Space Shuttle Columbia Exploded
 

The space shuttle Columbia exploded this morning on re-entry.

This is sad! I think I'm having a bad day already.

Speechless, Stevie,

God bless them. God bless their families. GO NASA!

Please See My Above Post In The Help Thread !
ViggoG

The Space Program is certainly a place of great, and sometimes tragic, deeds.

...And in anticipation of those sorry souls in the media, who will cry about funding the Space Program...

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
(Paris Sorbonne,1910)</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">

Re funding, it's my bet the cause will prove to be a problem with the tiles. The original shuttle design called for a titanium hull. The bean counters and congress critters cut the budget, resulting in an aluminum hull and the requirement for the tiles to protect it. Various problems with the tiles resulted in the thing costing more (in dollars, let alone lives) than the titanium hull would have cost. As they say, penny wise, pound foolish...

I hope penny pinching didn't produce this tragedy. Another potential problem is the continuous pressure of tight schedules and the likelyhood of the original designer(s) being out of the picture and no longer watching out for proper safeguards.

JohnB

None of us could have said it better.
Thanks,
Luke