Shuttle probe may reveal pattern of miscalculations / STS-107

At the dawn of the U.S. shuttle program, NASA engineers weighed the risks posed by nagging failures in the twin rocket boosters that propel the spacecraft into orbit.

They quickly discovered severe heat damage in the O-rings designed to stop searing gas from spewing from joints in the rockets. NASA weighed the risks and decided the flaw was "tolerable," an analysis that held for 24 flights.

I'm still waiting to hear if there were any "temperature anomalies" noted during the 16 days in orbit.

Those areas of trouble, where the break up ocurred, were all on the left side of the vehicle.
If, indeed, the problem was caused at launch, then there should be a record of measurable temperature change in those areas during the orbit.

The shuttle orbits the earth every 4 hours.
During that 4 hours it is exposed to an outside temperature variation of several hundred degrees. ( about 400 - 500 degrees difference between surface in shadow and surface exposed to direct sunlight.)
Temperature sensors in the left wheel well and left wing should show a temperature variation greater than expected "nominal" although not in the range noted during re-entry.
Other temperature sensor readings may have also recorded anomolous variations.
There would be a regular 4 hour cycle, for 16 days, to point to a problem with insulation on the shuttle.

I emailed some people asking whether there was any information concerning the orbital telemetry, but was unable to get a response.
( Not that I realistically expect one, they probably have 2 million cornball emails a day. I'm just one more. )

I will be interested in finding out if orbital telemetry will show any evidence of the cause of the crash.)

Thanks for your remarks. Yes, Space is an eXtreme environment. Suppose that over the 2 dozen plus flights of the Columbia, it structurally has expanded and contracted enough times structurally that minute cracks occurred at any point in the wing structure.

That in combination with additional turns during the re-entry process may have stressed the shuttle to the point where bad stuff happened.

The foam hitting the left wing may just be an incidental item.

Who knows? We may may never know, unfortunately, to anyone's satisfaction, but I agree, the telemetry info re: the flight and any irregularities noted could be an additional pointer to the ultimate cause of the catastrophic failure of the shuttle. JMO

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