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From: Ian Woollard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [ERPS] [[EMAIL PROTECTED]: [SAT-L] shuttle disaster] Date: Sun, 02 Feb 2003 20:51:11 +0000Sean Lynch wrote:No, I'm pretty sure there is no backup trajectory, otherwise they would use it routinely.NASA's statements about being unable to do anything about damage to the TPS *deserve* to be met with shock. They themselves stated that they were flying a nominal reentry trajectory, implying that they could change the trajectory to perhaps lessen the danger.
They certainly didn't; practically no propellent is left once they make orbit; it takes an enormous amount to perform a plane change to get to the ISS.I'm guessing they did not have enough propellant to dock with ISS,
No, my understanding is, they would have had basically no options at that point. I did wonder if they could drop the science module off in orbit, but doubtless they had no tools for this, and it wouldn't reduce the mass by much (the orbiter itself is so much heavier).but if they could have known the thing was gonna blow up, they certainly could have done something besides just flying a normal reentry and dying.
Not to mention they would now have valuable data on exactly what sort of damage there was, so they wouldn't now have the problem of trying to extrapolate what sort of damage might have caused a burnthrough. The fleet might have been recertified much faster that way.Yes. That's a good point. _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
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