Space Forum / Shuttle / July 2005

The diagram shown at this URL is quite interesting.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/space/sts114/3285532#
It looks like the rate of hits increased in late 1997/early 1998.   Would
that be when they started flying the lighter external tank?

We have new Discovery debris photos on our site not released yet.
usspacenews.com

This segment was broadcast on the NPR show "This American Life," last
weekend.  The producer has found a crank claiming to have disproven the
theory of relativity, and the show brilliantly examines who is the crank
and what is going through his head.  There is also a brief ...

Anybody seen any good sites that discuss and refute
the widespread urban legend that the shuttle foam loss
was the fault of environmental regulations that outlawed
freon in the foam application? Ditto the old story that

Let me run something by you.
I've been thinking maybe Lockheed's new tank doesn't like the RCS
firings at SRB sep, or the OMS Assist firings afterward, or both.
In the first photo (with a magnifying-glass circle) shown by

...There's rumor tonight that Discovery's mission will be extended for
at least one day. This reportedly comes from a request by the ISS crew
so as to give them time to stuff the Raphael Module with as much trash
and returnables as they can. The reasoning is that the Module can

Since I'm so quick to bash when they do a bad job I thought I'd just
mention that everyone I watched, heard and read did a great job on this
launch.  The anchors did a workmanlike job.  Jim O was very good on NBC.
 Bill Harwood over at CBS does some great reporting.  Miles ...

As I pointed out in a previous post:

For those of you up late, here's a neat story, that just broke.... Best,
Jim
BREAKING NEWS: Object Bigger than Pluto Discovered, Called 10th Planet
www.space.com

It's looking good.
I find it incredible they didn't think of this before.
See
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/s.slee/durexcovery.htm

Looking forward to seeing what the B-57's caught in HD.   Hopefully, more
and more cameras will start broadcasting (live) in HD.   Yeah, films can ne
transfered to HD video months after the event to be aired on short
"Discovery HD" mini-segments, but wouldn't it be cool to watch it ...

How about this:
Scrap the foam.
Spray a continuous flow of antifreeze/deice liquid over the now bare
ET.

Is there any connection between Lockheed-Martin's lighter external tank
(that made heavy payloads possile for some ISS deliveries) and the
falling foam problem?   That is, is the new ET model more susceptible to
falling foam then older ET models?

Forgive my ignorance, but why exactly must NASA spray insulating foam on the
main fuel tank for the space shuttle?  I understand insulation is necessary,
liquid hydrogen and oxygen being very very cold.  But why is spray-on foam
preferable to built-in insulation?

Crew Takes Focused Look at Shuttle Heat Shield
The STS-114 astronauts are conducting more inspections of Space Shuttle
Discovery's heat shield this morning. They are using the Orbiter Boom Sensor
System attached to the Shuttle's robot arm to take a closer look at