To: snopercod
I heard a report last night that said it was the heaviest (4.1 MILLION tons) and able to carry the least amount of cargo. The heavy weight was why it never docked with the ISS as well.
474 posted on
02/02/2003 4:30:21 PM PST by
txradioguy
(Doing my part to keep the country free)
To: txradioguy
"4.1 MILLION tons" WoW!
Actually it weighs about 200,000 pounds (I haven't been able to find the exact numbers)
Columbia is the heaviest orbiter and this was the heaviest reentry ever attempted. Causes more heating. Might have been just a little too heavy.
To: txradioguy
Well, your numbers are wrong, but the rest was correct. Columbia was overdesigned due to the uncertainty of this type of flight, and also heavily instrumented. It was built like a '55 DeSoto.
Based upon the engineering data that Columbia provided, the newer shuttles were made lighter.
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