NASA roundin' up road kill (Reuters/CNN) {KSC/shuttle}

[eppur_se_muova]

Space agency sets up 'posse', hotline for shuttle safety

Friday, April 28, 2006; Posted: 8:15 a.m. EDT (12:15 GMT)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) -- NASA is trying to rid the Kennedy Space Center of vultures after the shuttle struck one of the large birds during lift-off last year on the first flight after the Columbia disaster.

The space center has set up what it calls a "road kill posse" to quickly clear as many carcasses as possible from the 6,000-acre site, in hopes of encouraging the vulture population to relocate by cutting off its food supply.

When shuttle Discovery lifted off the launch pad last July on the first flight since the 2003 Columbia accident, it hit a vulture during its climb to orbit.

Discovery did not suffer any damage that time, from the vulture or from the chunks of foam that fell off its fuel tank during launch.

But NASA fears collisions with the large, carrion-eating birds could damage shuttle heat shields, leaving the spacecraft vulnerable to an accident like the one that killed Columbia's seven astronauts.
***
more: http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/04/27/nasa.roadkill.reut/index.html

[uppityperson]

1. now That would be ironic.

bird shuttle collision could be worse than a bird plane collision