Space shuttles and space elevators

The Challenger went down because of cold, stiff o-rings and the Columbia went down because of a flying piece of foam. It’s amazing to me that such relatively “simple” things caused the two shuttle disasters. I’m glad the Discovery came down without any problems earlier this week. Growing up in the 70s, I always thought we would have a much larger space station, more regular flights, and even a permanent lunar base by 2005, but the space program has had its difficulties over the past few decades. I hope private industry will eventually send up more regular flights, and eventually, I hope to see a working space elevator before I die as portrayed in The Fountains of Paradise and The Web Between Worlds. I read both books in the 80s, but the material technology back then wasn’t capable enough to create space elevators. That’s still the case, but hopefully, with carbon nanotubes or some other nanotechnology, we will see a space elevator within the next 50 years.