Space Shuttle Gouge Penetrates Shielding --MSNBC Reports LINK

[Blackhatjack]

Edited to provide excerpt

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20237820/

They are trying to decide whether to try and fix it with a space walk.

The gouge goes all the way through the heat shields and the black felt is showing just outside the skin of the space shuttle.

It evidently was caused by a piece of foam falling off the fuel tank and striking the underside of the Shuttle in 3 places. The foam was the size of a grapefruit.


"CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A close-up laser inspection by Endeavour’s astronauts Sunday revealed that a 3½-inch-long gouge penetrates all the way through the thermal shielding on the shuttle’s belly, and had NASA urgently calculating whether risky spacewalk repairs are needed.

A chunk of insulating foam smacked the shuttle at liftoff last week in an unbelievably unlucky ricochet off the fuel tank and carved out the gouge.

The unevenly shaped gouge — which straddles two side-by-side thermal tiles and the corner of a third — is 3½ inches long and just over 2 inches wide. Sunday’s inspection showed that the damage goes all the way through the 1-inch-thick tiles, exposing the felt material sandwiched between the tiles and the shuttle’s aluminum frame.

Mission managers expect to decide Monday, or Tuesday at the latest, whether to send astronauts out to patch the gouge. Engineers are trying to determine whether the marred area can withstand the searing heat of atmospheric re-entry at flight’s end."

MORE

[pinto]

1. Ah geez.

[MADem]

5. Yeah, my sentiments exactly.

We spend a fortune on these stupid shuttles, and they're shielded with something that is a cross between melamine and cheapass styrofoam, and not quite as durable, from the looks of it!!

How hard is this to fix, really? And by that I mean REALLY FIX...

They're getting rid of them, so they don't bother. Like they couldn't transfer the technology...

:shrug:

[Blackhatjack]

2. I am trying to figure out why they don't just fix it with a space walk...

The only reason I can think of would be the possibility that the heat shield tiles could become dislodged altogether, making a bad situation worse.

I sure would not want to be riding back through the atmosphere in temps of over 2300 F with a gouge that went all the way through the heat shields.

[Subdivisions]

3. Not good. n/t

[Ghost in the Machine]

4. With all the MILLIONS of dollars in technology that they have, you'd *THINK*

they'd have a roll of duct tape onboard somewhere! :evilgrin:

[pansypoo53219]

6. who would go to space in their

1980's buick?
i mean come on! the shuttle was probably envisioned in the 70's? would you go in a pinto?
or are we just going to blow up the ones til their ain't no more?
and why ain't they fixing the hubble?

[Richard Steele]

8. Yup. That Shuttle was the pinnacle of technology when DISCO ruled the 8-track market.

It was an overpriced, inefficient concept THEN.
It's a 30-years-out-of-date overpriced & inefficient
ANTIQUE now.

[sofa king]

10. It was "proxmired" from the start.

And yes, William Proxmire was a Democrat. That's a cross we'll have to bear as long as this turd is still flying.

[Selatius]

7. They should retire the fucking shuttle fleet permanently; this is risking astronauts' lives.

The things were designed in the 1970s. We have better technology now that can do it safer than this.

[Eurobabe]

9. Yes, but we can't pay for it no mo, we owes it all to China!

43 has ruined the future of the USA. In countless ways.