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NASA's shuttle program, set to make its final flight later this week, has resulted in the death of 14 astronauts. But it could have been a lot worse. The agencys fleet of 100-ton orbiters faced numerous imminent threats for more than 30 years, both on the Earth and traveling at 28,000 kilometers per hour a slice above its surface. Some are well-documented, but many drew little public attention, let alone scrutiny.Dangers ranged from faulty equipment to orbital debris to human error--but the bottom line is that space travelers faced risks far greater than the space agency likely cared to publicize. The International Space Station (ISS), which orbital crews traveling via the shuttle (as well as Russian Soyuz spacecraft) spent the past 13 years constructing, will continue to face such issues long after Atlantis launches and closes the books on NASA's shuttle program. [More] Read More ...
