Atlantis hit by SRB nose cap 1988 defense mission

Latest issue of Air and Space does a peice on "Hoot" Gibson. He
commanded a Dec 2 (1988) defense mission with Atlantis carrying a
Pentagon observation sat. Article states that at T=85 sec.the right
hand SRB "nose cap" broke loose and "shattered" agsinst the oribters
wing. The article states that they used the camera on the arm (with
Gibson stating the underside looked like it was hit with "multiple
shotgun blasts" Goes on to say that Mission control looked at the
encrypted pics and said it was no worse than some other flights(more
than likely Gibson feels a tact to keep the crew calm). I had never
heard of this incidnet before now. Anybody have any other
info???????...................doc

wrote:
Latest issue of Air and Space does a peice on "Hoot" Gibson. He
commanded a Dec 2 (1988) defense mission with Atlantis carrying a
Pentagon observation sat. Article states that at T=85 sec.the right
hand SRB "nose cap" broke loose and "shattered" agsinst the oribters
wing. The article states that they used the camera on the arm (with
Gibson stating the underside looked like it was hit with "multiple
shotgun blasts" Goes on to say that Mission control looked at the
encrypted pics and said it was no worse than some other flights(more
than likely Gibson feels a tact to keep the crew calm). I had never
heard of this incidnet before now. Anybody have any other
info???????...................doc

CAIB report, vol 1, chapter 6, p. 127.

wrote:
Latest issue of Air and Space does a peice on "Hoot" Gibson. He
commanded a Dec 2 (1988) defense mission with Atlantis carrying a
Pentagon observation sat. Article states that at T=85 sec.the right
hand SRB "nose cap" broke loose and "shattered" agsinst the oribters
wing. The article states that they used the camera on the arm (with
Gibson stating the underside looked like it was hit with "multiple
shotgun blasts" Goes on to say that Mission control looked at the
encrypted pics and said it was no worse than some other flights(more
than likely Gibson feels a tact to keep the crew calm). I had never
heard of this incidnet before now. Anybody have any other
info???????...................doc


It gets mentioned in the Wikipedia article on the mission (STS-27):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-27
There's a landing photo showing the damage he
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...27_Landing.jpg

Pat

On Mar 21, 1:20*pm, "Jorge R. Frank" wrote:
wrote:
Latest issue of Air and Space does a peice on "Hoot" Gibson. *He
commanded a *Dec 2 (1988) defense mission with Atlantis carrying a
Pentagon observation sat. *Article states that at T=85 sec.the right
hand SRB "nose cap" broke loose and "shattered" agsinst the oribters
wing. *The article states that they used the camera on the arm (with
Gibson stating the underside looked like it was hit with "multiple
shotgun blasts" *Goes on to say that Mission control looked at the
encrypted pics and said it was no worse than some other flights(more
than likely Gibson feels a tact to keep the crew calm). *I had never
heard of this incidnet before now. *Anybody have any other
info???????...................doc

CAIB report, vol 1, chapter 6, p. 127.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
reread my CAIB (thanks Jorge) and its all there. However it is
interesting to hear Gibson say "Nose Cap" as opposed to the CAIB
statement of "thermal insulation" struck the orbiter?????? After
seeing those pics of the orbiter landing I did recall seeing it
before. It appears that there was little impact damgage to the Carbon-
carbon leading edge. Impressive photos........Doc

wrote:
reread my CAIB (thanks Jorge) and its all there. However it is
interesting to hear Gibson say "Nose Cap" as opposed to the CAIB
statement of "thermal insulation" struck the orbiter?????? After
seeing those pics of the orbiter landing I did recall seeing it
before. It appears that there was little impact damgage to the Carbon-
carbon leading edge. Impressive photos........Doc



The RCC looks in good shape, but the landing photo I found doesn't let
you see the extent of damage (if any) that occurred to the underside of
the Shuttle in regards to the tiles.
In regards to the nose cap/thermal insulation question question, it
appears what hit the orbiter was ablative thermal insulation that
detached from the nose cap of the SRB. According to the Wikipedia
article on the flight, this occurred at around 85 seconds into the
flight and was visible on the video footage of the ascent:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-27
This is around 35 seconds before SRB separation (2:05), and somewhat
surprisingly, around 25 seconds after maximum dynamic pressure at right
around 1:00, when you'd expect anything that was going to fall off to
detach under the aerodynamic load.
One thing about this flight was that it was only the second one after
the return to flight after the loss of Challenger, so you could see why
the crew was a little queasy about anything odd going on with the mission.
It was rumored that on this flight there was a problem with the DOD
payload (thought to be a Lacrosse radarsat) after deployment that
required Atlantis to re-rendezvous with it and perform a EVA of some sort.
It would be interesting to know if there was any attempt during that EVA
to get a better look at the damage to the TPS.

Pat

wrote:
On Mar 21, 1:20 pm, "Jorge R. Frank" wrote:
wrote:
Latest issue of Air and Space does a peice on "Hoot" Gibson. He
commanded a Dec 2 (1988) defense mission with Atlantis carrying a
Pentagon observation sat. Article states that at T=85 sec.the right
hand SRB "nose cap" broke loose and "shattered" agsinst the oribters
wing. The article states that they used the camera on the arm (with
Gibson stating the underside looked like it was hit with "multiple
shotgun blasts" Goes on to say that Mission control looked at the
encrypted pics and said it was no worse than some other flights(more
than likely Gibson feels a tact to keep the crew calm). I had never
heard of this incidnet before now. Anybody have any other
info???????...................doc
CAIB report, vol 1, chapter 6, p. 127.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
reread my CAIB (thanks Jorge) and its all there. However it is
interesting to hear Gibson say "Nose Cap" as opposed to the CAIB
statement of "thermal insulation" struck the orbiter??????

Both correct. SRBs have insulation.