Posted on 07/27/2005 6:09:10 PM PDT by anymouse
The shuttle Discovery, like Columbia, shed a large chunk of foam debris during liftoff that could have threatened the return of the seven astronauts, NASA said Wednesday.
While there are no signs the piece of insulation damaged the spacecraft, NASA is grounding future shuttle flights until the hazard can be fixed.
"Call it luck or whatever, it didn't harm the orbiter," said shuttle program manager Bill Parsons. If the foam had broken away earlier in flight, when the atmosphere is thicker increasing the likelihood of impact, it could have caused catastrophic damage to Discovery.
"We think that would have been really bad, so it's not acceptable," said Parsons' deputy, Wayne Hale. But he said early signs are Discovery is safe for its return home.
A large chunk of foam flew off Discovery's redesigned external fuel tank just two minutes after what initially looked like a picture-perfect liftoff Tuesday morning. But in less than an hour NASA had spotted images of a mysterious object whirling away from the tank.
Mission managers did not realize what the object was — or how much havoc it would cause to the shuttle program — until Wednesday after reviewing video and images taken by just a few of the 100-plus cameras in place to watch for such dangers.
Officials do not believe the foam hit the shuttle, posing a threat to the seven astronauts when they return to Earth on Aug. 7. But they plan a closer inspection of the spacecraft in the next few days to be sure.
"You have to admit when you're wrong. We were wrong," Parsons said. "We need to do some work here, and so we're telling you right now that the ... foam should not have come off. It came off. We've got to go do something about that."
The loss of a chunk of debris, a vexing problem NASA thought had been fixed, represents a tremendous setback to a space program that has spent 2 1/2 years and over $1 billion trying to make the 20-year-old shuttles safe to fly.
"We won't be able to fly again," until the hazard is removed, Parsons told reporters in a briefing Wednesday evening.
Engineers believe the foam was 24 to 33 inches long, 10 to 14 inches wide, and anywhere between 2 and 8 inches thick, only somewhat smaller than the chunk that smashed into Columbia's left wing during liftoff in 2003. Its weight was not immediately known.
It broke away from a different part of the tank than the piece that mortally wounded Columbia. After the accident, the tank was redesigned to reduce the risk of foam insulation falling off.
Discovery's astronauts were told of the foam loss before going to sleep Wednesday.
Parsons stressed that Discovery's 12-day mission was a test flight designed to check the safety of future shuttle missions. He refused to give up on the spacecraft that was designed in the 1970s.
"We think we can make this vehicle safe for the next flight," he said, declining to judge the long-term impact on the manned space program. "We will determine if it's safe to fly."
Atlantis was supposed to lift off in September, but that mission is now on indefinite hold. Parsons refused to speculate when a shuttle might fly again, but did not rule out the possibility that Discovery's current mission may be the only one for 2005.
He said it was unlikely that Atlantis would be needed for a rescue mission, in the event Discovery could not return safely to Earth and its astronauts had to move into the international space station. Discovery, fortunately, appears to be in good shape for re-entry, he said.
In addition to the big chunk of foam, several smaller pieces broke off, including at least one from an area of the fuel tank that had been modified in the wake of the Columbia disaster.
Thermal tile was also damaged on Discovery's belly; one tile lost a 1 1/2-inch piece right next to the set of doors for the nose landing gear, a particularly vulnerable area.
Hale said none of the tile damage looked particularly serious, and likely would not require repairs in orbit.
Imagery experts and engineers expect to know by Thursday afternoon whether the gouge left by the missing piece of tile needs a second look. The astronauts have a 100-foot, laser-tipped crane on board that could determine precisely how deep the gouge is.
The tile fragment broke off less than two minutes after liftoff Tuesday and was spotted by a camera mounted on the external fuel tank.
If NASA decides to use its new inspection tool to get a 3-D view of the tile damage, the astronauts will examine the spot on Friday, a day after docking with the international space station.
On Wednesday, Discovery's astronauts spent nearly six hours using the boom to inspect Discovery's wings and nose cap for launch damage. The wings and nose are protected by reinforced carbon panels capable of taking the brunt of the searing re-entry heat.
Hale said the laser inspection turned up nothing alarming, but the analysis is ongoing.
If they are keeping America ahead, then why are we paying Russia to ferry astronauts to the space station and why is China launching satellites for US companies?
"If they are keeping America ahead, then why are we paying Russia to ferry astronauts to the space station and why is China launching satellites for US companies?"
Because it is the "international" space station and our shuttle fleet just had a major failure to recover from.
To be fair to the manned space program I think humans can be useful in monitoring robots and tele-operated exploration vehicles by being in orbit around the planet or moon being investigated. It would be a terrific advantage to not have to deal with the signal delays of minutes or hours.
Oh no. We can't do that. Didn't the UN declare all the celestial bodies off limits to permanent human habitation?
Too pristine and all that.
Public research requires a massive waste of taxpayer funds. Queen Isabella didn't have to deal with a greedy bureaucracy, political correctness, pork-barrel politicians and environmental correctness. She just did it.
Why did they send a schoolteacher on a "test flight"? The shuttle has become an expensive political showboat.
Maybe millions. When DDT production was banned, Malaria made a comeback and the death rate skyrocketed.
"Why did they send a schoolteacher on a "test flight"? The shuttle has become an expensive political showboat."
This flight is considered a test flight. They all will be now for the most part from a safety stand point.
Yes shuttle did not deliver what was promised in the early seventies. Lets keep beating up NASA shall we for a decision made thirty years ago yes?
Expensive political show boat? uh huh. yeah thats it. Nixon started it, Ford and Carter continued it. Reagan, Bush 41 and Clinton too and now Bush 43.
Seeing a pattern here? Americans want to explore space. WE ARE EXPLORERS. Shuttle will be replaced. She still has a job to finish. And we learn something new every time she flies. WE learn by doing. She is the only girl in town right now.
One would think that after about twenty years in flight they would get the shuttle right. But as a result of NASA's fiddling we have lost our edge in space.
Time to privatize.
One would think that after about twenty years in flight they would get the shuttle right. But as a result of NASA's fiddling we have lost our edge in space.
Time to privatize.
I do too. I want space colonized. That's why I don't want the government to do it.
Our government is not what it used to be. In the 60's we went from nothing to landing men on the moon in less than ten years. But after 30 years the government has been wasting money on the space shuttle and they are still making "test flights".
Lets keep beating up NASA shall we for a decision made thirty years ago yes?
No, I want to beat them up for what they are doing today; wasting money and defending a failed, pork barrel project.
If we were explorers, we wouldn't need to be taxed to explore. I think we are video gamers, skateboarders, snowboarders and sports fans who waste a thousand times as much money on frivolous crap as we do on exploration.
Together, Russia and China launch twice as many satellites as we do. I'm not too proud of that.
"If we were explorers, we wouldn't need to be taxed to explore."
oh for Petes sake,
Building a machines like a Saturn V moon rocket or the shuttle is not something that gets done without taxes nor by a single individual.
Just as building a nuclear aircraft carrier or B2 Bomber.
And the many European explorers that came to America hundreds of years ago were funded by their leaders/kings/queens.
Oh, so THAT is what that KLUNK was??? G'nite, zzzzzzz.....
We could put passels more up if we did it all unmanned. We keep going for the prestige. Well that's nice but prestige doesn't haul satellites up there in bulk.
That's the guy.
Government contacts to private companies are not necessarily inherently wasteful. If they can somehow avoid all the bureaucracy, they can get the job done efficiently. A lot of the unmanned space exploration, such as JPL which is managed by Caltech, a private university, is doing an excellent job overall.
But on the shuttle, NASA is the dog that wags the tail.
I think you are making assumptions. You don't give the private sector enough credit.
The reason that this sort of thing is not financed by private industry, (even though private industry actually does the work), is that most companies big enough to afford this sort of thing are not allowed to exist.
If a corporation gets that big it is very quickly suffocated and subjugated by our paranoid and overweening federal government. Bill Gates learned that a few years ago. He is however allowed to invest his money in non-threatening pursuits. For example, the Gates foundation donated about 5 billion on malaria vaccine research. Kind of a waste really, since DDT is the best malaria vaccine.
But if he had that money on space exploration...
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