Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!icdoc!syma!andy
From: andy@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Andy Clews)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Orbiter tiles affected by rain?
Message-ID: <1015@syma.sussex.ac.uk>
Date: 22 May 89 10:01:43 GMT
Organization: University of Sussex
Lines: 17

In an article about the adapted Boeing 747 shuttle-transfer aircraft in
the June '89 issue of Spaceflight News, I read that there are a number
of constraints governing the ferry-flights.  One of these constraints is
that the flights cannot take place when there is danger of rain because
this apparently is bad for the thermal-protection tiles on the orbiter. 

If this is so, what happens to the tiles if the orbiter is sitting on
the launch pad and there's a rainstorm? How does rain affect the tiles?
Or is it because flying through rain at high velocity (up to 250mph in
the case of the STA) would act like a high-pressure hose on the tiles
and damage them? Surely 250mph rain can't be as bad as 17000mph air
which the orbiter meets on re-entry?

-- 
Andy Clews, Computing Service, Univ. of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QN, ENGLAND
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