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Space Shuttle to Receive Emegency Repairs

Posted by timothy on from the friendly-callers dept.

Tycow writes "The BBC are reporting that Discovery needs emergency repairs - dangling material has been spotted on the belly of the shuttle, and NASA are worried they could cause overheating on re-entry. 'Nasa is concerned the dangling material - called gap fillers - could cause part of the shuttle to overheat as it re-enters the atmosphere.The type of repairs being planned have never been conducted by astronauts on a spacewalk before.'"

4 of 427 comments (clear)

  1. Far More Informative (Detailed) Links by Buran · · Score: 4, Informative

    Spaceflight Now | STS-114 Shuttle Report | Shuttle mission extended to give bonus day at station

    Spaceflight Now | STS-114 Shuttle Report | NASA gives go-ahead to spacewalk repair work

    (and the headline says "Emegency" -- someone fix that, please)

    --
    i am a soviet space shuttle
  2. Re:Tough cloth by ranson · · Score: 4, Informative

    (Sorry I pressed the wrong reply button the first time i posted this response) No it won't burn away, the cloth is ceramic-coated with the same material as the thermal tiles on the orberter belly; they can withstand thousands of degrees farenheit. The protrusions will break away some, but in past landings, they have measured protrusions of at least one half inch AFTER the craft has landed and the protusion was manipulated by the landing approach. There was no way to know how big the protrusions were prior to landing because they couldn't examine the craft to the level of detail they can post-Columbia.

  3. Re:EPA destoyed Columbia and grounds Shuttle Fleet by DerekLyons · · Score: 4, Informative
    Very simply under Clinton the EPA refused to let NASA use Freon to apply the foam to the H2 tank.
    [sigh] 'The Lie that Will Not Die' raises it's hoary head again... Once more into the breach.

    The 'new' foam is only used on acreage foam. The hand sprayed/sculpted foam (which killed Columbia and produced the big scary chunk after SRB sep on the current flight) is still the old freon blown foam. This is very plainly spelled out in the CAIB report and recent NASA press releases.

    http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/7/28/93055 .shtml
    This story is completely contradicted by the CAIB report - furthermore this graph/image plainly shows that NASA *has* been making progress in reducing foam shedding/tile damage caused by the 1998 switch to 'enviromentally friendly foam'.
  4. The real reason isn't because it's an emergency! by BritImp · · Score: 5, Informative

    I spoke with a guy from the Mission Management Team (MMT) tonight here in Cape Canaveral. He confirmed that such small pieces of gap filler are not expected to affect the creation of the barrier layer during re-entry, and so do not pose a threat to the orbiter.

    The real reason for this 'repair' is because this whole mission is to "test orbiter repair techniques" - and these virtually irrelevant pieces of gap filler provide an unexpected, but very fortunate opportunity to try a real repair technique out in a relatively safe and controlled fashion.

    NASA doesn't yet know if it's even possible to have an astronaut perform repair-type work on the underbelly of the orbiter - they think it would be possible, but they have no hard data to say it can be done.

    But these small bits sticking out give them the perfect excuse to go test it and get some real-world experience on the issue.

    If it looks like the astronaut might damage some of the Thermal Protection System tiles down there, they'll just terminate the repair attempt and fly home as-is. If not, they'll demonstrate that astronauts can go under an orbiter and perform repair tasks down there safely and without harming the TPS.

    But I'll bet you'll hear the popular press making too much out of this as usual...