Technicians working on the space shuttles discovered last week that some gears in the braking mechanism had been installed backwards, in some cases, nearly two decades ago. They had never been inspected since. Fortunately, the reversed gears were in one of the least stressful positions of the assembly; had it been installed in a high-stress position, it could have failed when the shuttle landed – probably leading to its destruction. New parts will be installed before the shuttle returns to flight next March.
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