Call Comes As Crew Prepares For Unrehearsed Spacewalk
It's the kind of call that makes an astronaut's heart swell with
national pride. Docked with the International Space Station some
370 miles above the Earth, the crew of the space shuttle Discovery
Tuesday took a call from President George W. Bush.
Discovery Thermal Protection System Damage Appears Minimal
NASA switched to a Freon-free insulating foam for the external
fuel tanks starting with the STS-87 flight of the Shuttle Columbia
in 1997. This flight received dramatically more damage then
previous flights. Subsequent shuttle flights using the new foam
continued to result in up to 11 times more damage then previous
flights with the original foam.
Will Whitehorn, President of Virgin Galactic, in a press forum
shared with Burt Rutan, Brian Binnie and Mike Melvill, had a lot to
say at AirVenture. Buried deep in his extemporaneous presentation
were some possible hints at what will be revealed in the days and
week ahead.
Standing in the shadow of White Knight and Ansari X-Prize winner
SpaceShipOne, Sir Richard Branson shared his latest plans at for
his space-tourism venture announced last September, Virgin
Galactic.
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