On 02 Feb 2003 20:07:01 -0800, David Masten <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>The suspicion that an incident during the ascent of Columbia contributed >to its demise during re-entry leads to a few things that a successful >private space transportation system must address. I think it's simpler than that. Remember Yeager's comment about Challenger? Someone asked him a few days after the accident if he had any advice for NASA. He said, "Don't launch when it's cold." (In fairness, John Wickman says on a detailed post over on aRocket that the cold had nothing to do with it, and the problem was excess SRB aft field joint flex, with the O-ring leak as a dependent failure.) Similar advice based on this incident - if the ET insulation strike turns out to be the proximate cause - would be, "Don't use a fragile TPS. If you use a fragile TPS, don't hit things with it." An insulation strike isn't much different from a bird strike. We lose airplanes to bird strikes all the time. In fact...crap. You know what this is? This is a FOD mishap, plain and simple. You solve FOD mishaps with decades old FOD mitigation measures. One of which is to avoid having things fall onto your vehicle during takeoff. Peroxide/kerosene doesn't build up ice on the tank walls... -R _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
