The explosion ws the greatest loss ever for the American space program, and was later blamed on faulty o-rings in the booster rocket. In 2003 the shuttle Columbia disintegrated on reentry, killing all of its astronauts.At 11:38 the rocket blasted off. For the first minute of the flight,...
pressure relief systems on the external tank helps it break up in the lower atmosphere. After the foam burns away during reentry, the heat causes a pressure buildup in the remaining liquid oxygen and hydrogen until the tank explodes. This ensures that any pieces that fall back to Earth are...
While thespacewalkers worked outside, mission managers cleared Atlantis? heat shield ofany concerns for reentry and extended the shuttle?sSTS-122 flight by one more day. Landing for the now 13-day mission is setfor 9:06 a.m. EST (1406 GMT) on Feb. 20. Get the Space.com Newsletter Br...
Engineers aresubjecting mockups of the damaged tile to the same searing temperaturesEndeavour will experience during its planned reentry and landing on Aug. 22, aswell as running computer model analysis. The results of those tests shoulddetermine whether a repair is required, Shannon said. NASA has...
February 1, 2003 - Columbia explodes over Texas during reentry. All seven crew members are killed. July 26, 2005 - Discovery is launched, taking off on NASA’s first mission after the Columbia disaster. August 9, 2005 - Discovery lands at Edwards AFB in California. July 4, 2006 - Di...