NASA Says New Improved Rocket Might Shake Violently And Destroy Spacecraft

[kurth]

NASA Says New Rocket Might Shake Violently
Potential Problem May Destroy Spacecraft
By Seth Borenstein
Associated Press

NASA is wrestling with a potentially dangerous problem in a spacecraft that has not even been built yet.

Engineers are concerned that the new rocket, meant to replace the space shuttle and send astronauts to the moon, could shake violently during the first few minutes of flight, possibly destroying the entire vehicle.

"They know it's a real problem," said Paul Fischbeck, a Carnegie Mellon University engineering professor who has consulted on risk issues with NASA in the past. "This thing is going to shake apart the whole structure, and they've got to solve it."

If not corrected, the shaking would arise from the powerful first stage of the Ares I rocket, which will lift the Orion crew capsule into orbit.

NASA officials hope to have a plan for fixing the design as early as March, and they do not expect it to delay the goal of returning astronauts to the moon by 2020.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/19/AR2008011902236.html

[Elspeth]

1. Who's the defense contractor building it?

?

[LiberalFighter]

3. Either Blackwater or the Carlyle Group is my guess

[Elspeth]

4. They don't build things.

Looking for an actual manufacturer

[Elidor]

2. And this is the new & improved version, you say?

Veddy interesting.

[Ian David]

5. All Aboard The Magic Fingers Express! n/t

[Ian David]

6. I absolutely DARE them to name the first one after Richard Feynman. n/t