-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Saturday 01 February 2003 03:02 pm, Chuck Shirley wrote: > Not to sound like an ass, (Though I know that's how most will take it) > The Columbia is a nearly thirty year old example of a forty year old > design. For an aircraft that has flown in the most imagineably > extreme conditions, it is a wonder it lasted as long as it did. The > real tragedy is what will happen to the Space Program in the United > States. The human loss is unfortunate, but not a single astronaught > or cosmonaught has ever had any misconception that their job was a > safe one, much along the lines of Firefighters and Policemen, not > to mention Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines. There will never > be a shortage of people who are willing to do such dangerous work, > but it is the rest of the people, the cowards, the lily-livers, and > the bleeding-hearts that will do all of the crying about the great > human tragedy. And they will balk at funding such dangerous activity > regardless of the potential benefit to science, and humanity. THat's > the real tragedy. > > --Chuck S.
I agree. No matter what humankind does there will be losses, it doesn't mean we should stop doing what we do. It is a miracle that the shuttle lasted as long as it did. I know they go over these with a fine tooth comb, but if I had my guess they underestimated the damage done to the wing. Take a craft that has seen as much use at the Columbia under such extreme condidions, who knows what fatigue has been placed on the framework of the craft, under normal conditions might not be a problem. Add the extra turbulance and heat mixture of losing some of the shielding on the wing might have caused a chain reaction that lead to the loss of a lot more shielding, possibly toward the landing gear area which may explain the tire pressure oddities they were talking about. - -- Jason Straight [EMAIL PROTECTED] icq: 1796276 pgp: http://www.JeetKuneDoMaster.net/~jason/pubkey.asc -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux) iQCVAwUBPjwt3RFHZPcobeHxAQIzZQP/UCnGFRiZM5WGmNVvyAIpf6OaoHBtEkCs /vfmCVTUDMBhAIGzU5DoFj28LAw7mQiLm3+X7UpmMhbDhQDSd3a25fm2LUVAZAqN jp2MNKL3Om7I+kBP+NmXvkPICAMyo69YgceHK3W/wOSeNxmHSlYkZdP/xDp1uP56 wW4CxJEHwYk= =enwG -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
