Brian Thorn wrote:

In any case, age wasn't a contributing factor in the accident. The
SWRI impact test would have smashed a brand-new RCC panel too.


When they shot the foam at the fiberglass panel that was supposed to be
as strong as a RCC panel, it caused a crack in it but not a hole. They
had to put NASA's feet to the fire to get them to give the CAIB a actual
flown RCC panel...NASA said it was too expensive to destroy one of
those, and the fiberglass one would behave the same way the real one would.
Besides, the crack in the fiberglass one would have been fatal, so there
was no reason to do the test with a real panel.
I think NASA had a sneaking suspicion about what was going to happen
when that foam hit a actual panel, and was trying to figure out some way
to prevent that test from happening...the end result was that they came
out of it looking like they were trying to cover things up. It would
have been better if they had given the CAIB a real panel in the first
place, and just taken their lumps over getting their strength estimates
of the panel wrong.

Pat