Hey Guys,
As some of you may know I work at Boeing on the space shuttle program. If
you guys are curious and have questions, bring them to the off topic list.
I'll answer them as I have time.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmlofftopic/
Yes, there are 3 shuttles remaining. Discovery, Atlantis and
Endevor(Challenger's replacement). The Enterprise is non-operational, it
could fly, but it's just as much work to update it as it would be to build
another.
Columbia did not have capability to dock to the space station, so that is
not a concern. The space station can be supported by Russian modules to
bring food, water and other assemblies. Also a Russian escape module is and
always has been attached to the space station as a way home. The real
problem is the space station doesn't have it's own propulsion. It relies on
regular shuttle missions to dock up, then provide the reboost to keep it in
orbit.
The reports of Columbia being 'so old' are pure B.S. Columbia is the
oldest, but except for Endeavor only by at most 2 years. The Columbia was
grounded for 2 years recently, but it was a scheduled maintaince period.
This is a sad time for me, as well as all my friends here and at NASA.
In memory of:
Rick Husband
Michael Anderson
Kalpana Chawla
William McCool
David Brown
Laurel Clark
Ilan Ramon
Jay W
505/287 Dakota
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