by Playfuls Staff |
30th April 2006
NASA has decided to go on with the July launch of the Discovery shuttle without any further upgrades in its design, even if several engineers have been raising a series of concerns related to an external fuel tank over the past three years. [more]
It seems that some modifications were expected in order to reduce damaging foam debris, as NASA announced on Friday. Such issues have concerned the agency ever since their Columbia shuttle was lost because of related causes on the 1st of February 2003.
Even if the debris did not damage the Discovery shuttle at its last flight in July last year, a dangerous amount of foam still fell from its redesigned tank during the launching process, raising a lot of concerns about the fuel tank designs.
The modifications involve changing the design of the ice frost ramps – some wedge-shaped brackets that hold in place the fuel tank's pressurization lines - of the tank in order to stop insulating foam from falling off, according to
MSNBC.
However, NASA has already made a few adjustments, removing 37 pounds (the equivalent of 16 1/2 kilograms) of foam from two other areas on the tank and manager Wayne Hale said that they need to see first if additional changes were indeed necessary or not.
"There was a strong, concerted opinion from several folks that we should wait until we have a good design on these pieces of foam and then change them before we go flying", Hale said. "But at the end of the day, it is appropriate to make one change at a time with the biggest problem we have, and then work our way to the next situation."
On the 16th of July a preflight review is schedules and NASA will have its final decision whether it should indeed launch the shuttle in its current condition or operate the other changes to the fuel tank as well.
(Note: image courtesy of utahskies.org)
