Serious concern at NASA about possible damage to shuttle

[thewiseguy]

ORLANDO, Fla. A large cloud of debris hit Space Shuttle Endeavour shortly after take off Wednesday, causing concerns at NASA.

A source tells Eyewitness News, “There is a serious concern at NASA.”

About one minute and thirty seconds into launch, a large amount of debris struck the belly of the shuttle near its nose, leaving clearly visible marks along the underside.

That particular part of the shuttle endures the highest sustained temperatures during re-entry.

The shuttle was traveling at Mach 3 when the incident occurred.

NASA officials are currently reviewing tape from the launch to evaluate possible damage to Endeavour’s heat shield.

http://www.wftv.com/news/20066637/detail.html

[Skink]

1. Birds?

[Posteritatis]

2. Cue the panic! Launch the vultures! This time's the time! (nt)

[stray cat]

4. Shuttles can explode and kill everyone inside - If they were my loved ones in the shuttle

I might be concerned as well. There is certainly a history of fatalities

[Posteritatis]

12. This happens in 100% of shuttle launches

The media only found out about it with Columbia, so they start treating each launch as though the inner hull was breached. This panicfest will happen again in all the remaining shuttle launches regardless of whether there's anything approaching a reason for it.

[MADem]

15. Really? The nose gets hit, leaving clearly visible marks, at every launch? Who knew?

You'll have to provide me with a credible link that dismisses this news story. Your say-so doesn't cut it, particularly since we live in the aftermath of Challenger and the shuttle explosion over Palestine/Crawford TX.

[Posteritatis]

23. NASA's been pretty open about it for each launch

Plenty of on-orbit photos for each of the missions, all nice and in the public domain for anyone willing to look for 'em. The fact that I don't keep an index of them for incredulous DUers doesn't change that.

Also, Challenger had precisely nothing to do with debris or the heat shield in general.

[MADem]

26. I am not arguing with NASA's transparancy. They even have a TV channel, after all. nt

[MADem]

14. I'm with you. NT

[XemaSab]

3. Not again

x(

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. Could they send another with a skeleton crew to rescue the astronauts? -nt

[thewiseguy]

9. Yes, I think that would be the contingency plan

[BobRossi]

6. NASA is a friggin' joke.

Nothing but a huge waste of money.

[johnnie]

13. .

:boring:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

18. Yeah, government spending is bad unless it involves blowing people up.

In which case it's never enough even if it's 1,982,468,794,500,000% of the budget. :eyes:

[Ilsa]

7. They'll be having to evaluate this to the inth degree before they

allow the shuttle itself to return. Stay tuned.

Time for a different launch vehicle. I wonder if Project Orion be re-initiated?

[chill_wind]

8. Shuttle Endeavour blasts off; debris strikes mulled

Multiple pieces of what appeared to be foam insulation fell from the ship's external tank during the early moments of flight, but it was not immediately clear whether the shuttle's fragile heat shield suffered any significant damage.

Story:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-19514_3-10287905-239.html


knr.

[thewiseguy]

11. Thats a good picture from the debris

Could foam insulation debris impact the shuttle near its nose?

[chill_wind]

19. NYT coverage: several pieces fell off- at least one hit the orbiter.

A camera on the external tank captured about a dozen instances of debris falling off the external tank. At least one, coming off about one minute, 46 seconds after launch, hit the orbiter, leaving three marks on the heat-resistant tiles on the orbiter’s underside.

“We don’t consider those an issue for us,” William H. Gerstenmaier, the associate administrator for space operations, said at a news conference after launch. The white marks were probably just damage to the coating, not deep gouges, he said. “The issues will be in the back in the vehicle,” Mr. Gerstenmaier said.

The shuttle crew will use a camera at the end of the robotic arm to examine the leading edges of the wings, and then as the orbiter approaches the space station, it will do a flip to allow the station astronauts to get a good look at the underside.


(...)

"Tests “showed we’re plenty fine on margin,” said Michael P. Moses, the launch integration manager. “I don’t expect the fuel cell problem to be any kind of problem at all.”

link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/science/space/16shuttle.html?hpw

[Aragorn]

10. I proposed

adding an aluminum "dent shield" to the underside, which could deflect ice chunks during takeoff and then burn off during re-entry, also delaying the time before the ceramics start to heat up. Thoughts?

[KakistocracyHater]

16. 'Starlight' ceramic-was there any truth to this?

Made by a 12 year-old girl?

[bbinacan]

20. Doesn't aluminum

melt around 800 degrees? If so, I'd think it would burn off long before the jettison of the external tank.

[Aragorn]

24. Heat is during re-entry

and there are other lighter metals which burn at higher temps. The idea is only to deflect debris during takeoff. Aluminum under-side shield could even be jettisoned in orbit but if it burns away at 800 degrees (during re-entry) it would not leave a large chunk of metal in orbit, to fall later if it doesn't strike some satellite etc first.

This is supposed to be a cheap practical improvement without a major re-design.

[Posteritatis]

22. Flaming aluminum is unhealthy to whatever it's attached to

Also, the ceramics are supposed to take the heat.

[rsmith6621]

17. WFTV is a FOX TV Station in Orlando...The Witch

....Anchorwoman who basically called Obama a terrorist last year works at WFTV Fox......

Pay no mind until there is an official NASA brief.

[lapfog_1]

21. As someone that lost a colleague and friend

on Columbia, some of these remarks are highly insensitive.

No, tile damage (especially in the area mentioned) does not occur on every launch, either before or after Columbia.

It does happen all too frequently, but it's usually not serious.

Let's hope that it isn't serious this time either.

[mp9200]

25. Sounds familiar

Columbia anyone?