Foam strike email to shuttle commander released

On Tue, 1 Jul 2003 10:12:45 +0100, "Brian Gaff"
wrote:

Well, of course (See post below for details) they were thinking tiles, not
what actually happened. A classic case of familiarity breeding contempt if
ever there was one.

Did I not read that the crew actually watched the launch video as well?

Yes, the crew saw the video clip.

That particular clip quickly made the email rounds at JSC (and another places,
I'm sure). When I saw it I thought "holy ****!" and then thought it looked
cool, nothing to worry about. After all, if it had been a problem and thought
it was worth seriously looking at, we would have heard about it, right?

In article , "Michael R.
Grabois ... change $ to \"s\"" says...
On Tue, 1 Jul 2003 10:12:45 +0100, "Brian Gaff"
wrote:

Well, of course (See post below for details) they were thinking tiles, not
what actually happened. A classic case of familiarity breeding contempt if
ever there was one.

Did I not read that the crew actually watched the launch video as well?

Yes, the crew saw the video clip.

That particular clip quickly made the email rounds at JSC (and another places,
I'm sure). When I saw it I thought "holy ****!" and then thought it looked
cool, nothing to worry about. After all, if it had been a problem and thought
it was worth seriously looking at, we would have heard about it, right?

Hell, I remember seeing the foam strike during the live coverage of the
launch. I didn't know what it was, but it happened at the right time,
and was visible as what appeared as an asymmetric flash in the SRB plume
(the spray of foam particles was briefly visible, and what you never see
in the detailed-study tapes is that the spray very briefly flouresced as
it reached the edges of the SRB plume).

The news media were reporting that "NASA has no concerns about a possible
foam strike on the shuttle's wing" as late as the night before entry,
BTW. I know I heard it the evening of January 30th.

--

I don't expect life to be fair; | Doug Van Dorn
I expect it to be unfair in my favor! |