Space Shuttle Break Up Research Paper

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'Aerodynamics May Explain Space Shuttle Breakup' Saturday, Feb. 01, 2003 Log In with Facebook Sharing TIME stories with friends is easier than ever. Add TIME to your Timeline. Learn More X Sharing With Friends Add TIME to your Timeline to automatically share TIME stories, photos and videos with your Facebook friends. Share Only the Stories You Want TIME will alert you each time a story is shared and you'll have the option to keep or remove each story from your Facebook Timeline. Plus, view "Your Activity" to see a history of stories you've read and remove stories from your Timeline. CNN * Print * Email * Reprints ------------------------------------------------- share * -------------------------------------------------…show more content…
The incident occurred at an altitude of some 200,000 feet, shortly after reentry and 15 minutes before Columbia had been scheduled to land at Cape Canaveral. TIME science correspondent Jeffrey Kluger explains some of the possible causes and consequences of the accident: TIME.com: What are the possible scenarios that could have caused this disastrous accident on the shuttle's reentry into the Earth's atmosphere? Jeffrey Kluger: There are three possible scenarios that explain this event. The first, which I believe is the likeliest explanation, would be an aerodynamic structural breakup of the shuttle caused by it rolling at the wrong angle. Remember, after reentry, the shuttle is descending without power, which means astronauts at the controls can't compensate for a loss of attitude by using the engines, they can only do so using the flaps. And that's extremely hard. Astronauts describe piloting the shuttle on reentry as like trying to fly a brick with wings. It's very difficult to operate, and even more so to correct any…show more content…
This incident occurred well above the range of shoulder-fired missiles. And it would probably be easier to sneak a bomb onto Air Force One than to get one onto the shuttle. TIME.com: So is reentry the Achilles heel of the shuttle program? JK: No, the Achilles heel has always been liftoff, and the dangers posed by massive fuel load involved. Reentry has, of course, always been a difficult part of the space program. But this is, in fact, our first fatal accident on reentry. Apollo 13 is remembered as our most difficult ever reentry, but the ship and crew survived. The Soviets lost a crew on reentry in 1970 after an oxygen leak that caused the cosmonauts to suffocate on the way down. Reentry is a very difficult process, but the Russians mastered it in 1961 and we did the same a few years later. TIME.com: Are shuttle crews trained to respond to the scenarios you've

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