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July 3, 2006
Crack found in shuttle tank foam
Engineers checking shuttle Discovery after Sunday's launch postponement have found a crack in the foam insulation lining the orbiter's external tank.The breakage was spotted near a bracket holding a 43cm (17 inches) oxygen feed line in place, CBS News reported.
It is not clear at this stage what impact the fault will have on Tuesday's proposed launch attempt.
Discovery failed to get away from Kennedy Space Center at the weekend because of stormy weather over Florida.
Nasa had been hoping for more benign conditions on Tuesday and scheduled a 1438 EDT (1838 GMT) lift-off.
The Florida Today newspaper said the mission management team would be meeting early on Monday to discuss the foam issue and "a range of possible options" for dealing with it.
It was uncertain whether any repair could be done at the launch pad or how long it might take, the paper added.
Nasa has until 19 July in the current launch window to get Discovery and its crew of seven astronauts airborne.
I don't think she's going up tomorrow. I doubt they could fix a crack of this magnitutde in a day. What I don't understand is how they missed this before! It sounds to me as if they are trying to ground the shuttle program permanently without ever having another launch! I guess we'll see in the next day or so.
Found via BBC News.
Posted by Dianne at July 3, 2006 10:41 AM
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Comments
The foam has been a problem from back in the days when the main tanks were painted white. The Shuttle system is out of date and needs to be replaced ASAP.
Posted by: Royal at July 3, 2006 5:55 PM