Foam Shot Causes Damage to Shuttle Mockup

DoraLives writes "The New York Times is running a story describing the effects caused by a piece of foam fired at a fiberglass mock up of the Space Shuttle's wing. Although fiberglass is stronger than the RCC material on Columbia's wing, "The impact produced a 22-inch-long gap." Not good."

Comments

Re:"Not Good"?

[iuyterw]

Finding the cause isn't "not good".

If this discovery means there is a risk of destruction of the remaining shuttles that cannot be mitigated, then that is very very "not good"

Re:Shuttle Astronauts killed by the EPA

[E-prospero]

The EPA has a direct responsiblity for this disaster.

Yeah. And they eat babies too.

Nice try at a "EPA Kills Astronauts" causality, but no.

1. The EPA required NASA to use materials that will prevent Ozone depletion.
2. NASA chose a foam. The chosen foam had some problems on STS-87. NASA tested it.
3. NASA continued to use the same foam.

If you want to play the blame game (and I have to say that IMHO, it's a particularly nonproductive game in this case unless you can point at a single individual who personally ignored evidence, or loosened a bolt, etc) NASA is the one with the responsibility here. The only thing the EPA is directly responsible for is instigating the change in foam. You could claim an indirect responsibility for enforcing a change, but the EPA didn't tell them which foam to use. NASA is the one directly responsible for selecting, testing and using the new foam. If NASA was concerned about safety, they had the option of halting launches until the issue was resolved.

Sh*t happens. Sometimes, Really Unpleasant Sh*t happens. Using the emotional effect of the occurence of unpleasant sh*t as a way to lend credibility for an argument belittles us all.

If you want to pick on the EPA, pick on them for something they actually did, not for something that happened as a result of something that happened as a result of something they did. By your logic, JFK is directly responsible for the death of the Columbia astronauts because he encouraged the rapid development of the space program.

Russ %-)