"lazi@iname.com" wrote:

A chunk of foam fell off the external fuel tank but missed the orbiter.
It was a similar chunk that hit Columbia that doomed it. NASA has
reduced the problem of foam falling off the fuel tank, but not stopped
it. So while the current mission has dodged the bullet it would be
irresponsible to launch any more.

However, the space shuttle is outdated junk that was never properly
funded in its design phase. The sooner it is scrapped and replaced by a
simpler space plane the better.

Lazi

'Simpler Space Plane'??? Ain't no sech animule. That's the one
disservice
that TV and Science Fiction have done; they trivialized the monumental
engineering task that going into orbit really is. Space operations are
not
Star Trek, and it's not likely that anyone reading this will live long
enough to even see an Impulse engine, much less Warp Drive. You go with
what you've got, and what we got is chemical reaction engines. Personally,
I'm still leary of the SRBs, I don't like man-rated artillary. NASA
scrubbed the flying penguin due to problems with the new engine design and
a 'sea change' in the funding department. My biggest hope is from the
Private Sector. If there's a buck to be made in space, some bright boy
will come up with the means to make it. We don't give these folks near
the
credit that they deserve, and there are millions of them all told.

Charly