NASA: No Flights Until Foam Issue Fixed

Associated Press ^ | 7/27/05 | MARCIA DUNN

[LM_Guy]

They did not redeisgn the ET, just made some changes - added heaters, sheilding, camera, sensors, and cutaway some foam they thought they could do with out.

[Ciexyz]

One way to look at it: our shuttle astronauts are safer in space in a damaged vehicle, than riding a London subway here on earth.

[jackbill]

A new design for the insulation factor is needed since it is clear that this flimsy-any-kind-of-other-foam-as-well design is too dangerous to the shuttle now (same problem was there for the first 100 flights though.)

I don't think so. We didn't have the problem until the enviros made NASA get rid of the original insulation - which never failed. Since the change, there have been failures on every mission.

You could look it up.

http://capmag.com/article.asp?ID=2942

[crail]

We choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives, and lifts our national spirit.

Not on the moon. There's nothing an astronaut could learn on our planned return the moon some 20 years from now that a robot couldn't learn today. I'm not saying don't explore, I'm saying stop exploring our backyard for such an exorbant price. The moon?!? We want to go to the moon?!? We have probes on mars, audio from saturn, photos from the other side of the universe, robots crashing into asteroids to kick up dust for other robots. That's not exciting enough??? Would pictures of men giving beautiful speeches on the moon be more exciting??? With the recent refocus, we're instead going to focus the money to have pictures of astronauts kicking up dust doing lunar "research." That money will come out of the science budget.

[RightWhale]

they have flunked the test

Griffin wants to junk the Space Shuttle and get to work on the CEV. Now.

[ARCADIA]

The Goddard and the Wright brothers were working on a military contracts. Edison worked on developing applications for existing science, and Da Vinci was employed by his Prince. Big raw reseach requires massive public investment, without Isabella,Colombus would never have crossed the ocean.

[Fitzcarraldo]

The shuttle safety record is about 1 death per 12 flights.

[Raycpa]

Question? Is it in NASA's best interest to let the shuttle fail?

[LM_Guy]

The dings to the shuttle tiles were from ice, not foam. The new foam falling off is not really that bad but unfortunately it looks like it was caused from the changes made solve the problem for the original location.
A. 1 Billion was not for cameras
B. The area were most foam was falling off has been eliminated (so-far) this area is completely different
C. If my suspicion is right they will have to reverse a design change and instead add more heaters.

[Names Ash Housewares]

There is so much left do do on the moon. Practice for Mars. Radio astronomy on the far side. Learning how to live in space colonies. Extracting water and air from the soil. Learning to build shelters. Exploring our closest neighbor that we have scarcely trod on at all.

Watch "From the Earth to the Moon" Episode about Apollo 15 and Professor Lee Silver.

[MaineVoter2002]

"OK, what the heck has NASA been doing for the past two years? It is completely insane that the exact same problem that killed 7 on Columbia happened again. I thought they spent the past two years and millions this very issue. For it to happen again is beyond belief...what kind of shop are they running down there?

If I was the current crew, I would be furious that they allowed this to happen again. I realize that space travel is a very dangerous business and you can never be sure that nothing will go wrong...but at least fix known problems...just plain crazy."

Exactly what I was thinking! That was the purpose for grounding them for 2 and a half years! This is our tax money folks. I support the program but whoever is running NASA has many questions to answer.

[LM_Guy]

NO !!!

[LM_Guy]

Space flight is hazardous and not for weenies !!!

[RightWhale]

You're overly attached to NASA and government research money if you think private industry CAN'T tackle stuff like this.

There is a small legal matter to attend to and then private industry will take care of developing outer space. As it stands now, however, private industry will not take care of developing outer space. Private industry is effectively excluded from outer space.

[Names Ash Housewares]

"Space flight is hazardous and not for weenies !!!"


And apparently some of the critics here think they are smarter then the engineers and brave astronauts combined on this challenging problem. What part of "test' flight is not understood? She wont fly again until this new data is processed and acted upon. thats the way it works.

As "Q" said on Star Trek....

"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you'd better just go home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wonderous, filled with wonders to satiate desires both suttle and gross, but it's not for the timid."

[LM_Guy]

Your are totally right but it was really due to the change in environmental laws that was to protect the ozone layer and not due to Clinton/Gore but instead it was Reagan (my hero).

Why did the shuttle's foam insulation flake off? In response to an edict from the EPA, NASA was required to change the design of the thermal insulating foam on the shuttle's external tank. They stopped using Freon, or CFC-11, in order to comply with the 1987 Montreal Protocol , an agreement designed to head off doubtful prognostications of an environmental disaster.

[crail]

There is so much to do other than the moon. The enormous amounts of cash it will take to send men to the moon will require cuts to NASA's already thin science budget. This fixation with "it's not really done until a man does it" kills the science. Probes can already do it, and do it better. Robots explore farther. They return more exciting results, more scientifically relevant results, results from exciting (non lunar) places people will never be able to go. If we go ahead with a project as expensive as photo shoots of men on the moon, these *real* science projects will be cut.

[RightWhale]

This fixation with "it's not really done until a man does it"

For new land to be claimed it must be occupied. Robots are not going to make the grade in that repect, not until we can declare robots to be legal persons..

[Fitzcarraldo]

She wont fly again until this new data is processed and acted upon. thats the way it works.

A major political decision will now have to be made because surely the fix will require additional funding that would be taken away from other NASA programs and the shuttle follow-on program.

IMO, "no insulation events" was the bottom line for this flight.

[BoBToMatoE]

They need a mission that is difficult enough to clear out the current layer of inept management while attracting new and capable talent.

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and recieving the proper funding to pay for it.