As far as I know they never did. The whole thing was an odd happening. From what I remember of the investigation, I believe it took over 400 shots until they finally got the velocity and angles right to punch a hole in the test RCC leading edge they had set up. So things must have been just right (actually wrong) the day of lift off. During the post launch film reviews we could clearly see the foam impact the wing but there was absolutely no way to check for damage without DOD’s help which we didn’t get. Like I said, even if the damage was known, there was no way to do anything about it so.............do you tell the crew or not? I feel, myself, that they should have at least been told that there may have been damage at lift off. I still remember watching the guys in mission control and them watching the sensors in the left MLG drop out one by one. No booms, no landing, no orbiter. I forwarded the link of the video somebody in the Reno area had of the “puff” in the contrail as she headed east to the investigaiton team but like you, never got any response from “above”. Still the most rewarding job I ever had. Heck, looking back, I spent over half my life working on the program. (Well, over half so far!)
I’ll bet the impact tests were done with new, pristine RCC.
Downey Lab & Test Dept. first noticed microscopic craters in the RCC around 1995. They found that the craters were from CO outgassing. When the O2 was hot enough it diffused across the silica layer on the surface of the RCC.
We CAT scanned the RCC on Columbia and found that, although it looked OK, the de-densification had weakened it to the point where we could poke a hole in the test panels with a finger.
Fresh RCC is pretty tough.
I don’t think NASA replaced the weakened RCC because there was no funding in the budget.
Typical coverup, just like Challenger. You probably know, it was NOT the O rings.
IIRC, NASA didn't seek help or they turned it down.
Like I said, even if the damage was known, there was no way to do anything about it so
There were things that could have been tried.
See my post #45.