From: bondage@frontiernet.net   
      
   David Given wrote:   
      
   > How about fitting the shuttle out with a lifeboat? Stick it somewhere in   
   > the cargo bay. If a shuttle gets sufficiently damaged that it can't   
   > reenter, you use the capsule to get the crew down.   
      
      Ships usually (certainly not always) take some time to sink. In a   
   Columbia-type scenario, you don't  know you have a serious problem until   
   it hits hard and fast. Even if it could survive having the orbiter come   
   apart around it, you need at least enough time to get to such capsules.   
      
      Something like this is why the B-58 and B-70 bombers had enclosable   
   ejection capsules for the crew, which were also their normal seats. And   
   even in the B-70 that went down after a mid-air collision, one of the   
   crew still didn't make it out.   
      
      And, of course,  a 'lifeboat' capsule takes weight/volume away from   
   possible payloads....   
      
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