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FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Coalition forces found a weapons cache of explosively-formed penetrators in the southern Baghdad community of Warij May 2. Soldiers from 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division were on patrol in Warij and found four EFPs hidden in an office closet shelf of a factory. A brand new 107 mm rocket was also discovered. The EFPs were covered with foam and had wires leading from the back. Forty pounds of unknown bulk explosives, a rocket sled and blasting caps were also found. A guard at the factory was detained after...

RICHMOND, Va. - NASCAR will mandate a change in the design of the Car of Tomorrow in an attempt to alleviate the heat that caused foam to melt in several cars last weekend at Martinsville. About 50 Nextel Cup series teams were at Richmond International Raceway on Tuesday to begin two days of testing the Car of Tomorrow on a larger track. Nextel Cup director John Darby said in an interview that before the next COT race at Phoenix on April 21, NASCAR will require teams remove a 23 inch by 8 inch block of foam above where the exhaust...

Up to five pieces of debris that could be foam insulation fell off the space shuttle Discovery's troublesome external fuel tank shortly after lift-off, according to NASA. The shuttle blasted off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 19.38 BST. About three minutes later, three or four pieces of debris were seen flying off the fuel tank, and another popping off a bit later, said shuttle programme manager Wayne Hale. Discovery was so high by then that there wasn't enough air to accelerate the pieces into the shuttle and cause damage, he said. "That is the very raw,...

NASA gave the green light Monday night for a Fourth of July shuttle liftoff despite worries about a piece of foam that popped off Discovery's external fuel tank while the spacecraft sat on the launch pad. The decision was sure to stir more debate about whether the space agency was putting its flight schedule ahead of safety. The 3-inch triangular piece of foam that appeared to come from a 5- inch-long crack late Sunday or early Monday is far smaller than the foam chunk that brought down Columbia, killing seven astronauts in But NASA managers spent most of Monday...

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- Engineers on Monday are closely scrutinizing a small crack in insulation on space shuttle's fuel tank as NASA continues to prepare for a Tuesday launch. NASA deputy manager John Shannon said foam that cracked covers a bracket that connects the liquid oxygen feedline to shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank. When engineers went to inspect it, they pinched off a .0057-pound, 3- inch piece of foam. Even so, Shannon said, had that piece fallen off during launch it wouldn't have damaged the orbiter. The crack was discovered during an inspection Sunday evening, and is 4-...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Inspectors found a 5-inch-long crack in the foam insulation covering the shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank, and NASA managers were deciding Monday whether to call off the scheduled Fourth of July launch. The crack was spotted during an overnight inspection. NASA had scrubbed launch plans Saturday and Sunday because of poor weather and had removed fuel from the tank. The inspectors found the crack, which was an eighth of an inch deep, in the foam on a bracket near the top of the external fuel tank. "We don't know if it's a problem or not," NASA...

Almost a year after its last flight, NASA has begun the countdown to attempt a flight of the space shuttle this coming weekend (weather permitting — a tropical disturbance currently in the Caribbean threatens Cape Canaveral and central Florida with rain, clouds, and lightning, which could potentially result in repeated daily postponements until the system moves on). If they do launch, it will be only the second flight in the almost three and a half years since the loss of Columbia over the skies of Texas on February 1, 2003, and the first since last summer’s return to flight, in...

How do you figure out whether a foam firefighting system in an air force hangar is set up correctly and works? Well you turn it on for a few seconds, to make sure it's got pressure and everything. First you set up a scaffolding so you can record the event and show the flow coming out of all nozzles. And then you let 'er rip. After 15 seconds you can see foam is covering all areas it has to, so the test is successful. Shut 'er off. Uh, guys? Shut 'er off? Aw crap. Whatever was meant to shut off...

NASA will try for three shuttle flights this year if the space agency is able to launch Discovery in May or July, a top NASA official said Tuesday. But that's a big "if," said space shuttle program manager Wayne Hale. Engineers are still are working out problems with the external fuel tank and other details.

he sport of surfing is in turmoil after the world's largest producer of the foam blocks used to make surfboards closed down, citing over-regulation. Polyurethane foam "blanks" produced by California-based Gordon Clark are used to make many of the world's surfboards. Mr Clark, who helped invent the modern all-foam surfboard, says environmental regulations forced him out of business. Fears of a global foam shortage have led to a sharp rise in board prices as surfers snap up already depleted stock. Mr Clark, known as "Grubby" among surfers, revolutionised the sport in 1958 when he and fellow pioneer Hobie Alter coated...

Closure of Calif. surfboard foam company wipes out industry GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press (this contains excerpts) SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. - For more than 40 years, everyone from casual weekend waveriders to top competitive surfers has shared one thing: Customized boards that began as nondescript foam blocks mass-produced by one Southern California company. Clark Foam, an icon in California surf culture, enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the blocks that have been shaped and hand-painted by everyone from backyard do-it-yourselfers to design shops that churn out thousands of handcrafted boards each year. That's why the company's sudden closure this week has the...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Inadequate methods of applying and repairing foam on the space shuttle’s fuel tank probably contributed to the dangerous loss of a chunk of the insulation during Discovery’s launch two and a half months ago, a NASA investigation team concluded Friday. So much work is needed to understand the problem and correct the deficiencies that shuttle flights are on hold until at least May, and possibly even next summer....

With Discovery parked safely on the tarmac in California, the fate of the nation's manned space program now rests on the research teams assigned by NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin to figure out why at least four large pieces of insulating foam broke away from the shuttle's enormous external fuel tank. The teams, composed of engineers from NASA and Lockheed Martin's Michoud assembly facility in Louisiana, where the tanks are manufactured, were scheduled to give a preliminary report yesterday to Griffin and space station manager William H. Gerstenmaier. NASA has promised a fully "transparent" investigation, and initial findings may be...

Discovery's external fuel tank was the first to fly with a new insulating foam custom-made to satisfy environmental bans on chemicals suspected of depleting the Earth's ozone layer. NASA is investigating why a 1-pound chunk of the foam peeled off Discovery's tank two minutes after launch July 26, missing the shuttle's right wing as it climbed toward orbit. The incident prompted NASA to ground the shuttle fleet even as Discovery was on its way to the International Space Station. "We are treating this very seriously. We are going to fix this before we go fly," said John Shannon, a senior...

"We are ready to fly."It was June 24, and William W. Parsons, NASA's shuttle program manager, was speaking to reporters on a telephone conference call from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla. Two and a half years of study and struggle, he told them, were over at long last. The shuttle Discovery could blast off in July. At a closed-door meeting that afternoon, senior shuttle managers had ruled that the chances that debris from the giant external fuel tank would strike the Discovery at liftoff - in the kind of accident that doomed the Columbia and its seven...

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...

<p>NASA's top spaceflight official, Bill Readdy (search), said Friday that through extensive testing, the agency has learned that air liquefied by the super-cold fuel in the tank almost certainly seeped into a crack or void in the foam, or collected around bolts and nuts beneath the foam. The trapped air expanded as the shuttle rose, and blew off a chunk of foam the size of a suitcase.</p>

<p>Caltech researchers have made a metallic glass-based foam that is stronger than traditional metal alloys, providing industry with a revolutionary lightweight material.</p> <p>Although bubbloy (bubble-alloy) is entering a crowded field of metallic foams, it has the advantage of a smooth plastic or glasslike consistency where others are grainy.</p>

My favorite schadenfraude moment last night: watching Sen. Tom Harkin pretend (I'm assuming he was pretending) to enjoy Howard Dean's maniacal performance on stage after his stunning third-place finish. Dean looked as scary as he ever has. Nothing is weirder than someone trying really, really hard to look happy and energized when he's really annoyed and disappointed. Dean looked like the Incredible Hulk, just before he turns green. Harkin must have been thinking: I endorsed this. There was a perverse pleasure in watching Harkin, since his endorsement was so opportunistic, based on a calculation that Dean would win. He deserved...

OUSTON — Over and over, a projector at one end of a long, pale-blue conference room in Building 13 of the Johnson Space Center showed a piece of whitish foam breaking away from the space shuttle Columbia's fuel tank and bursting like fireworks as it struck the left wing. In twos and threes, engineers at the other end of the cluttered room drifted away from their meeting and watched the repetitive, almost hypnotic images with deep puzzlement: because of the camera angle, no one could tell exactly where the foam had hit. It was Tuesday, Jan. 21, five days after...

The truth about the shuttle Posted: July 14, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Last week NASA conducted tests it believes conclusively solved the mystery of why the space shuttle Columbia was destroyed minutes before it was scheduled to land last February. The Associated Press, the Washington Post, the New York Times and all the other establishment media agencies dutifully reported NASA's conclusions that the "smoking gun" had been found. There is now little doubt the shuttle was irreparably damaged upon launch when foam insulation from the external tank broke free and slammed into the leading edge of the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The oldest planet ever detected is nearly 13 billion years old and more than twice the size of Jupiter, locked in orbit around a whirling pulsar and a white dwarf, astronomers said on Thursday. Compared with the relative youth and stability of our own celestial neighborhood, where Earth and the other planets orbit a single 5-billion-year-old star in a quiet neighborhood of the Milky Way, the ancient group that holds the oldest planet has had a boisterous past, scientists said at a NASA (news - web sites) briefing. The old planet is located near the heart of...

Space shuttle test reveals 'smoking gun' in disaster Simulation of Columbia launch mishap puts hole in wing section By Kathy Sawyer THE WASHINGTON POST Tuesday, July 8, 2003 SAN ANTONIO -- With a resounding "thwack," a piece of foam traveling at 500 mph blew a ragged hole the size of a stop sign in a section of a space shuttle wing Monday, effectively shattering any remaining doubts about what destroyed Columbia and its crew Feb. 1. "We have found the smoking gun," said Scott Hubbard, a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board who supervised the test. Austin American Statesman...

Science - AP Shuttle Foam Test Yields Hole in Wing59 minutes ago By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer SAN ANTONIO - The team investigating the Columbia disaster fired a chunk of foam insulation at shuttle wing parts Monday and blew open a gaping 2-foot hole, offering dramatic evidence to support the theory of what doomed the spaceship. The crowd of about 100 gasped and cried, "Wow!" when the foam hit. The foam struck roughly the same spot where insulation that broke off Columbia's big external fuel tank during launch smashed into the shuttle's wing. Investigators believe the damage led to...

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - A river polluted with waste from Brazil's biggest city of Sao Paulo covered the streets of a small colonial town with a thick layer of snow-like foam that emits harmful acidic gas on Friday. A Town Hall official contacted by Reuters said the foam had been affecting Pirapora do Bom Jesus for about a month, but a clogged clear-water channel made the foam levels rise especially high, blocking bridges across the river Tiete which runs through the town and nearby streets. "It is all a dreadful consequence of Sao Paulo city's pollution," said Mare...

WASHINGTON - Even as NASA engineers debated possible damage, a flight director e-mailed Columbia's astronauts to say there was "absolutely no concern" that breakaway foam that struck the space shuttle might endanger its safe return. The shuttle's commander cheerily replied, "Thanks a million!"Flight director J.S. "Steve" Stich conveyed his assurance to Columbia's commander and pilot on Jan. 23, according to documents disclosed Monday. At the time, engineers inside NASA continued to debate and study whether insulating foam that smashed against Columbia's wing on liftoff might have fatally damaged materials protecting the shuttle during its fiery descent.Such materials included the gray-colored...

Foam's Power Surprises NASA Official By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The Columbia accident investigator in charge of a series of impact tests said Wednesday he is surprised by the incredible force with which a 1 1/2-pound chunk of space shuttle foam struck and deformed a fiberglass wing replica. AP Photo NASA (news - web sites)'s Scott Hubbard said he expects even more damage when real shuttle wing parts — weaker and more brittle than fiberglass — are used for the next round of testing, beginning Thursday. He expects the actual pieces, removed from shuttle Discovery,...

CAPE CANAVERAL, May 30--Evidence of the devastating effect polyurethane foam can have when hitting the leading edge of a space shuttle wing became clear during tests ordered by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB). Engineers at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, obtained the stunning result on May 29 as they performed the second round of such impact tests. Using a high-pressure nitrogen gun, the researchers shot a 1.7-pound chunk of foam at a replica of a shuttle wing. As the projectile hit the wing's leading edge at a 20° angle and 530 mph, one of the T-seals sitting...

HOUSTON -- Nearly three years before Columbia launched, NASA engineers listed a host of potentially risky problems with foam insulation applied to shuttle fuel tanks at Lockheed Martin's factory near New Orleans, agency records show. A list of "high risk" items was circulated among tank program officials in February 2000, including manufacturing processes at the Michoud Assembly Facility. That's where investigators are now probing whether application flaws caused foam debris to break away from Columbia's tank. NASA investigators have zeroed in on wing damage from foam debris as the cause of the Feb. 1 accident that destroyed the $2 billion...

<p>HOUSTON -- A computer analysis shows that the piece of debris that hit the front of space shuttle Columbia's wing during liftoff was far more powerful than the blow needed to break the material covering that part of the shuttle.</p>

<p>HOUSTON — NASA investigators have concluded that a piece of foam that hit Columbia during its launch is what caused a hole to open in the front edge of the shuttle's left wing and allowed superheated air to burn it apart on re-entry.</p>

New fuel tank design linked to shuttle disaster   13:20 16 April 03   NewScientist.com news service   The Columbia shuttle disaster may been triggered by a combination of a new external fuel tank design and ageing of the spacecraft, a Columbia Accident Investigation Board press conference was told on Tuesday. Although some remaining alternatives remain to be ruled out, the CAIB's focus is now on two crucial factors. First, it appears that a new fuel tank design led to foam falling off during liftoff. A one-kilogram block was seen striking Columbia's left wing during launch. Secondly, the damage this impact caused may...

The investigation into Thursday's catastrophic fire in West Warwick broadened yesterday with a law enforcement official saying police had searched the home of a co-owner of The Station nightclub and subpoenaed three members of the band Great White. Ninety-seven concertgoers died Thursday night and 187 were injured when the band's opening fireworks sparked one of the worst nightclub fires in U.S. history. Law enforcement sources said that state police and West Warwick investigators had searched the Narragansett home of Michael Derderian on Sunday and seized records relating to the club. Investigators also seized and impounded the band's tour bus. They...

Great White Testifies, Gets Sued Tuesday was a busy day for Great White--and the band's lawyers. Members of the '80s heavy metal outfit finally began testifying before a Rhode Island grand jury and faced the first of what is likely many wrongful-death lawsuits blaming the band in part for the deadly nightclub fire two weeks ago. The families of two of the victims are suing both Great White and club owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, claiming they're responsible for the inferno that killed 98 people and injured close to 200--one of the worst blazes in the U.S. in more than...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A theory that pieces of foam from the space shuttle Columbia's external fuel tank struck its wing shortly after launch was being investigated, but was "not a favorite" in the debate over what caused it to disintegrate on re-entry, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said on Sunday. "Well, it's one of many theories, and it's not a favorite of anybody's at this juncture that I'm aware of," O'Keefe said on CNN's "Late Edition." "Everybody is looking at every single possible permutation of what could have caused this," he said. "That certainly is an active element of the overall...

Laser Might Have Found Shuttle Flaw Fri Feb 21, 2:02 PM ET By MATTHEW FORDAHL, AP Technology Writer SAN JOSE, Calif. - After years of concern about foam insulation breaking off and damaging space shuttle thermal tiles, NASA (news - web sites) started evaluating — but not widely using — a technology that could detect subtle defects in the foam. The process, laser shearography, was not used to check the insulation of the space shuttle Columbia's external tank before its final flight. But it has been used on other rockets as well as other parts of the shuttle, according to...

  SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) -- A day after all but ruling it out as a leading cause, NASA said Thursday that investigators are still considering whether a piece of insulating foam that struck Columbia's wing during liftoff was enough to bring down the shuttle. Shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore said that even though the possibility appeared remote, investigators must remain open to every option as they put together a so-called fault tree into what caused Columbia's fiery breakup just minutes from its landing Saturday. "The foam that shed off the tank and impacted the left wing is just one branch,...

Freeper Enlightiator broke the foam story here on Freerepublic many long hous before the media ever touched it. Please read his gracious post regarding his scoop. Also hat's off to leadpenny for the original Columbia observation thread. In Memory of The COlumbiahttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/833885/posts?q=1&&page=51[ Browse | Search | Topics | Post Article | My Comments ] #368: Astronauts doomed from the start  ^ To: Jael; Prov1322; Lancey Howard; McGruff; kattracks All the credit goes to the guy who found out first!!! Enlightiator!!! I just did a few more google searches and got a tad more information. The original link at the NASA...

One suspected reason for the change in damage, according to reports by Katnik and outside organizations that helped Kennedy Space Center study the issue, is NASA changed the way it "foamed" the external tank sometime shortly before that mission in an effort to be more environmentally friendly by reducing the use of ozone-depleting materials. "Freon was used in the production of the previous foam," he reported. "This method was eliminated in favor of foam that did not require freon for its production. MSFC is investigating the consideration that some characteristics of the new foam may not be known for the...