1,000 of Shuttle’s Heat-Shield Tiles Damaged by Storm
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — More than 1,000 fragile heat-shield tiles on the space shuttle Columbia were damaged by a rainstorm during a flight from California to the space center atop a 747 transport jet, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said Thursday.
Between 200 and 300 of the tiles probably will have to be replaced but engineers have not determined if repairing the “considerable damage” would delay Columbia’s next flight, scheduled for Dec. 20.
Columbia, the original shuttle in NASA’s fleet, has spent the last 18 months at the Rockwell International factory in Palmdale, Calif., for extensive modifications and a thorough overhaul.
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