Discussion Colonoscopies for the SpaceShuttle; or what can we learn postflight?

[Keatah]

http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/Orbiter-Autopsies.html?c=y&page=1

Talks a little bit about post-flight testing and things of that nature.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

I'm glad to hear that they are going through this process. Whatever people think of STS, it was an EXPERIMENT in reusability of an orbital vehicle. As a first stab it turned out to have a lot of issues that made reusability very costly and perhaps less safe than it could have been.

If knowledge can be gleaned about simpler and more robust ways to engineer reusability, maybe that knowledge can be picked up by some of the newer commercial entities and put to good use using engineering design tools of the 21st century. We've learned a lot since the shuttle was built in the 1970s, thanks to the experience with the shuttle.

 

[FADEC]

STS was close to a nice reusable design. But the program failed in terms of safety (unprotected heat shield), profitability, and exploration (to go to a place where nobody has been before). Although STS was an engineering masterpiece, a spaceplane is the wrong path for an agency which intends to explore space manned. My personal résumé.

As for reusability: I think the most awesome design comes from SpaceX currently...

http://spacex.com/multimedia/videos.php?id=0