Space Shuttles Grounded
 

NASA grounded the space shuttles again after a 33 inch piece of foam from the main fuel tank fell off. Discovery's mission is going fine but the next launch scheduled in September with Atlantis wont happen unfortunatley.

Re: Space Shuttles Grounded
 

Re: Space Shuttles Grounded
 

A piece of the heatshield of the orbiter has broken off. There's a change it's going to do the same thing as the Colombia on re-entry.

Re: Space Shuttles Grounded
 

heh.. it also hit a bird on the way up

Re: Space Shuttles Grounded
 

They can fly to the Moon and back; send robots to Mars. But they can't build an insulator. Weird.

Re: Space Shuttles Grounded
 

If Discovery does the same thing as Colombia, we can all kiss American space travel goodbye for another 10 years.

Re: Space Shuttles Grounded
 

Better than the old communist motto. "You pretend to pay us, we'll pretend to work".

Re: Space Shuttles Grounded
 

The difference this time is a tile is chipped, Columbia had a hole in the wing and missing tiles. According to NASA the shuttles have come back before with no problems with this level of damage.

But yes I agree why cant they build decent insulation. If its peeling off on takeoff why not put aluminum straps around the tank and insulation to hold it on? Or wrap it in a thin but strong nylon or wire mesh?

Re: Space Shuttles Grounded
 

Well it's a another blow to the ISS, original stuff has already been discarded and they're way behind schedule, with both japanese and european stuff missing :(

Of course human safety is the first priority but it's sad to see all that money go to waste (they're more maintaining the station than doing science)

Re: Space Shuttles Grounded
 

Since the US is having all these problems with the Shuttles I dont see why they dont follow the Russian example of using rockets and robotic cargo ships to deliver parts and supplies. Seems something like a solid rocket and a 2 man capsule could be used to ferry people up and back.

Heck for that matter they could swallow thier pride and pay the Russians to ferry stuff up, their rockets seem to be working fine.