'97 Report Warned of Foam Damaging Tiles-Absence of Freon Led to Detachment of Foam

New York Times ^ | 2/03/03 | JAMES GLANZ and EDWARD WONG

[kattracks]

s early as 1997, a senior NASA engineer warned that hardened foam popping off the external fuel tank on the Columbia shuttle had caused significant damage to the ceramic tiles protecting the vehicle from re-entry temperatures.
The warning was sure to receive new scrutiny after NASA said yesterday that its investigation into the cause of the destruction of the space shuttle on Saturday was focusing on damage to tiles that may have been caused by foam or ice or a combination of the two. NASA officials also acknowledged that they might have underestimated the potential seriousness of damage sustained by the tiles when the shuttle lifted off.
Gregory N. Katnik, a NASA engineer at Cape Canaveral, said in a report dated Dec. 23, 1997, that the Columbia had sustained damage to more than 300 tiles on a recent flight. The inspection after a Columbia mission in 1997 showed that the tiles had sustained damage that was "not normal," Mr. Katnik said.
In a number of other shuttle flights, tile damage from falling foam also caused smaller amounts of damage, but NASA decided that over all, the problem did not threaten the survival of its spacecraft.

Now the agency is re-examining that assumption as it struggles to explain the mystery of how the Columbia broke up as it soared back into the atmosphere.
Ron D. Dittemore, the shuttle program manager, told a news conference yesterday that damage to the tiles was the leading focus of the investigation, but he cautioned that what appeared to be the most likely solution might prove illusory as the complex inquiry moved ahead.
"There's some other event; there's some other missing link that we don't have yet that is contributing to this temperature increase," Mr. Dittemore said. "It's a mystery to us."
But new evidence that surfaced yesterday suggested that damage to the tiles may have been more severe and covered a wider area than first estimated.
A videotape made by a team of NASA scientists at the Jan. 16 liftoff appeared to show a bushel-basket-sized chunk of debris breaking away from the external fuel tank and striking the fragile protective tiles on the underside of the left wing. A NASA analysis suggested the impact could have damaged a swath of tile as large as 7 inches wide and 32 inches long, according to an agency memorandum made public yesterday.
The possibility that damaged tile could have caused the ship to break apart when it re-entered the atmosphere was supported by several outside experts in aerodynamics. They said in interviews that even slightly damaged tiles — perhaps only roughened or cracked — could generate turbulence near the tiles during the tremendous speeds of re-entry, creating potentially dangerous heating of Columbia's aluminum skin.
"There is a possibility that just damage to the tile to the point that they are rougher could create increased heating," said Dr. Michael Holden, director of the Calspan University of Buffalo Research Center in New York, which does aerodynamic testing of the shuttles.
"If it went turbulent, you'd be in more jeopardy," possibly affecting the survival of the entire craft, Dr. Holden said.
While NASA has had trouble working out the details of how the foam impact could have led to the breakup, the accumulating evidence could force the agency to alter its initial determination that the damage seen on the Columbia was not significant, said Dr. Edward Crawley, chairman of the department of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"It's possible that more insulation fell off than they thought," Dr. Crawley said. "It's possible that it hit in a way that caused more damage than their model suggested."
But it is also possible, Dr. Crawley said, that "there's still sort of a missing event here" — the link that will make a new pattern, and a new theory for the catastrophe, emerge.
The newly released NASA video shows a whitish object soaring backward, striking the Columbia's left wing and bursting into a cloud of dust. The oblong chunk appears to be the size of the shuttle's astronaut hatch, which measures about 40 inches by 40 inches.
Mr. Dittemore said NASA's analysis determined that the piece probably weighed just under three pounds, though he said that new and more intensive work was being done that could revise that number. With a range of assumptions about the exact angle at which the piece ricocheted off the spacecraft, he said, NASA determined that anywhere from a single tile to a swath 32 inches long could have been damaged.
He said that NASA's computer model generally predicted more damage than would actually take place. The debris was first noticed the day after the shuttle liftoff when engineers were reviewing film. But Mr. Dittemore said no one on NASA's study team initially thought the damage posed a serious concern.
"At the time I was not aware of anybody that had those feelings, at least to the point where they would want to come forward and identify that there's still something that they think remains undone," Mr. Dittemore said.
Reports prepared during the flight of the Columbia were released yesterday by NASA. They showed that the falling debris occurred 81 seconds into the flight and was first identified the day after the liftoff.

"At approximately 81 seconds Mission Elapsed Time, a large light-colored piece of debris was seen to originate from an area near the ET/Orbiter forward attach bipod," the report said. "The debris appeared to move outboard and then fall aft along the left side of the Orbiter fuselage, striking the leading edge of the left wing."

The report said that more detail would come from analysis of high-speed tracking films.

A report two days later said analysis of the films could not identify individual tiles, but it concluded, "no indications of larger scale damage were noted."

On Jan. 28, a report said that a study of films and analysis of temperatures onboard the spacecraft indicated a potential for significant damage to the tiles. But it concluded that there was "no safety of flight issue."

But the idea that somehow the tile was extremely vulnerable to damage received support from the earlier report on similar damage.
In 1997, Mr. Katnik, the senior NASA engineer, worked in a division that analyzed data from inspections of the shuttles. He is now a technical manager in the Space Shuttle Program Launch Integration Office at the Kennedy Space Center.
He said on the 1997 mission the shuttle sustained a significant amount of damage to its heat tiles. In a normal mission, a shuttle will sustain damage to up to 40 tiles because of ice dropping from the external tank and hitting the tiles, Mr. Katnik reported. But on that mission, he said, "the pattern of hits did not follow aerodynamic expectations, and the number, size and severity of the hits were abnormal."
Inspectors counted 308 hits. Of those, 132 were "greater than one inch," Mr. Katnik said. Some of the hits measured up to 15 inches long with depths of up to one-and-a-half inches. The tiles were only two inches deep, so the largest hits penetrated three-quarters of the way into the tiles, he noted.
The damaged tiles were mostly around the shuttle's nose. After the mission, more than 100 tiles were taken off because "they were irreparable," Mr. Katnik said.
The report went on to speculate as to why the foam dropped off. As it turned out, to be environmentally friendly, NASA had eliminated the use of Freon in foam production, Mr. Katnik reported. The Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., later concluded that the absence of Freon led to the detachment of the foam.
While the formulation was later improved, the episode revealed potentially dangerous new ways in which tiles could be damaged.

"The tiles still had plenty of material left," Mr. Katnik said in an interview yesterday. "There was a margin of safety."

Nonetheless, he said, the shuttle "was coming back with an irritating amount of damage that we had to repair."

[Sabertooth]

((((((growl)))))

[JohnHuang2]

Thanks for the ping, amigo.

[JohnHuang2]

Mega ping...

[dasboot]

Okay, got my answer: they didn't see the chunk explode until the next day, and the point of no-return had been long passed; But then they had to deal with the knowledge that they had failed massively--especially in light of the tile problems that were known, to have a contingency plan in-place for exactly this scenario.

Sounds like Dittmore is in total CYA mode, blaming it on the engineers. Wonder if he's gonna sleep soundly any time soon.

This stinks.

[Timesink]

In the immortal words of Arnold J Rimmer:

Ohhhhhh DEAR!

[dasboot]

Gambling with multi-billion-dollar spacecraft and lives of pilots IS NOT AN OPTION. Or, once, a long time ago, it wasn't. Dice were thrown here.

[Lancey Howard]

...to be environmentally friendly, NASA had eliminated the use of Freon in foam production, Mr. Katnik reported. The Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., later concluded that the absence of Freon led to the detachment of the foam.

The irony of this is that the enviro-mice couldn't care less about the lives of seven astronauts.
That's simply seven less humans to pollute the earth, in their minds.

The Democrats, who are linked hand-in-glove with the environmentalist whackos, must be held accountable for the tragic deaths of the seven Columbia astronauts. Shame on the scumbag Democrats.

[Roscoe]

to be environmentally friendly, NASA had eliminated the use of Freon in foam production

BTTT

[TLBSHOW]

Please link to this thread for more and starts here at post 128

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/835422/posts?page=128#128

[Lancey Howard]

Posted by Lancey Howard to fso301
On News/Activism 02/04/2003 1:29 AM EST #14 of 18

I hope that some enterprising journalist traces to their roots these decisions by NASA to go "environment friendly" for space shuttle launches.
I want names.
I want to know if there was lobbying of any kind by the scumbag socialist enviro-mice.
I want to know if the Clinton administration was responsible for foisting these requirements on NASA.
Or was it Clinton's EPA?
Or was it Congress?
Who on God's green earth decided to screw around with proven methods for space shuttle launches and make these changes which were soon shown to cause more loss of insulation from the fuel tank, thereby causing more damage to the critical tiles and putting our astronauts at greater risk?

"Environment friendly" space shuttle launches!! Utter insanity.
I want names.

[dasboot]

Thanks. I'm with you. Ths loss was not an accident; it was, rather, a statistically predictable failure. The possibility of exactly this type of event, and the concommitant difficulties it posed, were known and anticipated, but not addressed.

How much does a shuttle cost? What value, fourteen lives, and the investment in training? Gee, there's a hard call. /sarc.

[SkyPilot]

BTTT!

[Aaron0617]

NASA FUBAR ping.

[Aaron0617]

"Environment friendly" space shuttle launches!! Utter insanity. I want names.

With all the fumes. With all the exaust that occurs during a shuttle launch. To make this change so that freon isn't used, is insanity.

Again, there is a lot more investigating to do. So, I will save this thread and refrain from screaming, but if this turns out to be the cause...

[dasboot]

Ralph Nader: Director, NASA Safety Commission.

[Lion's Cub]

The oblong chunk appears to be the size of the shuttle's astronaut hatch, which measures about 40 inches by 40 inches.

I think this was one piece of the info you were looking for.

[aristeides]

Interesting how this NY Times article mentions neither Clinton nor Goldin.

[GailA]

Has anyone looked into what actually holds the tiles in place? Was the adhesive or "glue" enviro-friendly and less apt to be as good as the original?

[Mamzelle]

Was the military taking pictures, and/or were they asked to give it a try? The only thing this debris collection can show is something obvious that is NOT tile damage. This collection of debris is busywork, and a helpful distraction to the bureaucrats.

Look for debris nearer the original launch site.

[ContemptofCourt]

I know that here on FR it is cool to blame everything on CLinton or the PC crowd, but I think the reality is that the shuttle program has been dodging this bullet since day one.

NASA eyes damage to shuttle tiles (December 1988 -- Atlantis, STS-27)

Houston Chronicle ^ | 12-9-88 | MARK CARREAU

12/09/88

NASA said Thursday it is forming an analysis team to look into the heavier-than-usual thermal tile damage sustained by the space shuttle Atlantis during its recent classified mission, but repairs are not expected to slow preparations for the spacecraft's next flight.

As many as 175 of the protective tiles, many of them concentrated on the right underside, may have to be replaced, according to the details of an inspection report made available Wednesday.

Atlantis touched down Tuesday at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., after a four-day mission in which its crew is believed to have deployed a secret military satellite.

"As far as the usual number of tiles that we would decide to scrap, we are looking at double that number," said spokesman George Diller at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "The survey is under way, so we have not completed identifying definitely all the tiles that will be replaced."

Now at Edwards, Atlantis will be returned to the Kennedy Space Center early next week, where it will be prepared for launch April 28, with five astronauts and the Magellan Venus probe aboard.

Atlantis is covered with 28,000 separate tiles, which protect it during the fiery re-entry. Space agency officials say the damage to Atlantis posed no threat during its return Tuesday.

During the spaceflight, the Atlantis astronauts inspected the damaged tiles with a television camera affixed to the long robot arm mounted inside the orbiter's payload bay.

The analysis team is expected to focus much of its attention on the 8.5-minute launch, using films and photographs made to document the liftoff.

"We are not speculating exactly on what it might have been," Diller said. "But we think it probably occurred during the first eight minutes and forty seconds of main engine burn and external tank jettison."

During that time, the spacecraft departs the launch pad, separates from its two solid-fuel rocket boosters and jettisons its external tank. The vibration and thunder of the main engines and boosters, as well as the force of their thrust, can dislodge ice or debris from the pad.

Debris from the spacecraft also could strike the orbiter during atmospheric flight.

Kennedy workers at the agency's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards - who are preparing Atlantis for its return to the East Coast - counted 298 tiles with significant impact damage and just over 700 total strikes.

The heaviest concentration of tile damage was situated in a 3- to 4-foot stretch on the right forward portion of the fuselage. One tile was missing from the nose, and a protective fiberglass panel was missing from one of the maneuvering engine pods on the spacecraft's tail.

Atlantis will be placed piggyback atop a modified Boeing 747 jumbo jet for its journey east.

The departure is scheduled for Sunday, if weather permits. Atlantis will stop at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio and remain overnight before departing Monday for KSC.

Meanwhile Thursday, Roy Nyberg, a hardware store owner in Sioux Falls, S.D., said he believes he overheard air-to-ground conversations between the Atlantis crew and flight controllers in Mission Control just before Tuesday's landing.

In a telephone interview, Nyberg said the radio transmissions bled into a 25-minute long-distance telephone conversation and included what he thought were urgent comments about rising heat within the spacecraft's crew cabin.

NASA spokeswoman Billie Deason, who was providing public affairs commentary from Mission Control during the final 90 minutes of the flight, said no emergencies arose.
-------------------------------

Now, I think that it is stupid to use a freon-less formulation if that formulation is more likely to cause the foam to separate from the ET, but we have to remember that there will always be some potential of debris coming off the ET, whether it be ice or foam....the real issue is the tiles used on the shuttles....if you look at the history of the shuttle program, the tiles were the most complex challenge that the engineers faced, and the program has had constant problems with the tiles. I imagine that NASA has some sort of study that quantifies the risk of using the current tiling system, and I would be curious as to what that risk is.

Also, if you look at the history of the shuttle flights, you will notice that NASA has been aggresive in its testing of new materials to replace the current tiling system. If you run a google search, you will find mission histories of all of the shuttle flights.

[snopercod]

At the same time, NASA switched to a "lemon scented" environmentally-friendly solvent to clean the solid rocket booster segments before mating. They had to delay a couple of launches to completely destack and disassemble the boosters because the the new "green" solvent didn't work.

Thank you AlGore...

[Grampa Dave]

The Watermelon Green Jihadists work 24/7 to destroy this country from NASA to below the surface of our planet.

As it turned out, to be environmentally friendly, NASA had eliminated the use of Freon in foam production, Mr. Katnik reported. The Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., later concluded that the absence of Freon led to the detachment of the foam.

As you noted, "Thank, Al Goron for making the shuttle an enviromentally approved deathtrap!"

[Lancey Howard]

bttt

[cyncooper]

Interesting how this NY Times article mentions neither Clinton nor Goldin.

Especially when juxtaposed against the breathless reporting of MSNBC lately. The most recent letter written to the White House is spoken of on MSNBC as the letter written to "The Bush White House", then they tag on how the president never saw the letter.

I'm not saying to blame clinton, either, as I don't know enough about the chain of decision making. Just pointing out that when the media wants to link a president to failure they have their ways.

[Fred Mertz]

BTTT

[Carry_Okie]

At the same time, NASA switched to a "lemon scented" environmentally-friendly solvent to clean the solid rocket booster segments before mating. They had to delay a couple of launches to completely destack and disassemble the boosters because the the new "green" solvent didn't work.

Sounds like terpene, a derivative from citrus peels, perhaps even suspended in water. Terpenes can be effective cleaning solvents, but like any change in material, there should be a series of tests to prove the method works before introducing it to the shuttle. This sounds more like they didn't yet have an effective process to go with the change in material, like it was forced through in a hurry (see "political").

Whaddya bet?

BTW, terpenes are nasty, more carcinogenic than the synthetic solvents they replaced and often a fire hazard. When I was in the electronics business, they got a semi-blinded eye because they were "natural."

Should we be checking to see if Minute-Maid made a contribution to the Democrats?

[Grampa Dave]

Just amazing! Of course during that time period MTBE was added to our gasoline to save the environment.

Not there is a sticker on all the gas pumps in California warning that MTBE could be harmful to the environment.

This is just another sad footnote in your life long thesis about how the enviralists use bad or no science to harm and damage us.

[Carry_Okie]

Of course during that time period MTBE was added to our gasoline to save the environment.

That one was Poppa Bush, the "Environmental President."

[Grampa Dave]

Come on, that came right out of the Clinton/gore/browning epa requirements.

[Carry_Okie]

It was part of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. The oil companies demanded indemnification for the oxygenate and the Bush Administration gave it to them. There were only two Critical Air Basins in California that required oxygenate for winter. Pete Wilson's CARB demanded higher levels of MTBE than the US-EPA required in the RFG formulation and mandated it statewide.

Then ARCO put Pete Wilson's wife on their Board of Directors.

Remember my first law of politics: Nothing big and bad goes on for very long unless BOTH sides are dirty.

[EternalVigilance]

Junk science is funny when it remains in the realm of talk, i.e. the left whining about mythical global warming or their theories about the 'hole in the ozone'.

But when it moves from the realm of mere talk into real actions that cost lives or economic viability for this country, it has ceased being funny.

I have no idea if that is the case here---we just don't know enough yet.

[Grampa Dave]

Arco and Petey were in bed with mtbe all along.

Which party controlled the senate in 1990?

[Grampa Dave]

Just the economic waste and cost of the enviral emotional and non science mantras have cost this country billions and billions.

[Carry_Okie]

Don't remember. Either way, Bush touted the Amendments; I do remember that.

[Carry_Okie]

Just the economic waste and cost of the enviral emotional and non science mantras have cost this country billions and billions.

Trillions. Consider the dollars for foreign oil that could have been supplied by nuclear power.

[TC Rider]

to be environmentally friendly, NASA had eliminated the use of Freon in foam production, Mr. Katnik reported. The Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., later concluded that the absence of Freon led to the detachment of the foam.

Thanks Al (keeping Earth balanced and the rest of America on tippy toes)

/ sarcasm

[EternalVigilance]

Just the economic waste and cost of the enviral emotional and non science mantras have cost this country billions and billions.

Indeed they have.

[N. Theknow]

With all the fumes. With all the exaust that occurs during a shuttle launch. To make this change so that freon isn't used, is insanity.

And let us not forget that Freon was banned because of the "theory" that it was responsible for the ozone hole.

[Grampa Dave]

You remember, but it doesn't go with your thesis to smash the Bushes for everything.

When he signed that bill a whole lot of conservative Americans had no idea of the evil the enviralists represented. Clean was kinda of like apple pie and Chevies.

Hell, I still belonged to Trout Unlimited, Cal Trout and thought that TNC was not a bad organization when BushI signed that bill. I guess that make me evil like BushI.

Heck, I really didn't find out how evil TNC was until I learned about it on Free Republic. I guess that makes me an evil UN Globalist too! I voted twice for Pete Wilson as the only alternative to rats in power. I did that with my Blue UN Globalist Helmet as I drove to the polls in my UN blue suv.

I'm off to go fishing with some other globalists on the Russian River. That shows how dangerous I still am. I actually enjoy fishing in a river that is named Russian. I will wear my Blue UN Globalist Helmet while fishing.

[Wolfie]

No sense in getting fired up about it one way or another. Nobody ever really takes a fall, and nothing ever changes.

[Carry_Okie]

I don't think you heard me say that Bush knew that MTBE was a problem at the time he signed the Amendments to the Clean Air Act. Frankly, I don't know what he knew. OTOH, the EPA AND the oil companies sure as hell did know, and as early as the mid to late 1980s (IIRC it was 1985) with their experiments with MTBE in gasoline formulations in Anchorage and Denver. It's documented. Further, Bush has obvious associations with the oil companies. So if Bush didn't know, one of his appointees surely did.

[SierraWasp]

Don't get sore at C.O. Your reply was right on. BushI just didn't grasp the intensity of the leftist greenies and their threatening luddite intentions. He did fear their organizational skills and the media's infatuation with their "cause." I think he also signed the Clean Water Act in desperation while running for re-election.

GANG-GREEN really know well how to put on an intense political "full court press" and it can make any politician feel totally under seige!!! I know first hand about this!!!

I don't think C.O. is as much attacking the Bushes as he is disappointed they still don't exhibit the political courage to fight this crap in effective ways. Remember, I met him (C.O.) at the biggest protest in Sacto since the Vietnam anti-war demonstrations, trying to support BushII and stop the Algore/Kazinsky election theft! (lesser of two evils, as always)

Enjoy you fishin trip and hurry back safely.

[Carry_Okie]

I just don't think it's possible for the major oil companies to demand something as important and potentially significant as indemnification for any liability associated with oxygenates in RFG without somebody asking, "Why?"

Given that EPA had five years (or more) of data on MTBE: its volatility, its byproducts of combustion, how it condenses in water, how it diffuses through plastic, how it precipitates in rain, its effect on seals and hoses, hell they even predicted how many vehicles might catch fire... and THEN the majors demanded indemnification before supporting the Amendments to the Clean Air Act. Do you really mean to tell me that nobody in the Bush Administration knew and this was all a matter of political pressure? Are you telling me that nobody was smart enough to see the potential environmental harm and turn this thing against the greenies? Don't you remember who coordinates how those greenies get their money?

Whether negligently accountable or criminally culpable, the onus is the same.

[aculeus]

We can now expect all the "global warming" alarmists to apologize for their role in the disaster.

(/sarcasm)

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads ups!

[TLBSHOW]

WATCH OUT SOME FREEPERS ARE CALLING US LOONES

[TLBSHOW]

BUMP

[Roscoe]

The retired Lockheed engineer, who helped design the thermal protection system, said the switch from a foam based on Freon -- also known as CFC-11 -- has ``resulted in unanticipated program impacts, such as foam loss during flight.''

In fact, he noted, the hits to Columbia on that 1997 mission, the same one Katnik studied, forced NASA to replace nearly 11 times more damaged tiles than it had after a previous mission that had used Freon-based foam.

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/5100794.htm