[NormsRevenge]

FYI - This just popped up on wire.

I'll tack it on the end of the orbiter thread.

[Cicero]

Those pinholes - about as wide as three human hairs - began to appear on the leading edges of shuttle wings in 1992, first in Columbia, then other shuttles.

Well, I'll be the first to say it. This happened during clinton's watch. And the guy at the top of NASA under clinton was, according to my friends who know something about it, a jerk.

First pinholes in 1992. First studies released in 1995. Nothing done.

[First_Salute]

It's what happens when pinheads rule.

[First_Salute]

Bump.

[TLBSHOW]

MANAGER 'REJECTED PLEA FOR SATELLITE INSPECTION' OF SHUTTLE... MORE... Few days after Columbia's liftoff, group of NASA engineers asked program manager to request aid of U.S. spy satellites in determining extent of debris damage to left wing, but the manager declined to do so, NYT is planning to report on Thursday, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE... Developing... http://www.drudgereport.com/

[brityank]

That solution became obvious during Houston meetings when engineers were trying to figure out why the pinholes were not found in the shuttle's nose cone, but were in the leading edges of the wings, even though both are made of the same material, Rapp said. The solution came from an off-hand remark by a NASA engineer, who noted that a metal structure that shields the shuttle from the bad weather as it sits on the launch pad is close to the nose cone and also protects it from sea spray.

"You're getting salt spray on the wings and not on the nose cone," Rapp said.

Before its fatal flight, Columbia sat on the launch pad for more than a month, during which 10.6 inches of rain, an unusually high volume, poured down on it.

Ted Paquette, president of Refractory Composites in Glen Burnie, Md., a materials scientist who helped design the wings' leading edge, said the covering solution makes sense: "It wouldn't take an awful lot, if you had some sort of sticky Saran Wrap, if you wrapped it over the leading edge."

We can put large protective covers over ball-fields with taxpayer funds; this would be a better use for the money.

[If you want off or on my Columbia ping list, let me know. FReegards.]