Debris Strike on Shuttle Discovery Poses No Threat, NASA Says

[Kennah]

http://www.space.com/10964-shuttle-discovery-debris-strike.html

A piece of foam debris that detached from the space shuttle Discovery's fuel tank and may have struck the orbiter during its Thursday launch poses no threat to the spacecraft or its astronaut crew, NASA officials said today (Feb. 25).

"The foam liberated at a time when it's relatively late in the profile, and well past our time of concern," said LeRoy Cain, NASA's mission management team chair.

Discovery blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., yesterday at 4:53 p.m. EST (2153 GMT).

The foam piece — which officials said measured roughly 8 by 10 inches (20 by 25 centimeters) — came off the space shuttle's external tank at around 3 minutes and 51 seconds after launch. Preliminary analysis showed that the foam chunk may have hit the bottom part of the orbiter as it fell into the plume of the shuttle's main engines.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. 'liberated' - now that's positive spin

All insulation foam is yearning to be free, it seems ...

[customerserviceguy]

2. That's how my lady describes

the beer glasses that mysteriously appear in the dishwasher, the ones that bear a faint resemblance to the ones on our restaurant table a night or two before...

[sakabatou]

3. We'll see