Word: foams
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Under its current launch schedule, NASA must sweat out up to 17 more nail-biting, foam-flying launches like the Discovery lift-off on Tuesday - including one set for late August or early September - before construction of the International Space Station is completed and the space shuttle is mercifully retired...
...Wednesday, Discovery's crew spent the day inspecting the craft for any unknown damage caused by small fragments of foam that fell from the fuel tank during launch. They found nothing troubling, which corroborates the video and still pictures of Tuesday's launch. "We do not have any concerns for the orbiter," said shuttle program manager Wayne Hale. Still, aside from delivering 5,000 pounds of supplies to the International Space Station, the entire shuttle mission will center on the safety of the craft - including experiments conducted by the astronauts on ways they could fix the craft's heat shield...
...interceptor and target approach each other at six miles a second, the smallest problem means failure. A 2002 test bombed after the interceptor didn't separate from its booster. The reason: A single pin on a tiny integrated circuit broke after being violently shaken during the flight. Foam that had been there to protect the pin on prior flights had been removed, supposedly to improve the system's reliability. A 2004 test failed because an error in one line of computer code kept the interceptor grounded. The most recent failure, in February 2005, happened after two of the three arms...
Columbia disintegrated during its re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere due to the failure of its heat shield. The shield was damaged during the initial launch by a loose fragment of foam. The space shuttle Discovery’s last mission, which was launched one year ago, also shed foam debris during its launch but landed without major complications...
NASA has yet to find a sure-fire solution to the foam-loss issue, but top officials gave their final approval earlier this month for tomorrow’s 3:49 p.m. launch...