[Centurion2000]

We need to get back up there ASAP ... we also should be building a new class of shuttles ... like an SSTO model.

[Axenolith]

Following the precedent of the Challenger disaster in 1996, it's unlikely that NASA will undertake any further shuttle missions or any other manned space flights for the next two years. One immediate problem, though, is the International Space Station, which currently has a crew of three on board. They might consider one further flight to bring that crew home — the other option would be for them to return aboard a Russian Soyuz craft, which isn't the most comfortable or the safest ride. Beyond that, however, the space station is likely to be left unoccupied for a long time. NASA won't want to use the shuttle again until it can establish the cause of today's accident, and fix it. Now that we've lost two shuttles out of a fleet of five, it's even conceivable that the shuttle won't fly again.

Only if pansies are running the show! Not only do we need to get back there post haste, we need to build a couple more shuttles...

[Mamzelle]

re: The shuttle was built as a space truck, and then the International Space Station was built to give it something to do)))

Uh, huh. Very telling.

Time for a Vision Thing. Apparently we have two years to come up with a reason to keep doing this, this way.

[_Jim]

Local CH 11 reporting a SS tile found WEST of I-35 and south of Dallas in Waxahachie area ... the "tile video" from reporter on the scene shows the Space Shuttle tile laying on roof ... woman woke up to 'thud' sound ...

[CharlotteVRWC]

See article at msn.com entitled "Space Shuttle Breaks Up During Re-entry" at http://msnbc.com/news/857733.asp?0cv=CA00#BODY for the following excerpt

"Speaking on condition of anonymity, a U.S. official told NBC’s Miklaszewski that a heat spike appeared on military satellite data around the time shuttle was re-entering. The readings would be examined to see if they correlate to the shuttle’s breakup. The highly sensitive infrared satellite, known as the DSP, originally was developed to detect the heat spike of Soviet intercontinental missile launches. It also has been used to detect the heat signature of oil fires, volcanic eruptions and the explosion of TWA Flight 800 in 1996. "

[The Iguana]

Well, there is the X-33/Venture Star being developed by Lockheed Martin:

Lockheed Plans Redesign of Venture Star
By Jonathan Lipman

Special to space.com
posted: 06:51 am ET
30 September 1999

WASHINGTON (States News Service) – Lockheed-Martin will use an external payload bay on its Venture Star vehicle instead of an internal one like its prototype the X-33, said Lockheed Vice President Jerry Rising at a congressional hearing.

Lockheed learned from the X-33 that the VentureStar will be more efficient if it carries its payload bay in an external canister, Rising said, rather than inside the vehicle like the X-33. The new configuration is already undergoing wind-tunnel testing, he added, and will be unveiled within a couple of weeks.

By removing the space for a payload bay inside the craft, Lockheed can package the light-weight fuel tanks and other internal systems more efficiently, said Lockheed Martin executive Anthony Jacob, giving the VentureStar greater lift capability.

The canister, which will look like a fat pencil riding on top of the wedge-shaped vehicle, will be 53 feet long and 15 feet in diameter, and will have the same payload space as the previous design, somewhat less than the space shuttle.

"It makes it safer, really" for any possible crew, Rising said. The canister would ride on the lee side during re-entry, so that the entire ship would act as a heat-shield in the event of a problem.

"You have to accept what I call ‘morphing’ of the operational design to take advantage of what you learned from the [X-33]," Payton said. For NASA’s proposed Crew Return Vehicle, which the VentureStar would theoretically lift to orbit with the ISS crew, "it’s an easier design as far as simple, mechanical integration goes," Payton said.

The canister would also allow more flexibility for payloads, since it could be changed for larger or odd-shaped payloads, Rising said.