Quote:
Originally posted by Kaltia:
Oh...man, this is terrible!
Now, correct me if I'm wrong-Challenger was sent up, and lost, in '88 (I was born in '87) and Coloumbia was nearly as old? If that's right, what were NASA doing sending such an old shuttle up?
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Challenger first flew '83. That tragedy was caused in large part by communication failure between engineers and launch controllers. Age was not a factor in that case, lack of equipment testing in extreme conditions was.
AS for why they are sending up shuttles that old, they dont have much choice. They only have 4 shuttles - 3 now - and they have a huge turn around time. IIRC, the entire fleet is due for replacement, but that programe is overdue as well.