Foam Failure Freezes Future Flights

By ANN Correspondent Christopher Armstrong

There will be no more Shuttle launches until NASA engineers determine the effect of debris that fell from the space shuttle Discovery during its launch Tuesday said space shuttle program manager Bill Parsons to reporters. The piece of insulating foam was observed falling from the shuttles external fuel tank via a video camera onboard the tank. The piece of foam did not appear to hit Discovery.

A piece of foam caused the damage that resulted in the destruction of the shuttle Columbia Feb, 1 2003.

The shuttle fleet was grounded for more than two years after the loss of Columbia, as NASA searched for ways to ensure that foam debris never again imperiled an orbiter or its crew. Over $1 billion was spent trying to make the 20-year-old shuttles safer to fly during that time. The space agency developed a number of ways to repair damage to the shuttles' thermal protection system while the orbiter was still in space, though none is ready for use on this flight.

Oh, and then there was the "cultural change" thing. The idea behind "changing the culture" of NASA was to put safety first and foster better communications up, down and across their organizational chart.

"Call it luck or whatever, it didn't harm the orbiter," Parsons said. If the foam had broken away earlier in flight - when the atmosphere is thicker, increasing the acceleration and likelihood of impact - it could have caused catastrophic damage to Discovery.

"We think that would have been really bad, so it's not acceptable," said Parsons' deputy, Wayne Hale. He said every indication so far is that Discovery is safe for its return home.

Based on engineers' "first-blush" analyses of falling debris, there was "no significant problem" with Discovery as it orbits Earth. Hill spoke to reporters after astronauts spent "one hell of a day" photographing Discovery.  NASA engineers are now going over images of the shuttle pixel by pixel, looking for any possible damage to the thermal protection system.

The images were collected by Commander Eileen Collins and her crew during seven hours of careful examination of the shuttle's protective skin Wednesday. Crewmembers used cameras and a laser mounted on a special 50-foot long boom at the end of the Canadian-built robotic arm to inspected Discovery's wings, nose cap, and crew cabin. They also used handheld cameras to inspect tiles on the orbital maneuvering system pods.

Footage gathered from the multitude of cameras trained on Discovery showed the external fuel tank's nose cone hit a bird about 2.5 seconds after liftoff -- when Discovery was probably traveling too slowly to sustain any damage, Hill said.

The search for damage was included as an integral part of this mission.  The video evidence of a piece of debris falling past the orbiter during Tuesday's liftoff emphasizes just how crucial this search is.

More photographs will be taken by Commander Sergei Krikalev and Officer John Phillips of Space Station Expedition 11.  They will take images of Discovery focusing on any areas of missing tile pieces as the Shuttle nears the Space Station and flips while aproximately 600 feet away.

Discovery is scheduled to dock to the Station July 28th at 0718 EDT, and return to Cape Canaveral August 7, 2005.

FMI: www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/