I visited Discovery this week. It was awesome to see her again! One thing I noticed is the slight orange coloring of the tiles from the ET doors back to the end of the body flap. You can kind of see it in the photos. I suspect this is from ET separation but I'm not sure.
Quote from: Sarah on 05/12/2013 05:27 amI visited Discovery this week. It was awesome to see her again! One thing I noticed is the slight orange coloring of the tiles from the ET doors back to the end of the body flap. You can kind of see it in the photos. I suspect this is from ET separation but I'm not sure. That's interesting about the orange stains.The thing I always found curious about Discovery was the dark strip of black thermal tiles she has running down from one of her right cockpit windows. It's quite distinctive - you don't see it on any other orbiter. Always assumed she had an extra piece of equipment there that needed special heat protection, or a structural weakness that might have also needed 'patching up'. But could never find the answer on Google.Anyone out there know the reason?
Originally Discovery had four HRSI tiles under her window but at some point one was replaced with an LRSI tile.
Maybe the HRSI tiles under Discovery's window were some kind of "shuttle birthmark" like Columbia's "sideburns" on the top of the wings.
So what you are all saying is poor Discovery has a birth defect? lol
I always called it "the tear," although I can't explain why my favorite orbiter should have been crying...
Quote from: Ares67 on 05/27/2013 05:42 pmI always called it "the tear," although I can't explain why my favorite orbiter should have been crying... A tear of joy at getting the majority of headline-grabbing missions?