To: tscislaw
Unless that "frost" was what was left of dozens of tiles. That's my thought as well -- pulverized ceramic (and the SS tiles are quite fragile) would look like that.
One thing I don't get -- if the most heat-critical parts of the shuttle (the nose, and the leading edges of the wings) are covered with a tough carbon composite material and not tiles, why not cover *all* of the heat-critical areas with the composite?
88 posted on
02/01/2003 7:52:03 PM PST by
Dan Day
To: Dan Day
88 "One thing I don't get -- if the most heat-critical parts of the shuttle (the nose, and the leading edges of the wings) are covered with a tough carbon composite material and not tiles, why not cover *all* of the heat-critical areas with the composite?"
They would like for it to get off the ground, and glide a bit. Even as it is, it has the glide angle of sort of aerodynamic rock.
91 posted on
02/01/2003 7:58:08 PM PST by
XBob
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