It's just a flesh wound.
Posted on 07/27/2005 2:57:18 PM PDT by Jackknife
SPACE CENTER, Houston - NASA said Wednesday a chipped thermal tile on Discovery's belly does not appear to be a danger, and it cautioned the public against overreacting to every speck of damage sustained by the shuttle during liftoff.
The space agency expected some debris to fall off during launch, and some did. The big question is whether any of it harmed Discovery, and the answer is still a few days away, NASA said one day after the ship blasted off on the first shuttle mission since the Columbia tragedy 2 1/2 years ago.
Flight director Paul Hill said it is understandable that people inside and outside NASA might be alarmed by any hint of damage to Discovery's thermal shielding.
"The last flight ended in catastrophe and we lost seven friends of ours because of damage," Hill said at a news conference. But he added: "We don't make decisions in spaceflight based on that type of emotion. We make decisions in spaceflight based on the data, and we're looking at the data."
And based on what they have seen so far, NASA engineers believe the broken tile is "not going to be an issue," Hill said.
Imagery experts and engineers expect to know by Thursday afternoon whether the gouge left by the missing 1 1/2-inch piece of thermal tile needs a second look or, in the worst case, a repair, Hill said. The astronauts have a 100-foot laser-tipped crane on board that could determine precisely how deep the gouge is.
The tile fragment broke off less than two minutes after liftoff Tuesday and was spotted by a camera mounted on the external fuel tank. It fell off a particularly vulnerable spot, near the set of doors for the nose landing gear.
The tank camera also captured a large piece of debris flying off the tank but missing Discovery itself; the nature of the debris is still a mystery. After the Columbia accident, the tank was redesigned to reduce the risk of foam insulation falling off.
If NASA decides to use the new inspection boom to get a 3-D view of the tile damage, the astronauts will examine the spot on Friday, a day after docking with the international space station.
On Wednesday, Discovery's astronauts spent nearly six hours using the boom to inspect Discovery's wings and nose cap for launch damage. The wings and nose are protected by reinforced carbon panels capable of taking the brunt of the searing re-entry heat.
Hill said he saw nothing immediately alarming during the laser inspection, which had been planned long before any damage to Discovery was detected. But NASA's experts have yet to fully analyze the images.
The inspection was conducted in extra-slow motion, a mere three feet per minute, to give engineers a good long look. The boom came within five feet of the shuttle's wings and nose cap.
The astronauts had to be careful not to bang the equipment into the fragile thermal panels and cause the kind of disaster the boom was designed to prevent. The task required such precision that three of the astronauts took turns performing the grueling job.
NASA should have a better grasp of the tile damage after the two space station residents photograph the approaching Discovery on Thursday. Discovery will do a slow back flip 600 feet out, so the station astronauts can zoom in on the shuttle's belly. This unprecedented maneuver was also planned long before the flight.
The photos taken from the space station should be so good that "you will almost be able to read the serial numbers on the tiles," Hill said.
After that, if the imagery experts and engineers want even more data on the broken tile, Hill said, "then by God we're going to take the (boom) down and we're going to get them more data and that data are going to look like they were sitting right there in front of the tile with their hands on it, it's going to be so good."
NASA does not expect to make a final decision until Sunday or so on whether Discovery can safely return to Earth. That is how long it will take to analyze all the data from the more than 100 cameras that tracked the liftoff, scores of sensors embedded in the shuttle wings, the laser inspection, and pictures from space.
Top NASA managers have stressed for months that they would probably see more debris than usual falling from Discovery simply because they would be looking harder this time.
Hill also reminded reporters that space shuttles have frequently landed with tile damage over the past 24 years. The seriousness depends on how deep the gouges are and how thick the tile is in the affected area, he said.
Deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale portrayed the current analysis as vastly superior to what took place during Columbia's doomed mission in 2003. A chunk of fuel-tank foam insulation pierced Columbia's wing at liftoff and left a plate-size hole that proved fatal during re-entry two weeks later.
"A few people looked at the pictures, a few people ran some small analysis that wasn't grounded in much real science and came to the wrong conclusion," Hale said. This time, he said, hundreds of people are examining at every frame of the video, and NASA management is focusing on whether the shuttle is safe to return.
It's just a flesh wound.
It feels like de ja vu all over again.
This appears to be more of a problem than previously thought, and could force another redesign of the insulation on the external tank. There will be a news conference within the hour. Story at: http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts114/050727foam/
Thank you"Jackknife"
Story for your space ping.
"public against overreacting to every speck of damage sustained by the shuttle during liftoff. "
too late...knees have been jerked.
http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/python/Sounds/HolyGrail.wav/peril2.wav
The shuttles come back normally with chips and gouges in the tiles. I have seen tile maps of the events over the last twenty years and they are very numerous but benign. I have held shuttle tiles, they are very light wieght, and the do chip easily. But they are inches thick in some places and a tiny chip is of little concern. A huge hole in the wing from a powerful impact like Columbia had and a tiny chip that came off by itself are two different things entirely.
Discovery is in good hands. And she will bring her crew home safe.
NASA bashers, sorry. we are headed back to the moon. Bash away. The rest of us are headed to the stars.
I believe these guys know what they are doing however a neophyte like me has a hard time understanding this.
Is it also true that no two tiles are alike?
News conference on now on NASA TV.
Methinks they should have gone back to the painted external tank, weight be damned.
The tiles are the weak link in the whole program, but it doesn't seem they can make anything else work. I once got a chance to handle a tile, and they are great insulators, but you can puncture one with a pencil.
I don't think I'll tune in for the next landing, the last one hurt too much.
That would be discouraging, indeed.
Do you know how much weight is saved in using the tiles?
NASA says no more flights until PAL ramp foam hazard is fixed.
I'll be watching, but with pregnant anticipation.
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