FOAM HAS PLAGUED NASA FOR 5 YEARS

Mercury News ^

[fooman]

NASA has asked that tests involving freon free foam be witheld. What are they hiding?

Article shows a NASA engineer noting the difficulties in creating the same characteristics.

[PhiKapMom]

I agree with you 100% and if it is the foam you can bet that NASA will shout it from the rooftops and the environmentalists crowd are going to be the ones have a "bad day!"

[yonif]

Ok, I will give you a summarization.

Here is what I am reading:

A major engineer in NASA warned 2 days before the landing of the shuttle that it was not going to be possible to return the columbia in peace. This is what NBC network reports. In the same report, the engineer witnessed the damage that was done and brought up the matter to those involved.

Today there was more being done in the investigation, as at NASA they say that the temperature problem in the left wing was the reason for the explosion. On Channel 1 a picture from the broadcast Ilan Ramon (of blessed memory) made to Prime Minister Sharon, shows a crack in the wing that caused the explosion, where the angle of the camera was turned to.

You might remember that one of the main hypothesis of the reason for the crash is weakness in the left wing of the shuttle. This weakness was the one that brought a downfall in the systems of the shuttle during the large amount of pressure that was put on it with its entry to the atmosphere.

The picture shown on Channel 1 was taken from a broadcast between Ilan Ramon (of blessed memory) and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. During the talk, the angle of the camera was moved and the crack was seen.

Even with the critism that has been heard in the last night, NASA says that they did not hide any info from the public. They also say that the problem was known to NASA right after the launch. It looks as like that during it a piece of the tile was detached and the crack was made. Even with this, none of this was really reported as no one thought that the problem was serious. Other points are that NASA could not have done anything after the launch.

Yesterday, TV stations broadcasted pictures of space shuttle launches from the past, where the same incidents occured, and even with that the shuttles returned safetly.

2 days after the crash of the Columbia shuttle, experts say that the poor maintance of the shuttle fleet of NASA in all and of Columbia specifically, could have been the reason for the problem.

Yesterday a quote of Richard Bloomberg in the Washington Post, who was in the past one of the leaders of NASA, said that the cutting of the funding caused some maintenence suspensions. Other critics say that Columbia was left in operations even though it was more then 20 years old, and even with its problems. Heads of NASA pushed away these arguments and said that the shuttle was in excellent condition after getting a touchup in 1999.

--The article continues to talk about the firing of the security consultants after their reports on safety concerns and the like. They also mention the Congress hearing accounts from the security consultants last spring.

[fooman]

NASA memo warned of possible trouble

AM - Tuesday, February 4, 2003 8:17

LINDA MOTTRAM: The US space agency, NASA, is facing new pressure after an internal memo was leaked with a warning that space shuttle Columbia could have suffered damage to it's heat shield shortly after lift off. It disintegrated, of course, on entry, two days ago.

NASA officials are now trying to explain the memo while they're also facing allegations that the Agency removed five members of its safety review panel, in a bid to suppress their criticism.

From Houston, John Shovelan reports.

JOHN SHOVELAN: Just two days before the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated a team of NASA engineers sent an internal memo which discussed possible problems on re-entry for the Orbiter.

The memo estimated there was a high probability heat shielding tiles beneath the left wing had suffered a gash about 22 centimetres wide and about eighty centimetres long during the launch.

Foam debris, which could have weighed fifty kilos or more, broke away from an external fuel tank striking the thermal tiles.

Today NASA's Deputy Administrator, Michael Kostelnik, said he had not seen the memo alerting to possible dangers on re-entry.

MICHAEL KOSTELNIK: That is actually the first I have heard of that memo. The best and brightest engineers we have who helped build and design that system looked carefully at all the analysis and the information we had at this time and made a determination this was not a safety or flight issue.

JOHN SHOVELAN: The Columbia's underside was covered in twenty thousand thermal tiles designed to protect it from temperatures of up to three thousand degrees.

If tiles were seriously damaged on takeoff, or knocked loose, the abnormal increases in temperature could twist the shuttle structure causing more damage to its heat shield.

But NASA's Deputy Administrator William Readdy said the incident at launch was not serious.

WILLIAM READDY: We did see that on the film. We saw it at about eighty seconds and on the twelfth day of the mission, the mission evaluation was that these thermal analyses indicate possible localised structural damage, but no burn through and no safety of flight issue and I quote.

JOHN SHOVELAN: NASA has gone out of its way to make this investigation open, because after the Challenger it was accused of covering up.

MICHAEL KOSTELNIK: This will be probably the most open accident investigation on a magnitude of this scale that people have experienced in this time.

JOHN SHOVELAN: The memo though again raises questions about just how open NASA really is.

As a result of its management signing off on the assessment that the incident on lift off was not significant, telescopic and spy satellite imagery was not requested to examine the suspect area, and Columbia wasn't carrying its 15 metres long robot arm and camera, so its crew was unable to inspect the damage.

NASA officials though say it's not unusual for debris to fly off during launch. It was the second time in four months that a piece of fuel-tank foam had come off. In October, Atlantis lost a piece of foam during lift off in an incident also described as superficial.

John Shovelan at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston for AM.

[PhiKapMom]

That is such a neat plane. They always land here at Tinker AFB when the President or VP is in town. Gives me a thrill everytime I see it!

I was so glad that AF One was sent into total overhaul when Clinton left so everything could be redone including the interior!

[fooman]

They are asking about the foam process being changed now on CSPAN.

[aristeides]

Thanks for the translation. TLBSHOW's link appears to be to later English-language reports about the same memo.

[PhiKapMom]

Enjoyed reading about your day and looking forward to the pictures!

[fooman]

Kostelnik just coughed up that there were environmental based changes to the foam process!

[PhiKapMom]

Fox News would rather concentrate on asking dumb questions during the day including why there wasn't an escape pod on the shuttle!

Vaguely remember the foam issue in the WTC but it seemed to get lost as this one is also getting lost in the news.

[fooman]

Note that the article above said that the piece could be 50 kilos!

Thats 110 lbs! Thats a long way from 2lbs.

[aristeides]

Added weight because of ice?

After Challenger and this, maybe NASA will decide not to launch in such cold weather any longer?

[fooman]

*sigh*

Fox has been disappointing lately. O'reilly has really turned into a bit of a blowhard, especially with the SUV stuff (I hear Bill is driven to work everyday in a LIMO!)

[TLBSHOW]

Fox News would rather concentrate on asking dumb questions during the day including why there wasn't an escape pod on the shuttle!


That is the question that Don asked the Preident back in August. It isn't stupid now that we know what happened.

[fooman]

It could well be. I think that the tank is filled with liquid oxygen, so that could be one source of the ice in the atmosphere 80 secs into the launch.

[snopercod]

We know that the solvents used on the ET and SRBs were changed in the mid-90's to make them "AlGore-compatible".

Has anyone asked the question about the solvents used to attach the tiles to the orbiter?

[TLBSHOW]

All very sad.

[hchutch]

Maybe it's because you and TLBSHOW didn't take the hint the first time, Fred.

Quite frankly, I find it nauseating.

[aristeides]

Nauseating to ask questions about what happened?

[Fred Mertz]

Are you telling me to shut my yap? Okay, I will, but only for a few hours. See ya.

[TLBSHOW]

and what was that? That I posted the simple facts here on Saturday night of just what happened and have been jumped on for it ever since. From what I understand I have been proved correct.

What I did not know at the time was just how bad NASA screwed up, and that they had been warned about it long ago.