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Worst case scenario for space shuttle

As Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to blast off between July13 and July 31, NASA officials have drawn up a list of daring maneuvers they could use to help bring astronauts home on a damaged vehicle.

The most dramatic scenarios would require NASA to ignore longstanding flight rules, such as guidelines on when to start re-entry. The new procedures could be used if the shuttle’s heat shield suffered damage, as Columbia’s did. The steps are designed to reduce temperatures on the heat shield:

In the most extreme case, NASA could raise the shuttle’s nose 10 degrees above normal as it hurtles toward the Earth. The maneuver has never been attempted.

While the shuttle is in orbit, the damaged part could be pointed away from the sun and toward the chill of outer space.

An astronaut could throw unneeded items, such as extra spacesuits, overboard or leave them on the International Space Station . Less weight means less heating.

It’s unlikely the options that NASA has devised will be used, says LeRoy Cain, who led the planning. But they could cut the temperatures the heat shield would have to withstand by several hundred degrees. That’s probably enough to make a difference in some cases, he says.

posted by: kyawoo at 21:25 | link | comments |
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