Space Shuttle Launch Despite Heat Shield Worries

Search Options	close
Search the following clips: All Clips

news science politics food economy art
technology health internet religion psychology

Sign Up Install Learn More Login


	Space Shuttle Launch Despite Heat Shield Worries

Marcariel

10-16-2007 10:39 PM

367 views

tags:

space shuttle, heat shield, columbia, burn through, cracks

Marcariel says:

I guess NASA hasn't learned it's lesson on space shuttle disasters.

Add a Comment

Login to Comment. Not a member yet? Sign up

Today's Top Clips

visit the Top Clips page

View the Top Clips from October 16, 2007

Embed This Clip In Your Site...

<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/6f08591b-9b16-48e5-9c42-c2937b34b51e/F1EF235B-FA0F-412D-B051-915652EB0293/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2007-10-16-shuttle_N.htm" href="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2007-10-16-shuttle_N.htm" style="font-size: 11px;">www.usatoday.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2007-10-16-shuttle_N.htm">Top NASA officials decided Tuesday to proceed with next week's launch of space shuttle Discovery, despite worries that its heat shield could suffer catastrophic damage during flight.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2007-10-16-shuttle_N.htm"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.usatoday.com/img/34D0E8C4-963D-4153-9BB2-EC1D51D05BF2" alt="The sun rises behind the space shuttle Discovery and the STS-120 crew at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Oct. 9." /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2007-10-16-shuttle_N.htm">Discovery is scheduled to lift off next Tuesday at roughly 11:40 a.m. ET. Its mission will be devoted to building the International Space Station.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2007-10-16-shuttle_N.htm">At a pre-launch review last week, an independent safety team pointed out that engineers don't know the cause of tiny cracks in the panels along the front of the shuttle's wings. Those panels provide protection during the spacecraft's superheated dive back to Earth through the atmosphere.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2007-10-16-shuttle_N.htm">Other engineers agreed last week that the cracks' cause was unclear but said they were highly unlikely to lead to catastrophic "burn through." That is what happened to shuttle Columbia in 2003. Columbia's panels allowed hot gases to stream into the vehicle during re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere, melting the ship's interior. The crew of seven was killed.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/F1EF235B-FA0F-412D-B051-915652EB0293/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

New from the makers of Clipmarks: Amplify.com - Don't just share the news...Amplify it!

Clipmarks: Home; New Clips; Top Clips; Dashboard

Popular Topics: News; Life; Science; Technology; Entertainment

Get Started: Sign Up; Install Clipping Tool; How Clipping Works; Clip-to-Blog™; ClipSearch

Tools and Resources: FAQ; ClipWeek; Top Clippers; Top Tags; Site Map

About Clipmarks: About Us; Contact; Copyright; Privacy; EULA

Search Options

Today's Top Clips