NEWS: Engineers Suspect Foam Hit Shuttle Wing During Liftoff - ABC News

Engineers Suspect Foam Hit Shuttle Wing During Liftoff

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Shu...tory?id=987399

July 28, 2005 — NASA analysts suspect at least one piece of foam did
in fact hit the wing of the space shuttle Discovery as it took off on
Tuesday, ABC News has learned.

Engineers had believed that the foam did not strike Discovery, but new
analysis has led them to suspect at least one small piece of foam did
hit the shuttle's wing, leaving what engineers described as a scuff
mark.

Video taken of Discovery's liftoff on Tuesday showed a piece of foam
broke away from the fuel tank but then fell clear of the craft without
striking it. Foam debris damaged the tiles of the shuttle Columbia on
its ill-fated final journey in 2003.

The NASA news conference indicated that the accelerometer sensors in the
potentially affected wing area did not indicate a significant hit, and the
OBSS inspection so far shows no evidence of a hit. They also said that the
analysts looking at the offending foam trajectory were divided as to whether
it made contact with the wing.
---------------------------

"Rusty" wrote in message
...
Engineers Suspect Foam Hit Shuttle Wing During Liftoff

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Shu...tory?id=987399

July 28, 2005 - NASA analysts suspect at least one piece of foam did
in fact hit the wing of the space shuttle Discovery as it took off on
Tuesday, ABC News has learned.

Engineers had believed that the foam did not strike Discovery, but new
analysis has led them to suspect at least one small piece of foam did
hit the shuttle's wing, leaving what engineers described as a scuff
mark.

Video taken of Discovery's liftoff on Tuesday showed a piece of foam
broke away from the fuel tank but then fell clear of the craft without
striking it. Foam debris damaged the tiles of the shuttle Columbia on
its ill-fated final journey in 2003.

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 23:54:22 GMT, "Hi Ho Silver"
wrote:

The NASA news conference indicated that the accelerometer sensors in the
potentially affected wing area did not indicate a significant hit, and the
OBSS inspection so far shows no evidence of a hit. They also said that the
analysts looking at the offending foam trajectory were divided as to whether
it made contact with the wing.

....If we're talking about the Big Strip, from the playbacks if
anything hit it *might* have been one of those straps. I saw a
playback last night on a 32" HDTV screen, and from what I could tell
it really didn't look like it came anywhere near close to hitting the
wing.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

OM om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org
wrote in :

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 23:54:22 GMT, "Hi Ho Silver"
wrote:

The NASA news conference indicated that the accelerometer sensors in
the potentially affected wing area did not indicate a significant hit,
and the OBSS inspection so far shows no evidence of a hit. They also
said that the analysts looking at the offending foam trajectory were
divided as to whether it made contact with the wing.

...If we're talking about the Big Strip, from the playbacks if
anything hit it *might* have been one of those straps. I saw a
playback last night on a 32" HDTV screen, and from what I could tell
it really didn't look like it came anywhere near close to hitting the
wing.

This particular piece of debris wasn't the Big Strip. The footage shown in
the news conference showed that the debris came off after the roll to
heads-up, well after the Big Strip was already gone.

--
JRF

Reply-to address spam-proofed - to reply by E-mail,
check "Organization" (I am not assimilated) and
think one step ahead of IBM.

I can't believe we're going to have to watch another fatal fireworks
display on reentry! This is ridiculous. They might as well go ahead
and give them the last rites now.

Rusty wrote:

Engineers Suspect Foam Hit Shuttle Wing During Liftoff

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Shu...tory?id=987399

July 28, 2005 — NASA analysts suspect at least one piece of foam did
in fact hit the wing of the space shuttle Discovery as it took off on
Tuesday, ABC News has learned.



Well, that's all she wrote.

Pat

don't be such a grim reaper!

"Larry Haines" wrote in message
oups.com...

I can't believe we're going to have to watch another fatal fireworks
display on reentry! This is ridiculous. They might as well go ahead
and give them the last rites now.

"Larry Haines" wrote in message
oups.com...

I can't believe we're going to have to watch another fatal fireworks
display on reentry!

You don't *have* to watch it. You're free to put on the foil beanie and
stick your head under a pillow.

On Fri, 29 Jul 2005 01:31:49 -0500, Pat Flannery wrote
(in article ):



Rusty wrote:

Engineers Suspect Foam Hit Shuttle Wing During Liftoff

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Shu...tory?id=987399

July 28, 2005 — NASA analysts suspect at least one piece of foam did
in fact hit the wing of the space shuttle Discovery as it took off on
Tuesday, ABC News has learned.



Well, that's all she wrote.

Pat

Pat, please - don't be even more of a fatalist.

--
"Fame may be fleeting but obscurity is forever." ~Anonymous
"I believe as little as possible and know as much as I can."
~Todd Stuart Phillips
www.angryherb.net

Herb Schaltegger wrote:



Well, that's all she wrote.

Pat



Pat, please - don't be even more of a fatalist.



I was in a hurry, and should have phrased that better. What I meant was
that this ups the possibility that the Shuttle will be permanently
grounded; not that it's going to have any problems on reentry.
In fact, that little ding on the tile up by the nose gear would be a
perfect one to test their orbital repair capability out on- it's too
small to present a real problem, so if the repair didn't work- no big
deal. At the same time you could get some great real world data on how
the repair patch technology works on an actual reentry.
Jeffrey Bell has weighed in on the Shuttle. Surprisingly, he wants to
permanently ground it ;-) :
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-05zq.html
I've still got to check up on that B-17 math of his.

Pat