Safety Of The Space Shuttle

[sonoftheclayr 0]

Ever since Columbia broke-up during re-entry in 2003, there has been a lot of media attention towards the safety of NASA's space shuttles.

At the time Columbia broke up it had been flying for 22 years (First flight in 1981) and was the oldest in NASA's fleet of shuttles. Columbia had completed 28 missions.
To date NASA has lost 2 space shuttles (Columbia upon re-entry and Challenger upon launch) out of the total 8 constructed, however only 5 have been used for manned flights.

The Space Shuttles are relatively safe and did not encounter any major re-entry problems until Columbia.
Investigations into the Columbia accident showed that the Shuttle was destroyed because some of the Heat Shield that covers the entire shuttle broke off during the launch. As we all know, during re-entry the heat shield failed and the stress and heat became too much for Columbia to handle.

Since this acciedent NASA has suspended all flights and has recently launched Discovery for the second time sine the accident. I'm sure we all remember the hysteria Discovery caused last year when she was the first shuttle launched in two years and everybody was worried if it would survive re-entry. Upon launch parts of the heat shield broke off, but this happens on almost every mission, and had to be repaired in orbit during a dangerous spacewalk using new instruments created by NASA since Columbia.

All the Space Shuttles will be retired by 2010, Endeavour being the last to retire as it is the youngest, and replaced with the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) which will allow missions to the Moon and Mars as opposed tot he Shuttle which could only go into Earth orbit.

In my opinion NASA should have replaced the space shuttles when they were 10 years old, you can hardly expect something that goes into space to withstand the stresses of launch an re-entry for too long. While nothing is wrong with the Space Shuttles, they are getting too old for active service and should be retired a sooon as possible to prevent any further casualties.

What are your views on this topic and what do you think NASA should do/should've done to ensure the safety of the Space Shuttles and their crew.

I apologise for any errors. Any information I needed to get was from wikipedia. This artice was written by sonoftheclayr and is original.

[Houdini 0]

The reason that the foam broke off the heat shield was because trying to satisfy those that had environmental concerns complained about the use of CFCs in the foam that had been used to ally the tiles. These were changed to satisfy those requirements and you will never read about this because it hurts the environment wackos thoeries, and it could never be revealed that using a different environmentally friendly method and material to apply the foam and tile is actually what caused the failure and deaths of all aboard that craft.

 

It is my belief that if we continue to listen to those environmental wackos that we will all end up riding bicycles or tricycles to our jobs (shich would have to be near our homes lessening opportunities for all). Wearing lots of clothing in the winter (even to bed, with lots of cover) cause you probably can't build a fire to try and stay warm, and you can only eat vegetables berries and fruits that grow really close by (probably have to have your own garden) cause there would be no trucks or trains, or aircraft. You would never go on vacation cause it is too hard to pedal a bicycle especially with any luggage to far.

 

This is course just my opinion, but I believe we need to try and try and protect the environment , but don't take it to extremes. Cars, trucks, aiorcraft, buses, heavy equipment and all are necessary to have a decent lifestyle.

[finaldesign1405241487 0]

I think space shuttles are too complex vechiles... I mean, it's about 1.000.000 things that could go wrong when only 1 warning lamp is on. Things should be simplified, for easier repairing. But, I know if they could do it better than they would do it. Anyway, replacing the shuttle is good idea, but world must go on, and if they did replace them before 10 years ago, who will then repair damaged satelites? how will space station work without supplies? too much money is invested into it, to just replace them easily...

[illini319 0]

I absolutely agree. A bit earlier in the year, NBC had the privilege of being toured inside a space shuttle. during the tour the NASA officer was bragging about the heat tiles at the bottom of the shuttle. that every single tile had its own code because every damn tile was unique. now.... what genius engineer thought this was a good thing. and what genius PR of NASA thought that this was something to brag about!!! absolutely... only in America.