NASA Now Doubts Tank Foam Debris Doomed Columbia
By JOHN M. BRODER
HOUSTON, Feb. 5 — NASA officials expressed doubt today that a piece of foam from the external fuel tank that struck the shuttle Columbia during its liftoff could have led to the destruction of the ship.
On Monday, officials identified damage caused by the impact during the launching on Jan. 16 as a prime suspect in the series of failures that led to the Columbia's breakup over Texas on Saturday.
But today, Ron D. Dittemore, the shuttle program manager, said that he and other NASA officials did not believe that the lightweight insulating material could have caused sufficient damage to be a primary cause of the shuttle's disintegration.
"Right now, it just does not make sense to us that a piece of debris would be the root cause for the loss of Columbia and its crew," Mr. Dittemore said at a briefing this afternoon at the Johnson Space Center here. "We don't believe it's this chunk of foam. It's got to be something else that we don't know about."
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This is gross incompetence by NASA. They are dismissing the most obvious suspect out of hand, on speculation alone, without the substantiation to do so. That, in the jargon, is throwing it away. There is also strong motivation by NASA management to have the root cause be an act of God and not the foam.
Nobody's DISMISSING anything. I haven't heard anyone from NASA completely rule out the "impact" to the wing during launch as a cause of the breakup of the shuttle. All I've heard is that "it does not make sense to us" that this would be the only cause. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but when the engineering calculations suggest to look elsewhere, then the only responsible course of action is to seek other causes. At least until the investigators get the OK to fire a bowling ball at the wing of one of the other shuttles to observe the damage that MAY HAVE resulted from the impact.
And to say that NASA's statements expressing doubt about the foam insulation being the cause of the disaster are based on "speculation" is ludicrous. One could just as easily argue that it is highly speculative to include the foam insulation among possible causes.
Okay, you've weaselled out of words having any sort of meaning with good old Clinton parsing tactics.
In fact, no possibility has been ruled out by NASA. So you are just passing a lot of hot air signifying nothing.
Most obvious to you maybe, but not to those who know anything about the shuttle.
I'm probably the only FReeper who has actually walked into the OPF and observed the tile damage from the previous Atlantis mission where the PC foam impacted the tiles on launch. There were hundreds of little dings, and a couple of deeper, longer ones. But absolutely nothing catastrophic.
I'm as pi$$ed off as anybody about NASA insisting that they go to the "environmentally friendly" solvents and adhesives. I also have first hand knowledge of NASA arrogance and political blame-shifting.
But it is not obvious that the foam falling off caused this problem, although it is possible if it damaged the leading edge of the gear door.
Try this simple test for yourself: Buy a 4'x8' sheet of Dow Board (the foam insulation used on houses). Suspend it over a deserted road from a tree limb at bumper height, then run into it at 67 MPH. Report back to us whether it does any damage to your car, OK?