Years before the Columbia tragedy, NASA had identified a need to
upgrade the orbiter's wing leading edges in order to address their
assessment that "...the risk of a catastrophic puncture of an Orbiter
wing leading edge has increased." (quoted from
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/upgrades/wle.html)

But this upgrade was subsequently cancelled due to a reprioritization
of funding, so none of the orbiters had gotten this increase in
robustness for their wing leading edges.

CAIB determined that the STS-107 LOCV occurred due to a catastrophic
puncture of Columbia's wing leading edge, but their final report makes
no mention of the WLE MMOD Protection Upgrade.

================================================== =====================

If you were a CAIB member, how would you rate the relevance
of the cancelled WLE upgrade?

a) Critical. It was a key part of the story that needed to be told
in Vol 1 of the final report.
b) Important. It needed to be mentioned
in Vol 1 of the final report.
c) Relevant, but less important. It needed to be included
in one of the follow-on appendices (Vol 2-6).
d) Irrelevant. It was proper for CAIB to not mention
the cancelled WLE upgrade in the final report.
e) Other.

================================================== =====================




~ CT