Chunks of concrete from Saturday’s launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery splash into the water. News and photos from Spaceflight Now:
The Apollo-era launch complexes, modified for the space shuttle, must endure enormous pressures and extreme heating when shuttles take off but its not yet clear what caused the damage, what might be required to fix it or whether the debris could have posed a risk for Discovery. Based on photos from cameras around the pad perimeter, the damage appeared to occur after Discovery was well off the pad.
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1 response so far ↓
1 Paul // Jun 19, 2008 at 11:18 pm
You know, the shuttle system simply has to go. I think it’s past time for us to mount an Apollo-type effort (which was like a Manhattan Project effort) to truly create a space elevator.
Until then, we’re stuck with the incredibly dangerous route to space of high explosives, and the route back to earth through the atmosphere at super-high speeds.
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