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To: null and void

Too bad you’re perpetuating a myth to take a cheap shot at a poor excuse for a President.

Columbia burned up due to a failure of a reinforced carbon-carbon composite sheet, not metal structure.

Also, there is a live thread on this.


3 posted on 06/14/2008 7:52:43 AM PDT by AntiKev ("The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena." - Carl Sagan)
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To: AntiKev

A titanium structure would have survived the heat of reentry with that failure of the carbon-carbon composites.

Yes, the shuttle would have been badly damaged, at a minimum, landing gear and tires would have failed on that side. But there wouldn’t have been a high altitude multi-mach burn through and total disintegration if the whole craft.

Yes, the shuttle would, at the very best, had to do a wheels up landing and been damaged beyond any hope of economic repair, but at least the crew would have had an good chance of survival.

Both shuttles died because engineering considerations were overridden by political considerations.


9 posted on 06/14/2008 8:06:38 AM PDT by null and void (Bureaucracies are stupid. They grow larger by the square of their age and stupider by its cube.)
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