Wed Tech News - Shuttle Launch Edition

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On Tuesday evening, a plastic cover fell off one of the shuttle’s cockpit windows and damaged protective tiles on a panel about 18 metres below. The damaged panel shields an engine pod that flares out near the base of the orbiter. But engineers quickly replaced the panel with a spare, and NASA said it would probably not affect the launch, from Florida's Kennedy Space Center.

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For example, the Federal Communications Commission classifies broadband service offered by cable companies as an unregulated information service, while the telephone companies' competing DSL service remains classified as a regulated telecommunications service. Obviously, when a consumer decides which broadband service to order, he or she couldn't care less about the service's regulatory label. But the classification has important consequences. Among other things, the rates of telecommunications services are regulated and information services are not. Telecommunications services are subject to universal service fees that information services escape. So voice services offered over legacy wireline facilities are subject to regulation and universal service taxes. New Internet telephony services against which they compete are not.

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NASA’s three remaining space shuttles have been grounded since the destruction of the Columbia orbiter and loss of its STS-107 astronaut crew on Feb. 1, 2003. That shuttle broke apart during reentry when hot atmospheric gases entered a hole in Columbia’s wing – damage caused at liftoff by a chunk of external tank foam debris. Since the accident, NASA has worked to develop new ground and orbital tools and inspection methods to prevent similar damage for Discovery’s flight and track it in the off chance that it occurs.