Comment by Gagarin1917
3 days ago
>Every mission from then on had a backup plan in case the shuttle wasn't in a state to return to Earth (this wasn't really the case before then, which is kinda wild). Another shuttle was always ready to launch, with a new configuration of seats to allow for sufficient crew space
Actually the backup plan almost every time was to just stay on the ISS until another Shuttle could be prepared. They only had another Shuttle on standby a couple times, during missions where they weren’t going to the ISS.
>They sent up equipment and materials for repairs in space with every launch, though admittedly the usefulness of that was dubious and the repair kits were never used
Yeah it wasn’t even useful for a situation like Columbia. It didn’t lose a few tiles or something, it had a giant hole punched into its wing.
There’s no fixing that in space. So I personally think they focused on situations they could theoretically fix, even though those situations weren’t what happened to Columbia.
The solution to a Columbia situation was the aforementioned stay at the ISS. The idea was to have many solutions for a range of situations. No reason to throw away a billion dollar shuttle if there is a repair in space option
Was a hole actually punched in the wing, or was it just the tiles that were knocked off (and then the heat melted the leading edge of the wing)?
It was a hole punched in the reinforced carbon-carbon panel that made up the leading edge of the wing.
They didn’t use tiles on highly curved parts of the Shuttle, like the nose and the wing leading edges. Those areas were structural heat shields, so not tiles at all.
Thanks for the information!