IN A move reminiscent of Nobel laureate Richard Feynman’s experiment during the Challenger inquiry in 1986, another scientist has used kitchen-sink physics to shed light on the fate of the space shuttle Columbia in February.
Douglas Osheroff of Stanford University in California, also a Nobel prizewinner in physics and a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, says tests he has conducted on shuttle insulation at his kitchen table disprove NASA’s theory about why foam insulation came off the craft’s external fuel tank.
In simple tests on a piece of shuttle foam glued to a piece of steel, Osheroff found…
