Aug 29, 2009
Posted by Ray Katz in NASA, current, history
Shuttle launches with (apparently) no foam problems
Finally: the foam stays on
The shuttle Columbia was destroyed, along with its crew, in a horrible tragedy caused by foam from the fuel tank damaging the critical heat shield tiles on the vehicle. The tile damage resulted in the spacecraft’s destruction.
Now, in today’s launch of the shuttle Discovery, a new adhesive was used to keep the foam from coming off the fuel tank—and it seems to have worked.
“We got a really good look at the tank and we didn’t see anything abnormal. In fact I didn’t hardly see didn’t see any foam loss,” said NASA official Bill Gerstemaier. And so, the kinks are being worked out just as the shuttle is fast approaching retirement.
