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Originally Posted by TigerLily
ok, but why is stuff falling off a shuttle after they ahd over two years to ensure it's back to flight status? There's also "fabric" of some sort near the **** pit window. Either they are being very over cautious or it's some kind of publicity stunt to prove they can pull paper off the shuttle in space....??
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You try attatching millions of pieces to a bomb and seeing how much falls off. The shuttle encounters huge g-forces and speeds. Something is bound to fall off. I heard that in past shuttle missions, it was common for hundreds of pieces to fall off. In this launch, only a few have, and none actually hit the shuttle. It's quite a miracle, actually. They are just taking every possible move to prevent an accident from happening. As said earlier, it has been noted that this fabric can cause higher temps on the hull when exposed, so they removed it to be on the safe side. Its happened before, and the shuttle was fine without it being removed. They are just making sure everything is as good as possible before re-entry.