[Prov1322]

FWIW

[Prov1322]

GREAT! Supposed to read "Close-up"...

[glock rocks]

thank you... hadn't seen the actual footage.

[amom]

Excellent. Thanks

Heads up AG.

[Redcloak]

Does anyone know how hard this insulating "foam" is? Is it a bit of fluff like polyurethane? Or does it have a hard structural member?

[hole_n_one]

Good find!

*ping*

[StriperSniper]

BTTT

[eddie willers]

Thanks...good find.

BUMP!

[WillVoteForFood]

Given the speed that both the shuttle and the piece of debris would have been moving when this event occurred, how hard would debris have impacted the wing?

[FReepaholic]

It almost looks as if it goes THROUGH the wing!

Like it hits the top and exits the bottom (underneath) as the spray we see.

But, I don't see how that could be considering the angle the orbiter sits on the ET. It would make more sense if it went in from the bottom and out the top part of the wing

[Vinnie]

Look closely at the frame of the debris coming out from under the wing. The shuttle seems to yaw. Camera jerk or a hard hit?

[SteveH]

Ice?

The thing the Challenger and Columbia have in common is the time of year...

[Humidston]

I was looking at this thread, (not having paid too much attention to the title), and my whole computer crashes!

Took me 10 min to relocate it so I can watch the video again....!

Thanks, btw. Good catch. I'd been hearing about that insulation bump all day but saw nothing this good till now!

[Enlightiator]

Good post! I did some searching, and I was very suprised to find that signficant tile damage had been found on Columbia on shuttle flight STS-87 which took off on Nov. 17, 1997 and landed Dec. 5, 1997. This damage was attributed to external tank foam separation in an article by a NASA engineer:

"It was determined that during the ascent, the foam separation from the external tank was carried by the aerodynamic flow and pelted the nose of the orbiter and cascaded aft from that point. Once again, this foam was carried in a relative air-stream between MACH 2 and MACH 4!"

Reading the article further, I was then really astounded when I read this:

"POSSIBILITY 3
The STS-86 mission revealed a similar damage pattern but to a much lesser degree than STS-87. The STS-86 tile damage was accepted ruled as an unexplained anomaly because it was a night launch and did not provide the opportunity for the photographic evidence the STS-87 mission did. A review of the records of the STS-86 records revealed that a change to the type of foam was used on the external tank. This event is significant because the pattern of damage on this flight was similar to STS-87 but to a much lesser degree. The reason for the change in the type of foam is due to the desire of NASA to use "environmentally friendly" materials in the space program. Freon was used in the production of the previous foam. This method was eliminated in favor of foam that did not require freon for its production. MSFC is investigating the consideration that some characteristics of the new foam may not be known for the ascent environment."

Read the whole article, by Greg Katnik, a mechanical systems engineer at the Kennedy Space Center, here:

WORKING ON A TILE DAMAGE MYSTERY

[petuniasevan]

Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster Archive ^

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

Bump for look when I'm on high speed link at NASA on Monady.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Sheet of ice lifting off the wing.

[Jael]

excellent post

[Amerigomag]

Post crash analysis will determine that the flight was doomed when it left the atmosphere.

The saftey panel will further determine that the only survivable course would have been seperation of Columbia from it's supplemental fuel tank just after the tile damage occured. This mission abort process would have allowed Columbia to return to earth in a controlled fashion without the excessive heat of reentry.

But alas this same board will also conclude that not enough information is avaliable at that stage of the flight to warrant such an economically expensive decision and therefore the accident was unavoidable without a complete redesign of the mission vehicles.

[Mark Felton]

Debris Photos (post them here)