We'll see what happens. My post was clear that the causes may be hard to pin down, and that a weather-relation to any series of events could be also hard to pin down. My recollection of the Challenger investigation is that it looked into weather aspects affecting O-Ring expansion or contraction. Also, the weather is always a factor as regards various aspects of launch-pad decision-making.
In this case, if ice, or something else, did break off a tank and fall down and impact and damage some part of the shuttle during liftoff, as has been surmised and-or videotaped, that doesn't necessarily make it weather-related (some ice-formation concerns being more based on the temperature of the fuel) but anyway I'll be curious to follow the investigation. If they did know of possible damage upon liftoff, then I tentatively don't agree with their "there's nothing we could have done" attitude about their time in space. I have to wonder if a second shuttle could have been readied and sent up as an emergency measure, such as to take them down. Feynman's autobiographical annecdotal books are favorites of mine, and his account of being on the Challenger commission was interesting. *Lots* of resistance to unbiased investigation there. Lastly, I am in the camp of people who think the import has been somewhat exaggerated. It's happened before, and it is going to happen again, many many more times. We can reduce loss of life by changing our attitude, but Space is dangerous and we are not as on top of it as we'd like to think. Even with a change of attitude and policies, we're still going to lose some people. >Not much weather above 60000 ft. Shuttle was in unpowered glide mode. >> I wonder if there are any weather-related lessons that can come from the >two >> shuttle crashes (Jan. 28, 1986(?)) and now February 1, 2003). I think >maybe >> with the first crash there were some on-the-launch-pad waiting issues that >> occurred in fueling, but I don't know. Ultimately, I don't mean to imply >the >> causes were easy to pin down, just that I wonder how the time-of-year >might >> affect any existing weaknesses or accidents-waiting-to-happen in the >design, if >> they were there. Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
