Long-ignored pinholes may have aided shuttle's demise / STS-107

SJ Mercury News ^ | 3/12/03 | Seth Borenstein - Knight Ridder

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON - Experts have told NASA for years that simply covering the wings of a space shuttle while it sits on the launch pad could prevent a problem that investigators now think may have contributed to the destruction of the shuttle Columbia.

[NormsRevenge]

FYI - This just popped up on wire.

I'll tack it on the end of the orbiter thread.

[Cicero]

Those pinholes - about as wide as three human hairs - began to appear on the leading edges of shuttle wings in 1992, first in Columbia, then other shuttles.

Well, I'll be the first to say it. This happened during clinton's watch. And the guy at the top of NASA under clinton was, according to my friends who know something about it, a jerk.

First pinholes in 1992. First studies released in 1995. Nothing done.

[First_Salute]

It's what happens when pinheads rule.

[First_Salute]

Bump.

[TLBSHOW]

MANAGER 'REJECTED PLEA FOR SATELLITE INSPECTION' OF SHUTTLE... MORE... Few days after Columbia's liftoff, group of NASA engineers asked program manager to request aid of U.S. spy satellites in determining extent of debris damage to left wing, but the manager declined to do so, NYT is planning to report on Thursday, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE... Developing... http://www.drudgereport.com/

[Cold Heat]

They are all over the place now....

This is not good.IMHO.

[TLBSHOW]

Space Shuttle Columbia is gone... but has the countdown already started for a third shuttle disaster? There were two reasons for the Columbia disaster: a system failure and a management failure. We may never know the exact cause for the system failure, but the reasons for the management failures are there for all to see. Unless the Office of the President and Congress address the following management failures... then indeed, the countdown has already started for the third shuttle disaster!

NASA Management Failures and Solutions
By Don A. Nelson
Retired NASA Aerospace Engineer

http://www.nasaproblems.com/

[Cold Heat]

Sections of the RCC are changed out if damaged. I ain't buyin this. They can change a section out in 20min or so. Columbia recently had a full re-fit.

[Cold Heat]

Very old news TLB.

Dittmore was asked about this during a early press conferance. I tried to find the transcript, but they have apparently yanked it.

To make a long story short, he said the picture would not have helped much due to the lack of depth and detail needed to make a assessment. Second, they determined that even if the damage was visable, there was nothing they could do about it. Dittmore was reamed for his comments and this happened weeks ago.

I guess drudge missed the boat.

[NormsRevenge]

There were multiple reasons for things to go amiss. No single item in and of itself was a show-stopper, but when you start adding all the different items together, it does make it a bit harder to connect all the dots.

The terms used by the reporter such as "suitcase-sized chunk of foam"; 5 known previous studies on the pinholes and causation thereof; and add the reluctance to ask for satellite recon to make sure what we may be up against on the Columbia after the launch, the fingers are pointing all over the place and I don't like it.

Recommendations weren't followed or implemented after reviews and studies indicated some relatively simple solutions could have been used.

[Cold Heat]

They kicked the fault tree out the door(with the NASA engineers) and are now in a chaotic finger pointing contest. This investigation is shot to hell. Mark my words, Congress will have this again, and there is nothing they can do now. The PHD,s have screwed the pooch again!

Makes me sick, especially when it was going so well at first.

[Dialup Llama]

I don't think Ditmore is saying this any more. Originally, he was essentially saying please don't look at our management systems, our technology or any decision we made not to observe the wing of the shuttle because the astronauts all would have died anyway.

A fairly untenable position for a NASA chief, but typical for an organization rife with politics and a CYA mentality.

[Cold Heat]

I do not think he meant it that way.

In his defense, he was wracked with emotion that day. I am sure he would have taken back the words if he could. It was just before the memorial and it was a sensitive area for them. Kinda like "what did you know and when did you know it?"

It was in retrospect, a dumb thing to say, but he is now way close to a polititian.

[brityank]

It's what happens when pinheads rule.

Unfortunately, we still have a lot of those same pinheads, and those they trained, in positions they would be fired from in the real world.

[brityank]

That solution became obvious during Houston meetings when engineers were trying to figure out why the pinholes were not found in the shuttle's nose cone, but were in the leading edges of the wings, even though both are made of the same material, Rapp said. The solution came from an off-hand remark by a NASA engineer, who noted that a metal structure that shields the shuttle from the bad weather as it sits on the launch pad is close to the nose cone and also protects it from sea spray.

"You're getting salt spray on the wings and not on the nose cone," Rapp said.

Before its fatal flight, Columbia sat on the launch pad for more than a month, during which 10.6 inches of rain, an unusually high volume, poured down on it.

Ted Paquette, president of Refractory Composites in Glen Burnie, Md., a materials scientist who helped design the wings' leading edge, said the covering solution makes sense: "It wouldn't take an awful lot, if you had some sort of sticky Saran Wrap, if you wrapped it over the leading edge."

We can put large protective covers over ball-fields with taxpayer funds; this would be a better use for the money.

[If you want off or on my Columbia ping list, let me know. FReegards.]