NASA’s first Space Shuttle launch lost 16 heat shield tiles and damaged 148 more before it even left the ground, not from any failure, but from the shock wave of its own engines bouncing back off the launch pad

The Space Shuttle's greatest threat didn't come from the vacuum of space—it came from the ground beneath it. The post NASA’s first Space Shuttle launch lost 16 heat shield tiles and damaged 148 more before it even left the ground, not from any failure, but from the shock wave of its own engines bouncing back off the launch pad appeared first on Space Daily .