Damage fear over shuttle heat shield

[mpgt]

Link:
Damage fear over shuttle heat shield - World - smh.com.au

"It appears to be the result of ice, although engineers are not positive. The damage could have been caused by a piece of foam insulation that came off the external fuel tank."

Sound familiar???

[KaylinCoo]

Let's hope it doesn't happen all over again.

[Stargazer]

Is this what happened before? Not good.

[KaylinCoo]

I'm not sure of the exact details... I'm was super young, but I know that there was a crack from ice on one of the fuel something's I belive. Ironic part is that the teacher on this current flight was the one that was the backup for the teacher that was on the flight 20 something years ago that unfortunately exploded during take off. And now there is a eerie deja vu going on with this flight as well.

I hope things go a lot better for this group.

[Adrya]

There's gotta be a way that they can start building space shuttles so much better than they are now... ya know? They need to.

[firekick3]

The Challenger accident you are referring to was a faulty (maybe due to cold weather) o-ring between one of the solid rocket boosters and the external tank (ET). this is a different problem, but still a problem don't get me wrong. I was just clarifying the difference between this time and the Challenger.

good to be back here by the way... been away for a long while.

How is everyone here???

Bart

[mpgt]

Hey Bart, good to see you again!!!!

You're right about Challenger. That was the first shuttle we lost. The last one was in 2003, caused by foam hitting tiles under the shuttle. Here's a 2005 article about the foam problem....Space shuttle foam problem is studied


"It was a piece of loose foam that caused the 2003 destruction of space shuttle Columbia, taking the lives of all seven crew members and resulting in a 2 1/2-year shuttle flight suspension."