(THOMAS NAST)Nowadays - Whose fault are the Space Shuttle Problems?
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| Shuttle insulation failure? Blame an Enviro |
| 2005-07-28 |
| By Monica Davey and Jeremy Manier Posted February 4, 2003 HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- NASA officials on Monday were redoing their initial analysis of damage to Columbia from a briefcase-size chunk of debris that struck the orbiter, conceding they could have underestimated its risk to the shuttle and its crew. ... Technicians had traced [the problems] to a new foam formulation NASA contractor Lockheed Martin introduced in the mid-1990s to comply with environmental regulations ... The change was prompted by environmental concerns over using freon to spray on the foam. ... Hundreds of the heat-resistant tiles were damaged during a Columbia flight in 1997 when chunks of the foam broke off and hit the spacecraft. Some of the gouges were 15 inches long. ... Technicians traced at least part of the problem to a chemical called HCFC 141b, which Lockheed Martin began using in the mid-1990s as a replacement for the freon gas used to help spray on the foam. Yes this is old - but it shows you the same thing that happened in intelligence: when the politicians and old-boys get together and overrule the operational professionals and/or engineers, you get stuff like Columbia, and 9/11. Haven't seen an environmentalist yet step up and say they were sorry - and that they were wrong. |
| Posted by:OldSpook |
| #3 (THOMAS NAST) Nowadays - Whose fault are the Space Shuttle Problems? |
| Posted by: BigEd 2005-07-28 11:39 |
| #2 Somewhat agree OS, but another culprit is the Nixon admin. This dawgs breakfast of a spacecraft should have had an air breather 1st stage since day one.... it's a mess. A well designed mess, but a mess. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-07-28 08:22 |
| #1 posted from the other thread since the comments really belong here The real culprit here is the Clinton Administration's give-in to the enviros back in the mid 1990's - letting the politicians tell NASA what they could and could not use for insulation. The EPA even offered NASA an exemption to the enviro regs. The problem is that politics of the Green/Left in the Clinton Whitehouse triumphed over engineering and you have the mess we see today. The Clinton administration ordered the NASA change of the design of the external tank's insulating foam to stop using Freon Chloroflourocarbon (CFC-11) so that Clinton could trumpet that his administration would comply with the 1987 Montreal Protocols. These protocols were set up to address the Ozone depletion, which looks now like it was not man related but a cyclical natural thing in the upper atmosphere -- i.e. they were junk science. Since the design changes to placate the enviros (1997 I believe), some reports say that there is up to ten times as much & ten times more often damage to the shuttle's tiles, for each and every flight, as compared to before (see the quotes above about damage in 1997). Put this one squarely on the enviros - the blood is visibly on their hands. Then say screw the nutjobs enviros and green weenies, and go back to the old design with the Freon process. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2005-07-28 05:40 |