31 December 2004

Getting Tanked

The folks over at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have just shipped their new fuel tank.

The tank "feels like our baby. We have pampered it, and everyone takes great pride in it," said Sandy Coleman, NASA's external tank project manager.

The design of the shuttle's external tank was altered after an investigation blamed the February 2003 Columbia disaster on a chunk of foam that flew off the tank and struck a wing on the shuttle, causing it to break apart over Texas.

The original foam used on the fuel tank never had this problem. It was replaced by a new type of foam that was more eco-friendly; the original foam contained Freon, which environmentalists blame for the whole in the Ozone layer. Link, Link.

Yet another reason to distrust environmental rhetoric.

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