Houston
Critics this week said NASA’s “can-do” atmosphere caused administrators to discount the possibility that the space shuttle Columbia was in danger. The space agency released e-mails between experts who speculated before the shuttle broke apart, killing seven astronauts, that the craft might have been fatally damaged by loose debris at launch. Top officials rejected gloomy assessments “like the plague,” one engineer said, and focused on a study concluding that the debris was just foam insulation. An engineer warned that the debris might have contained ice, striking like “a 500-pound safe hitting the wing at 365 mph.” That would have stripped off heat shields, making re-entry into the atmosphere catastrophic. In the e-mail exchange, one engineer said that scenario would result in the loss of the shuttle and the crew, “so we’ll skip it.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
American universities are losing ground to their foreign counterpartsThe Explainer While Harvard is still near the top, other colleges have slipped
-
How to navigate dating apps to find ‘the one’The Week Recommends Put an end to endless swiping and make real romantic connections
-
Elon Musk’s pivot from Mars to the moonIn the Spotlight SpaceX shifts focus with IPO approaching
