Word: takeoff
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...this a movie with a Hitchcockian "wrong man" theme? Or is it a takeoff on countless westerns (like The Gunfighter) about a retired gunman trying to outlive his old notoriety? Suffice to say that Cronenberg both criticizes the poison of violence and acknowledges its lure as a way of solving problems. Beyond that, it turns a hot topic into a pretty cool entertainment--one that satisfies the viewers' need for righteous revenge while leaving them a queasy little question on the way out: Does gun diplomacy make sense only in movies? Or do Americans want it to play...
ANATOMY OF A FLAW NASA spent more than two years and $1 billion to make sure that the accident that doomed Columbia in 2003 couldn't happen again. Despite assurances that it was safe to launch Discovery, several pieces of foam broke free during takeoff last week, forcing an embarrassed NASA to put all future flights on hold...
...thick; it probably weighed 0.9 lbs. (0.4 kg), about half the size of the piece that downed Columbia ?THE TROUBLESOME RAMP Most of the falling bits came from the so-called PAL ramp, a ridge of hand-sprayed foam designed to protect fuel lines from buffeting on takeoff ?EXTERNAL FUEL TANK The tank, 154 ft. (47 m) tall and 27.6 ft. (8.4 m) wide, carries 535,000 gal. (2 million liters) of frigid liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel. It is covered by polyurethane-like foam that keeps the fuel cool, prevents ice from forming on the exterior...
...shuttle fleet would remain in operation until 2020, meaning that Columbia was supposed to continue flying into outer space even when its airframe was more than 40 years old! True, B-52s have flown as long. But they don't endure three times the force of gravity on takeoff and 2000[degrees] on re-entry...
Pilot Willie McCool answered email questions in space over NASA's website. He explained how the G-forces on takeoff feel kind of like a bear sitting on your chest. He had trouble sleeping that first night, when you are essentially floating in your bed. The hardest part of his job was having to take blood from his fellow astronauts. "He was afraid he would hurt somebody while he was drawing blood," one friend and fellow pilot says. They had been serving together on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Enterprise when McCool got word he had been accepted by NASA...