Re: Shuttle Flights Halted

dumpster4@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
"The space shuttle fleet is grounded until technicians
find and fix a vexing problem with engine cutoff (ECO)
sensors--a component that NASA now realizes has
likely never worked throughout the 26-year history of
the shuttle program."

See:

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=awst&id=news/aw121707p2.xml&headline=Shuttle%20Flights%20Halted

I wonder how many other systems on the shuttle have,
without NASA knowing it, never been functional.

If there were a leak in the external tank, then the mass of the vehicle would be falling faster than it should. This would mean that the vehicle would be accelerating faster than predicted, which is something that should be detectable.

Sylvia.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Death Sentence for the Hubble?
    ... :> I'm sure NASA and other agencies would love to reduce lauch costs. ... derived vehicle replace the shuttle, so that they can keep as many jobs at ... So a really cheap launch ...
    (sci.astro)
  • Re: Death Sentence for the Hubble?
    ... :> I'm sure NASA and other agencies would love to reduce lauch costs. ... derived vehicle replace the shuttle, so that they can keep as many jobs at ... So a really cheap launch ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Death Sentence for the Hubble?
    ... Parts of NASA may want this, but other parts would like to see a shuttle ... derived vehicle replace the shuttle, so that they can keep as many jobs at ... So a really cheap launch ...
    (sci.astro)
  • Re: Death Sentence for the Hubble?
    ... Parts of NASA may want this, but other parts would like to see a shuttle ... derived vehicle replace the shuttle, so that they can keep as many jobs at ... So a really cheap launch ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Space station future adrift (Soyuz purchase crisis)
    ... Shuttle by 2010, if I remember cortrectly, only "CEV" was mentioned. ... So, NASA is now tasked to build a "CEV" thing that will act as an escape pod, ... Crew launcher to station, Crew vehicle to Moon, Crew vehicle to Mars etc etc ...
    (sci.space.policy)