WI: STS-107

Ming777

Monthly Donor
Hmmm...IIRC, they did have the Atlantis getting preped up for STS 114 at the time... could speed up Atlantis for a launch..might have a few days margin to extract crew....
 

Cook

Banned
Hmmm...IIRC, they did have the Atlantis getting preped up for STS 114 at the time... could speed up Atlantis for a launch..might have a few days margin to extract crew....

The problem there Ming is that you are speeding up several thousand man hours of work.

All of which has an enormous number of safety checks to conduct on what is a high risk system.

That’s when things are going good; NASA had just been presented with the fact that they had an extremely dangerous problem with the foam insulation of their External Tank.

To send up Atlantis in that situation, even if it could be done in time means you could have had two birds up there ready to burn up on re-entry.

And remember that NASA has a VERY risk adverse culture.
 
Hmmm...IIRC, they did have the Atlantis getting preped up for STS 114 at the time... could speed up Atlantis for a launch..might have a few days margin to extract crew....

NASA says that if Columbia could be extended to 30 days of flight (With its EDO pallet, not impossible. Rationing of power would be necessary, but they have experience with that), and Atlantis could launch on February 10, they'd have a 5 day window of opportunity. This would have been possible without skipping safety checks, according to NASA.

@Cook: Sure, the kevlar might have helped, but how much weight would it have added to the Shuttle?
 
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