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2005-07-28 Home Front: Culture Wars

Shuttle insulation failure? Blame an Enviro

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Posted by OldSpook 2005-07-28 05:26|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#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|| 2005-07-28 05:40|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2005-07-28 08:22|| Front Page Top

(THOMAS NAST)

Nowadays - Whose fault are the Space Shuttle Problems?

Posted by BigEd 2005-07-28 11:39|| 2005-07-28 11:39|| Front Page Top

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