Shuttle Safety [was: Re...

"columbiaaccidentinvestigation"'s argument seems to be that any changes
to the shuttle, even ones made with the objective of making it safer,
put it into a flight regime that has not been tested. The only way to
address this concern is to never change anything ever.

Is this the way to do anything new in space?

The point of the launch decision is that even in the case of foam
shedding from the tank impacting the thermal protection system, the
effect will be on re-entry-- the launch itself is safe up through the
time the shuttle gets to orbit. As noted, if there is a foam impact
event, the astronauts transfer to the space station, and shuttle is
inspected on orbit to determine the nature and extent of damage. It's
then either reparied, or the astronauts are returned by a different
mission. Uncerrtainty about the foam is a question about a possible
loss of the vehicle, and not loss of astronauts.

Since "columbiaaccidentinvestigation" is arguing that any changes
whatsoever put the shuttle into a regime where the only way to validate
the change is by flying ("columbiaaccidentinvestigation" claims not to
trust wind tunnel results), this seems the only sensible thing to do.

--
Franklin Jefferson
***My blog: Jefferson's Democracy***
http://franklinjefferson.blogspot.com