The Space Shuttle - Afterthoughts

I consider the United States space shuttle as a high water mark for American genius, technology and innovation.

From Wikapedia:

The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons. Major missions included launching numerous satellites and interplanetary probes, conducting space science experiments, and the servicing and construction of space stations.

Major components included the orbiters, recoverable boosters, external tanks, payloads, and supporting infrastructure — orchestrated by thousands of people on the ground and crewed by an elite cadre of astronauts.

Perhaps a bit too elite, but that's for another story.

Some say that Apple Computer products such as the I-phone and the I-pad should be in that spot, but these devices were built in China, not America, giving China's manufacturing empire the edge in technology and innovation.

Wernher Von Braun (shown below standing near the 1st stage rocket engines of the Apollo) was a major force behind our successful moon landings. He was the primary designer of the Apollo series rockets, machines that today most people have no concept of their size and complexity, and how advanced they were for the day.


Wernher Von Braun's Apollo rockets, fantastic pieces of machinery for their time, could be compared - as exploratory vehicles - to the wagon trains of the old west, while the shuttle could be compared to the steam locomotives being used when the continental railroad was completed. Unfortunately, our space program never got its version of the railroads' modern diesel locomotives. NASA has been stuck with the equivalent of the old steam locomotive(good as it was) of yesteryear.

There are many advances in technology that far exceed the technology used in the shuttle. As an example, the shuttle never had an on-board computer that could begin to compare to one of today's desktop models. That- by itself - points out the major flaw in the space shuttle's design: It's extreme inability to be upgraded quickly and inexpensively as technology marched ahead.

But that was anticipated and not considered a stumbling block to our space effort. Newer and more technologically advanced equipment would be designed, manufactured and brought on line as a matter of course.

Problem is... That never happened. There are two basic causes behind our failure to advance. True, all manner of advanced designs Came down the pike. Unfortunately, they all showed the same tendency of American engineers to over-design absolutely everything, to make everything the incredibly expensive Lamborghini version instead of the affordable Chevy pick-up truck version. As a nation, we just couldn't afford to keep buying more Lamborghini's.

That's reason one.

Reason two is generally unmentionable and stirs up hurricanes of of anger and pushback when mentioned, but still remains a fact.

Women. Women wanted to get involved in the space program. And with the feminist movement happening all across in America at the time, they got a real stranglehold on NASA. Women - by their very nature - are far more safety conscious than men. Men are the risk takers, women are not, and when they gained position and influence in NASA, safety - above all else - became the number one concern.

The space shuttle was originally designed for a two-week turnaround between flights, but that's before the safety experts got involved. Any failure, or potential failure, had to be engineered out of the system. As excessively heightened safety concerns became more and more onerous, delays and cancellations became the order of the day. Turn around times stretched from weeks to months... And the original advantages of the shuttle vanished in the mountains of paperwork, rework, and makework. Costs soared. That's when the shuttle program ground to an almost dead stop.

Consider the two-year delay created when the Challenger exploded. It exploded because an O-ring on one of the booster rocket sections failed and allowed a jet of flame to penetrate the main fuel tank. Why did it fail? Because NASA was pressured to launch in unacceptable weather conditions, while ice sickles were still hanging off the shuttle and the launch structure. The O-rings were frozen solid. Frozen O-rings cannot do their job, so we lost the shuttle.

Space Shuttle Challenger Exploding

Rather than admit that frozen O-rings were the cause, NASA re-designed the booster O-ring joints to a three-O-ring configuration that was far harder to install without damage(nicking the O-ring became a common cause for additional delay), and took lots more time to assemble. The original 2 O-ring design was fine and always worked as expected. But a two-year delay in the shuttle program and a more failure prone O-ring joint was the result of NASA's inability to stand up to the national pressure to get the "Teacher-in space" boondoggle off the ground. After all, there were thousands of little kiddies in school rooms all across America glued to their TV's, waiting to see the "Teacher In Space" give her first lessons from orbit.

The result? Thousands of little kiddies that grew up believing that the manned space program should be cancelled... Way too dangerous.

How did the second shuttle get destroyed? A large piece of insulating foam detached from the main fuel tank and hit the shuttle wing's leading edge, punching a hole in it, sealing the shuttle's fate. Why did a big chunk of insulating foam fall off? Because some braindead nitwit demanded that the glue used to attach the foam be replaced with a more "environmentally friendly" glue. The glue originally used was deemed to be environmentally hazardous. Problem was, the new glue had less "holding power" than the old glue. Result? A big chunk of insulation fell off.

One must assume that an exploding shuttle smashing into the ground over a three state area had been considered as the lesser of two environmental hazards. Nope... No one ever thought far enough ahead to see the real danger of using an inferior glue.

Columbia returns to earth in pieces because of inferior glue

Safety. Must have more safety. there must be no risk involved, no one can ever ever die. This mantra permeated the entire manned space effort and - of course - greatly helped to doom it.

The Apollo and the original shuttle program represented a NASA that was squarely focused on it's mission, willing to accept reasonable levels of risk to get the job done, and as a result, got the job done. We lost three astronauts in the Apollo 1 Capsule fire because a pure oxygen environment - although risky - became a disaster.

Did you ever hear that a metal hand tool - left by a careless assembly worker - in the wiring harness of the capsule may have caused an electrical short, creating a spark, and was the probable cause of the fire?

We lost two shuttles and their crews to stupidity and Political Correctness. That in turn - cost us the entire program.

The surviving shuttles are in museums across America, mute monuments to a fantastic program that was destroyed by second-string incompetents and sheer stupidity.

3 crew members lost due to a careless worker.
7 crew members lost to a bad decision.
7 crew members lost because of lousy glue.

Goes to show you just can't engineer out all the risks, no matter how much time and money you spend.

We Americans have spent a lot - billions - of national treasure on our space effort... Only to see it end up sending those "elite" astronauts to space in the $60 million seats of a Russian rocket.