nothing but media hype. Don't buy into it.

Amen. Never before has a shuttle been gone over with so much photography and with infrared lasers, and been given a clean bill of health from the engineers while still on orbit.

[Prime Choice]

Can we actually do a wind tunnel test at Mach 15?

Wind tunnels are for simulating the conditions of subsonic, transonic and supersonic speeds.

Here's a little light reading on the subject: http://www.smokemachines.com/nasawtfs.htm.

And FYI: the orbiter is moving over Mach 20 during descent.

[ARCADIA]

Thanks for the link.

[Drammach]

Fox News is starting coverage of Discovery landing now..

Discovery is expected to "touch down" in about an hour and a half..

Weather conditions are "iffy" at the moment..

[Capn TrVth]

Broken Clouds at 10.000 feet..

"NO GO" two more orbits to figure out where to out it. in one hour, they may take another shot at Fla.

[Capn TrVth]

Make that Broken at One Thousand.

[greasepaint]

to post 8.
I agree.

Nasa, what a bunch of 'holes.
Cheating the people -->paying<-- the tab,
out of seeing the re-entry.

[D-fendr]

I understand the reasoning, but it would shake me a bit if the control tower changed my flight plan so that my debris wouldn't hit someone.

[yatros from flatwater]

Thanks for the post. It makes the point that, with the orbit that was needed to link up with the ISS, the best deorbit to Florida follows the illustrated path. It's more a matter of getting down with minimal fuel use than anything else.

[Cincinatus]

Cheating the people -->paying<-- the tab, out of seeing the re-entry.

There's nothing stopping you from going down to Mexico or Central America and watching the re-entry.

Discovery is in a 52 degree inclination orbit, so that it could rendezvous with ISS. Columbia was in a 28 degree orbit, so it re-entered across the continental USA. Sorry to burst your bubble but there's no conspiracy here.