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.

[Shermy]

Foam-producer lobby breathes a sigh of relief.

But it's going to be real hard to pin this one on "pilot error".

[DoughtyOne]

They're in denial. You said it brother.

And it not a river in Egypt.

[Chad Fairbanks]

When people say things like "...it often means..." it indicates that sometimes it does mean what they think it means, but not always, and that they really dont' know whether it does or doesn't...

[kinghorse]

Does China have any space based assets? Particle beam stuff? If I was going to knock out a shuttle I would do in as it was engaged in re-entry. Doing it during routine orbit would be too obvious.

/shameless conspiracy theorist

[roadcat]

A photographer in San Francisco caught film of an anomalous streak hitting the shuttle, and NASA is investigating it. Perhaps there are natural events that science is not aware of and this is our first encounter with it. Perhaps an electrical discharge from the atmosphere into the plasma surrounding the shuttle. Which just goes to show you that we need more exploration of the universe and what makes it tick.

[HairOfTheDog]

This report comes to conclusions much more concrete than what Dittemore really said. What he said was that he was not focusing *only* on foam damage, that they were still looking at all possible causes.

In other words, they are not saying definitively it was foam, to the exclusion of other factors. They believe something more happened. That there is a missing link between the foam event and the disaster.

That is what I heard. Is there a transcript available?

[TomServo]

Meteorite May Have Hit Shuttle.

[aristeides]

What was said in the news conference?

That it was not ice.

[Chad Fairbanks]

NOt Ice.

[DoughtyOne]

I don't think that was entirely accurate. Some photos did reveal a plasma type trail from the shuttle, but I do not remember any talk of "plasma striking" the shuttle.

[HairOfTheDog]

They didn't rule it out. Rueters is making conclusionary statements that Dittemore didn't really say.

[unspun]

If it looks like ice, and it hits hard like ice, and it pulverizes like ice... it's not a duck.

[TLBSHOW]

what did they say?

[ARCADIA]

Yes, but usually you would posit a new possibiliy and explain why you would rule out the alternative. We don't see either of those things happening here. A scenario is likely until something else become more likely.

[Chad Fairbanks]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/836686/posts

[DoughtyOne]

One reason I don't think it's ice, is that a core mass did not totally pulverize. This leads me to think it was the shell/surface of the foam. In the video you can see a mass leaving the wing midst the pulverized debris. Ice would have shattered on impact, IMO.

[Chad Fairbanks]

They HAVE offered other reasonable possibilities - possibilities which make MUCH more sense than the 'Grassy Foam' theory... such as meteorite, space debris etc...

[deport]

The search continues in orderly functional manner as it should. Something casued the event, now they must try their best to find the cause..... He was saying they will try to reverse engineer some of these things.... example what size mass will be needed of foam to cause tile problems.

[HairOfTheDog]

Tune in and hope for a replay. They are playing this morning's briefing now, I think.

http://www.broadcast.com/learning_and_education/science/space/nasa/nasa_television/

There was a live thread for it, and DoughtyOne did a pretty good job of paraphrasing what they said.
http://www.broadcast.com/learning_and_education/science/space/nasa/nasa_television/

[DoughtyOne]

I would agree with that. Dettemore also said just yesterday morning that NASA engineers may have underestimated the damage from the insullation.