Business Services Industry
Insulating Foam Is Possible Culprit in Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster.
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, February, 2003
Daily Press, Newport News, Va. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Feb. 5--The lead suspect in Saturday's space shuttle Columbia catastrophe is essentially the same material used to insulate homes, keep boats afloat and even coat the roofs of civic arenas, such as the Norfolk Scope.
But the insulating foam meant to protect the shuttle's fuel tank during liftoff has been problematic for NASA in recent years, requiring a chain reaction of modifications all triggered by international mandates aimed at halting destruction of the Earth's ozone layer.
The material isn't foamy at all but nearly as hard as a piece of pinewood. When a chunk the size of a 20-inch TV screen broke from the shuttle's 154-foot-long fuel tank during the Jan. 16...
Most Recent Business Articles
- Multiple criteria evaluation and optimization of transportation systems
- Multi-criteria analysis procedure for sustainable mobility evaluation in urban areas
- A two-leveled multi-objective symbiotic evolutionary algorithm for the hub and spoke location problem
- Multi-criteria analysis for evaluating the impacts of intelligent speed adaptation
- The development of Taiwan arterial traffic-adaptive signal control system and its field test: a Taiwan experience
Most Recent Business Publications
Most Popular Business Articles
- 7 tips for effective listening: productive listening does not occur naturally. It requires hard work and practice - Back To Basics - effective listening is a crucial skill for internal auditors
- FAS 109: a primer for non-accountants - Financial Accounting Standards Board's "Statement 109: Accounting for Income Taxes"
- LIFO vs. FIFO: a return to the basics
- Design a commission plan that drives sales - Sales Commissions
- Too Young to Rent a Car? - 25-years-old the minimum age for car renting - Brief Article
