this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2025

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With Starship, SpaceX encounters an obstacle that haunted NASA’s space shuttles (arstechnica.com)

submitted 18 hours ago by llamacoffee@lemmy.world to c/spacex@sh.itjust.works

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[–] finitebanjo@piefed.world 8 points 13 hours ago

The heat shield was one of the most vexing problems with NASA's space shuttle program. Thousands of tiles peeled off of the space shuttle Columbia when NASA first flew the orbiter on top of its modified 747 carrier aircraft in 1979. Tile damage was a regular occurrence throughout the shuttle program's 30-year service life, necessitating tile repairs and replacement inside the shuttle's hangar between missions.