The fatal flaw of the Shuttle inhered in those heat protection tiles.
Those damned tiles.
Had we been able to develop a thermal protection system that wasn't so utterly failure-prone, we'd be living in a different world, from a space exploration point of view. Society lacks much confidence in NASA. And can one blame it? After all, heat tiles were a problem as early as the late 1970's, when they flew off in droves during airborne trials of the Enterprise, OV 101. And while they did not cause the loss of Challenger, they did cause the death of Columbia and all its crew.
The Columbia I once knew -- the one I saw with mine own eyes at Edwards Air Force Base in 1981 -- died, because of those damned thermal tiles.
The new vehicles promised under Project Constellation leave behind the legacy of those horrific tiles. We go back to the tried and true.
And the hopes of many Americans are inspired once again.
Go with God, NASA. We need you to succeed.
America needs you to succeed.
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