NASA: Foam Probably Not Cause of Shuttle Disaster

Reuters ^ | 2/05/03

[kattracks]

Wed February 5, 2003 05:45 PM ET
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA said on Wednesday a piece of debris that broke loose from the fuel tank shortly after the launch of space shuttle Columbia was likely not the cause of the shuttle's loss and the death of its crew.

The foam debris, about the size of a small suitcase, was captured on video breaking away from the shuttle's external fuel tank shortly after liftoff from Florida. The foam was seen vaporizing after it hit the underside of the orbiter.

NASA shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore, casting doubt on one of the leading theories on the cause of the shuttle's disintegration on Saturday over Texas, said the foam simply was not heavy enough or traveling fast enough to damage the shuttle's heat resistant tiles.

"We're focusing our attention on what we didn't see. We believe there was something else ... there's got to be another reason," Dittemore said during a briefing at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Dittemore also said the shuttle's management team did not believe there was any ice under the foam that might have contributed to damage, another theory that had been offered as the root cause of the destruction of NASA's oldest space shuttle and the deaths of the seven astronauts as they returned from a 16-day science mission in space.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Ping!

[isthisnickcool]

People I know at NASA said that on STS-105, two flights before, they had a piece come off and hit the SRB and put a substantial dent in it. And that people were saying that they needed to ground the fleet until the problem was sorted out.

[aristeides]

They also said ice experts had told them that what hit the wing during the launch was not ice.

[spunkets]

"We believe there was something else ... there's got to be another reason"

...There's no way we screwed up that bad.

[narby]

The foam exploded on contact. And the tiles, about density of styrofoam, have been damaged on many occasions by foam from the ET.

So what is it about the largest piece of foam ever to hit the leading edge and exploding that NASA doesn't understand?

If the foam insulation exploded, it would seem obvious that the tiles it hit would have as well.

[Willie Green]

The Foamheads aren't going to like this report.

[Brett66]

They haven't even completed the investigation but they're ruling this out? Something stinks here.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Looks like NASA took the NTSB's lead and went into cover-up mode. NASA knew they were living dangerously with pieces falling off the shuttle on every flight. It took them awhile, but they finally got bit.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Has it occurred to NASA to simply scratch January off of the launch calendar? Seems like a cheap way to save lives, as well as a few billion dollars.

[cake_crumb]

IMO, it's too soon to rule the foam out as a cause. We ALL know how brittle the ceramic tiles are.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Umm... during investigations, isn't it common to rule things out before moving on to the next thing to look at? If you think it stinks, then obviously every single investigation ever performed throughout history must stink too...

[DoughtyOne]

Narby it did NOT hit the leading edge. All debris passed under the wing. If it hit the leading edge, parts would have passed on top. None did.

[r9etb]

Sigh. The usual suspects and their usual spittle-tossing antics.

Nothing in the videos or launch pictures indicates that the foam caused any damage to the tiles. That's not to say it didn't cause the damage, but you sure as heck can't see it. Detailed analyses show that there shouldn't have been fatal damage, either.

There's nothing with which to pin the blame on foam.

If it wasn't foam, something else must have caused the problem.

The dimbulbs weighing in here are so convinced that it MUST have been foam are talking out of their collective rear end. They haven't got a single clue -- they simply assume that everything is a conspiracy.

Pathetic.

[theFIRMbss]

>"We're focusing our attention on what we didn't see. We believe there was something else ... there's got to be another reason," Dittemore said...

Language is a clue
to a person's frame of mind.
When people say things

like "...there's got to be..."
it often means, mentally,
they're in denial...

[ken5050]

Amazing coincidence, isn't it...The Apollo test, Challenger, now Columbia....

[DoughtyOne]

The next time a suitcase sized piece of debris hits your winshield at 70, please remember the shuttle and how it must have reacted to a hit at hundreds of miles per hour.

The weight is an important factor, but so is the tensile strength of the foam, even the surface of that foam.

Anything that hits you at 200-500 mph, isn't going to hit you like a grasshopper on a winshield. Think more like a hammer on your winshield.

[cmsgop]

Armadillos are militant possums........

[isthisnickcool]

Dittemore's head will be the first to go. Wait and see.

[TLBSHOW]

What was said in the news conference?