Back when NASA was flinging things into space for the first time, the tolerances that were even possible were extremely tight. Every pound mattered (every pound still matters, but because we have other things to do once we get to space nowadays, plus every pound is expensive).
600 pounds of white paint for the fuel tank was considered unnecessary, once the engineering team figured that it didn’t actually protect the special foam covering of the fuel tank anyway. Thus the distinctive orange color!
Oh, I thought the pictures were backwards. The orange being the natural color and the white being paint is really critical information for it to make sense lol
PugJesus@piefed.social 17 hours ago
Back when NASA was flinging things into space for the first time, the tolerances that were even possible were extremely tight. Every pound mattered (every pound still matters, but because we have other things to do once we get to space nowadays, plus every pound is expensive).
600 pounds of white paint for the fuel tank was considered unnecessary, once the engineering team figured that it didn’t actually protect the special foam covering of the fuel tank anyway. Thus the distinctive orange color!
Scrollone@feddit.it 14 hours ago
For all the people in the world except the United States, 600 freedom units = ~272 kg
Starski@lemmy.zip 5 minutes ago
You can just give a conversion without being snarky about it
wieson@feddit.org 6 hours ago
Thank you, finally something sensible
slampisko@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Oh, I thought the pictures were backwards. The orange being the natural color and the white being paint is really critical information for it to make sense lol
morrowind@lemmy.ml 12 hours ago
Yeah same. Orange is much more iconic, glad this happened.
LodeMike@lemmy.today 17 hours ago
Oh my eyes glossed over the word “paint”. Thanks.