[rescue] Re: [geeks] Crap! Not again...

[Lionel Peterson]

--- dave <dave at cca.org> wrote:

> I saw a brief reference somewhere that the Columbus, being of a
> slightly different design, was too heavy to make it up to the
> ISS's orbit. Anyone know if that's true?

What I did hear was that they removed 1200 pounds of sensors that were
not being used (well, sensors, wires, computers, etc), since they
overloaded this, thie first shuttle, with too much stuff (belts and
suspenders!)...

They weren't using them, according to the report I heard, so they
pulled them (this is from the flight captain/guy in charge on the
ground on CNN/press briefing).

> In either case, I'm sure if they suspected a catastrophic failure
> on reentry, they would figure out a way to rescue the crew in
> orbit. These are clever people.

Quite, as I understood it (based on the same press conference noted
above), they felt they wouldn't be able to determine what, if anything
was wrong, and by their analysis of the lift-off, the debris looked
like it exploded on impact (the foam disintigrated, without damaging
the ship).

That was their analysis, and that is all we will ever know on that
matter, I suspect...

=====
Lionel

"Nothing would please me more than being able to hire ten
programmers and deluge the hobby market with good software"
Bill Gates, in "An OpenLetter to Hobbyists" dated February 3, 1976
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