Shows that Boeing apparently has a somewhat... cavalier approach to plane security?

Seriously, though, I think the forces are rather exerted on the material surrounding the viewports, rather than the windows themselves, due to the abrupt changes in temperature, and thus it's more important to focus on that than the other thing.

I don't think they built shutters into them, however, since it's just one more piece of machinery that could fail. I could very well be wrong though, too.

Hahaha, ArAsH, I missed your comment until just now, that's great.

Oh, man, Apollo 13 was such a great movie! Really brought space travel to life, told that story so well. As far as I understand, all the major friction is on the bottom, and it's just drag forces on the top and heat's not an issue there. I would so want a good view, too; I'd love to go spacewalking!

That's what extravehicular missions are there for, PC ;)

It's interesting to know, though, that heat is not an issue for the upper side of the space shuttle; I would have imagined that the wash still retains some of the heat (which is, of course, almost neglectable in relation to the temperatures encountered at the underside).

Anyway, I do have faith in the engineers at NASA to do the best they can and to be among the best in their field, so they probably have all that covered.

I honestly don't know, and am only speculating. I kind of figure, they've sent them up and brought them back down, and they sometimes don't explode, so it must work.

Hey, that's what I...

er, nevermind.