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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 |
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