Space Shuttle's Left Wing May Be Damaged

nbc4.com ^ | 20070612 | NBC News space correspondent Jay Barbree

[XBob]

Space Shuttle's Left Wing May Be Damaged Meteorite, Space Junk May Have Struck Panels

POSTED: 5:13 pm EDT June 12, 2007 UPDATED: 7:00 pm EDT June 12, 2007 Email This Story | Print This Story Sign Up for Breaking News Alerts WASHINGTON -- A meteorite or space junk may have struck Space Shuttle Atlantis' left wing, according to NBC News space correspondent Jay Barbree.

NASA recorded a hit on reinforced carbon panels 7 and 8 on the left wing. The panels keep heat from re-entry from burning the spacecraft.

...

This is the same area where foam damaged Columbia's left wing and caused it to break up, killing its crew on Feb. 1, 2003.

[Severa]

I’m 31 years old. For those older than me...how in the HELL do you sit still through a shuttle launch and landing? After what happened with the Challenger and Columbia, I’m on f**king pins and needles every time a shuttle goes up and when it comes in for landing.

[oldleft]

The biggest reason I panic is that things like this make most people conclude that space isn’t worth it. Of course, they conclude this while using GPS navigation listening to satellite radio and talking to their friends in Europe.

China and Russia think space is worth it, and that’s hood enough for me.

[SamAdams76]

As long as people volunteer, we should keep sending them.

By the way, sign me up.

[Army Air Corps]

Time to shelve the design and start over.

Heard of the Constellation Programme?

[kjam22]

The problem is the technology. The idea that they use friction to slow down. They need to find a way to enter the atmosphere at less than 3094562390486 miles per hour. A different propulsion method that doesn't require 93457932475 gallons of fuel in a tank the size of a skyscraper.

[advertising guy]

shoulda been watching in the earliest days when a capsule dropped and a parachute landed you.....that was hairy

[Alter Kaker]

And as Christopher Columbus proved, it's a total waste of time.

We have unmanned probes (Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager and Voyager 2) that have traveled beyond the reaches of the solar system. Yet astronauts continue to tool around in low earth orbit. Please let me what "exploring" these guys are doing while they're putting their lives at risk in low earth orbit. As I see it, it's considerable risk at enormous expense for zero gain.

[yield 2 the right]

Nothing to see here move along folks...non-event!!!
Minor scratch is all....

[Army Air Corps]

By the way, sign me up.

Ditto.

[HEY4QDEMS]

Why, are we planning to colonize the moon? Mars?

We can send lots of exploring drones up there without the risk to human life.

[don-o]

floridatoday.com

NASA is investigating what engineers believe is a false sensor reading that indicated thermal armor on one of the wings of shuttle Atlantis might have been struck by a micrometeorite in orbit.

But John Shannon, chairman of NASA's Mission Management Team, said engineers are discounting the possibility that there was an actual hit because other sensors in the same area didn't register an impact.

"I think characterizing this as an impact hit would be premature at this point," Shannon said in a briefing tonight.

[DBrow]

” let the shuttle try to get back on remote.”

The shuttle was explicitly designed not to have remote capability.

Buran, the Russian shuttle, did, but in our design, there are manual levers that must be flipped and several decisions made by a live human in the cockpit. We never redesigned the shuttle so that it could do an unmanned supply run, for instance, saving weight and fuel.

I don’t know what would happen if you flipped the levers, set the switches, and exited as you made the final “land” settings, but I don’t think it would work.

I think that at least one person would have to be on board to land it.

[Alter Kaker]

You don’t colonise and exploit resources with probes.

Why not?

[XBob]

7. “Hope they can fix it. They can.”

SO SORRY, IIRC panels 7 and 8 cannot be fixed, period, anwhere, they must be replaced, IRRC.

We posted that info here on FR on our looooong thread on the Colombia disaster in FEB 2003.

---

NASA Kennedy Space Center—Space Shuttle Orbiter Systems .... Instruct students to label and shade in the Shuttle tile positions. ...
http://media.nasaexplores.com/lessons/04-030/9-12_1.pdf

[null and void]

We need to stop putting people up there in 40 year old equipment.

It’s expensive, worthless and most of all, dangerous.

There. Fixed it...

[kjam22]

"I think characterizing this as an impact hit would be premature at this point," Shannon said in a briefing tonight.

That means it's got a hole in the wing....

[Army Air Corps]

Probes are great for exploration, asuming that ALL you want to do is explore. Humanity needs room and needs to spread its seed to survive. Probes do bupkis for that.

[Keflavik76]

The Shuttle is being shelved in 2010. The Crew Exploration Vehicle (or CEV) has been designed, approved, budgeted and ground service facilities are being readied.

[b4its2late]

Hey Jim! Kev here. I watched the launch and followed the live thread on FR. I just happen to log on at the right time. Didn't see anything in the local rag on the launch. I was watching on NASA TV on the internet. It was a great shot, the camera they had.

But as they were going up into orbit at enormous speeds, I thought to myself, there is allot of space junk up there. How the heck do the miss it all? I mean, look at the planes that suck a duck into the engine. The chances of that are probably small here with gravity and all, but this junk is floating around all over up there.

I hope and pray this turns out ok. Wonder how long they can stay on the space station?

[null and void]

The difference is ... they were looking for something worthwhile...

They never did find the short route to China, though...