[DoughtyOne]

Please tell me how NASA could assume a 5 to 10' brick hitting the shuttle moving in excess of 1000 mph would do no damage. I'd like to hear the parse on that.

[P-Marlowe]

If they knew that, they had an obligation to do everything they could, including a rush launch of Atlantis, to get those guys down safely. It could have been done. There is nothing we as Americans can't accomplish if Union rules are suspended.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

Did you miss this sentence?

THERE WAS NOTHING THEY COULD DO.

There is no rightious, questionable, debate of thoughts even, when...

THERE WAS NOTHING THEY COULD DO.

[spunkets]

"Please tell me how NASA could assume a 5 to 10' brick hitting the shuttle moving in excess of 1000 mph would do no damage. I'd like to hear the parse on that."

It's the relative velocity of the obiter vs debris that's important, not the rel.vel of those things vs earth. To know how fast the debris was going relative to the obiter, neglecting wind, you have to know the time, or distance the stuff fell(decelerated), both are known, and the acceleration of the rocket. I saw an est that it was about 80-150mph, but I didn't check it.

The debris doesn't have the hardness and density of brick though. It's either foam, or a thick frost layer.

[El Gato]

Please tell me how NASA could assume a 5 to 10' brick hitting the shuttle moving in excess of 1000 mph would do no damage. I'd like to hear the parse on that.

Even if it was ice, it wasn't but 20" long, and would be more like the stuff on the inside of your freezer that hasn't been defrosted, or maybe like a moderately packed snowball made from fairly wet snow, not all that rigid or strong, like the ice cubes in that freezer or ice on a lake. Furthermore even if the shuttle is going that fast, so is the debris when it falls off the tank or strut. So it only falls a few 10s of feet relative to the shuttle, albeit in an effect gravity field of 2-3 gees, because when the ice or whatever broke free, it started accellerating down at 1 g, while the shuttle was accellerating up. Lets assume 3 g and 10 meters ( 30 feet) : the debris would be going 14.14 meters/sec or 46.4 ft/sec relative to the shuttle or just over 30 mph, a far cry from 1000 mph. That's slow compared to a .45 ACP pistol bullet at 870 ft/sec muzzle velocity. And even slow compared to a BB gun or paint ball gun, the latter on the order of 250 fps. The slushy ice might not be much stronger structurally than that paint ball either, as evidenced by the way it went "splat" when it hit the wing.

[PhiKapMom]

The piece was 8" x 12" according to NASA today. The press is reporting feet not inches which was debunked in the news conference. The NASA spokesman also showed that the piece did not hit at a 90 degree angle which would have caused a catastropic event although that was also reported in the press.

Same press also reported that one of the pilots had 3,600+ miles flying experience when it is flying hours not miles.

A lot of bad press out there as they have already determined in their press spin that the tiles caused this accident and that mantra is being kept up on here.

The briefing today was great including the explanation of temperature in the wheel well. Check and see if it is going to be reshown on C-SPAN because it would be well worth viewing.

[sd-joe]

"hitting the shuttle moving in excess of 1000 mph"

The shuttle may have been moving in excess of 1000 mph, but remember the "brick" started out moving at the same speed. The actual relative speed between the two would actually be very small. The "brick" stopped accelerating when it broke off and only traveled a small distance before hitting the wing.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Please tell me how NASA could assume a 5 to 10' brick hitting the shuttle moving in excess of 1000 mph would do no damage. I'd like to hear the parse on that.

Probably a case of "whistling past the graveyard". Previous incidents have not resulted in tragedy -- bringing creeping confidence/laxity? I am curious about one thing: exactly how fragile are these tiles? Surely they are not as strong as ceramic, which wold be very heavy. But they can't be soft-structurted, like foam. Are they fibrous, like aspestos? Do you have any idea?

[the_doc]

It was not a brick. And NASA did not assume that it did no damage.

(Notice from this that your words are the ones which thoughtful FReepers need to "parse.")