Creepy update about the space shuttle

[Goldmund]

ABC News is now reporting that in fact there were additional pieces of foam that broke off and DID hit the shuttle during take off. Yikes.

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/07/creepy-update-about-space-shuttle.html

***


My take is that the most likely possibility is that the only abnormal thing about this is that they had a camera to actually tape the foam falling off.

[FreedomAngel82]

1. If you go to Crooks and Liars

They have a video of the take off from the Today show and you can see it coming out. I finally saw the video and the whole time I was holding my breath cause of last time. I'm so glad that it was successful. I hope President Kennedy is watching wherever he is.

[Goldmund]

4. I think that this is new information

The piece they knew about before broke off at too high an altitude for anything bad to happen, because the air is so thin up there. It sounds like the pieces they're now describing broke off earlier.

[kenny blankenship]

2. Could we please build a shuttle that isn't damaged by FOAM?

Or go back to building more economical rockets.

[merh]

3. Nightline did a piece on this last night.

Apparently NASA is in a panic. The new head of NASA is apparently getting slammed for letting it take off, for approving the mission.

:shrug:

[SpiralHawk]

5. They blasted off with Mercury Retrograde. D'Oh

Astrologers, they say, are just a bunch of liberal whackos.

[Goldmund]

6. LOL

:rofl:

They don't have to be liberal, I guess. :D

[Karenina]

8. When's the thing

spose ta land back on earth?

[Emperor_Norton_II]

10. August 7

[BattyDem]

7. My mother just said that she heard it damaged the wing ...

just like the last time. :scared:

Did anyone else hear that? She said it was on the news tonight, but she couldn't remember if it was the local broadcast or the network/national broadcast.


On edit: She thinks it was ABC News. They were also talking about a possible rescue mission involving Atlantis.

[Emperor_Norton_II]

9. MORE DATA

NASA analysts suspect at least one piece of foam insulation did in fact hit the wing of the space shuttle Discovery as it took off on Tuesday, ABC News has learned.

Engineers had believed that the foam did not strike Discovery, but new analysis has led them to suspect at least one small piece of foam did hit the shuttle's wing, leaving what engineers described as a scuff mark.

Not quite as creepy when you look at it with context, is it?

[Spinzonner]

11. Foam has likely been falling off shuttle tanks since first use

the issue is the size of the pieces and if and where they strike the orbiter and if the damaga is significant enough to cause a breach during reentry.

Apparently, until Columbia, none of the critical criteria came together.

One problem with the shuttle - which refers to the whole machine, not just the orbiter - is that has never, and probably can't, be realistically tested other than in actual flight. So all so-called fixes are theoretical until actually used.

[HawkerHurricane]

13. The real problem with the shuttle...

is that it was supposed to be replaced 10-20 years ago by something better.

In the history of flight, 20 years is a long time.

[rman]

15. And NASA management figures since it went ok before,

it will be ok this time as well.
Same kind of reasoning as with the infamous o-rings.
Firing of safety personel since then makes it easier for NASA management to discard the warnings and any advise not to launch.
The space shuttle now has a 1 in 50 catastrophic failure rate.

[Spinzonner]

And in each case the managers were given a warning they chose not to heed

The Morton Thiokol Engineers who warned about the external temperatures before the launch of Challenger - ignored and criticized.

The NASA engineers who requested to have military satellites photograph Columbia on orbit to examine the wings after being hit by the tank insulation on liftoff - refused

[Kraklen]

12. I wonder what they're not telling us.

[Warren Stupidity]

14. It isn't creepy so much as it is

a total and unmitigated disaster for the shuttle program. They have just gone through $1B and 2.5 years of effort to fix the 'big chunks of foam falling off the fuel tanks' problem and it is clear that the fix is a complete failure. They are back at square one, right where they were the day Columbia disintegrated.

[BattyDem]

16. "They have just gone through $1B and 2.5 years of effort ..."

"...to fix the 'big chunks of foam falling off the fuel tanks' problem and it is clear that the fix is a complete failure."



Why is it that under this administration, EVERY government organization or program spends lots of money and time ... but never gets anything right? :shrug:

[Warren Stupidity]

18. oh it isn't just this administration

the government's ability to waste vast sums and accomplish nothing is legendary.

I'm not sure that this was even a task that could be accomplished. They are stuck with a 30 year old design that, if I remember correctly, was more than a bit of a compromise at the time. The real failure here is the failure to develope a replacement system.

[BattyDem]

21. You're right about that ...

but at least other administrations got something right once in a while. I can't think of one good thing that this administration has done for the country or one real success that it's had.

The shuttle is grossly outdated. It should have been replaced years ago. I don't understand why they keep dumping money into the program instead of developing new technologies and vehicles. :shrug:

[hang a left]

17. There is another thread here in GD with about 75 posts

I read it earlier the original poster states there is "no problem" and nothing to worry about. Is this news new?

[Emperor_Norton_II]

19. A new detail, but nothing particularly "creepy"

And the thread is http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4212509&mesg_id=4212509

</shameless plug> ;)

[Spinzonner]

20. What that probably means is that THIS flight dodged the bullet

but that because the fundamental problem has not been solved, the risk is unacceptably high for subsequent flights, depending on if and where a piece of external tank insulation falls.

[Emperor_Norton_II]

22. Which is why the brass put a hold on future flights

..not that they did the most intelligent thing and announce this after Discovery landed, thus saving us a few boatloads of hysterical reaction, but those are the breaks.

But yeah, that's a good summary of the situation.