Avi Blizovsky
Discovery shows its underside to the International Space Station before docking with its ship. Above – nine astronauts on the International Space Station
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The space shuttle Discovery is being thoroughly examined to look for places where the tiles fell, while NASA announces the suspension of future flights.
The belly of the shuttle Discovery was captured by cameras on board the International Space Station as the shuttle moved into docking. Video footage revealed that the protective foam of the outer tank fell off on launch. NASA wants to be sure there are no holes in the bottom of the shuttle. NASA says that until the foam is repaired, no more shuttles will be launched.
However, there is no evidence that the foam that fell on Tuesday's launch damaged Discovery, but two heat shield tiles on the shuttle's belly were broken. In any case, the first report from the photographs taken on the space station did not reveal any important areas of damage that needed to be dealt with.
The mission managers announced on Wednesday evening (early Thursday morning) the suspension of the flights after more than a day of analyzing video and still images taken when the shuttle lifted off.
A block of foam approximately 15 centimeters in size fell from the connection area between the external fuel tank and one of the boosters (those solid fuel rockets that burn first and fall about two and a half minutes after launch) - this area, where two rods are connected, is called the bipod area. This is an area where the engineers made improvements following the recommendations of the commission of inquiry into the Columbia disaster. A smaller piece falls out of the area just below the first piece.
"We must admit mistakes and we were wrong. We still have to continue the work." said NASA Shuttle Program Manager Bill Parsons. "Until we fix this, we won't be ready to fly again."
As mentioned, starting at one o'clock in the afternoon on Thursday (Israel time), the spacecraft began a maneuver of three-quarters of a degree in a second and in total made a 360-degree turn as it approached the space station. This eight-minute Pitch Manoeuvre, performed 182 meters from the station, gave the station's two-person crew about 90 seconds to photograph the underside of the shuttle.
Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kryklev and American astronaut John Phillips stationed themselves in the Russian Zavezda service area, and photographed using 400 millimeter and 800 millimeter lenses. The images have a resolution of 2.5 centimeters per pixel, enough to "read the serial numbers on the tiles" according to flight director Paul Hill.
Discovery completed the docking exactly at the scheduled time, 14:18, over the South Pacific Ocean, just west of Chile.
A robotic arm
Earlier, as early as Wednesday morning, the crew members of DISWAKER performed an observation using the sensor system on the robotic arm to examine the bow area from below, as well as the front reinforcement panels. The device (OBSS) is expected to be used to investigate additional areas of interest on Friday (today). This would include, among other things, the two broken tiles - a rectangular tile near the door of the bow passenger seat, and a square spine tile further down near the rear end of the Discovery.
Bill Parsons told reporters at the control center in Houston, Texas, that he was personally disappointed by the debris falling during Discovery's climb to orbit. Fortunately the shuttle was almost out of the atmosphere when the foam was released so there wasn't enough air to accelerate these fragments to dangerous speeds.
NASA spent months designing and making changes to the way the insulating foam is attached to the fuel tank. It was believed that only small pieces could fall out during the Discovery launch. Controllers have since reviewed an incredible amount of footage taken from aboard the spacecraft by astronaut Souichi Noguchi, showing all the fuel falling to Earth after separation.
Meanwhile, NASA announces that the space shuttle Discovery was not damaged by the piece of foam that broke off from the fuel tank during takeoff, but the wing was damaged by a much smaller piece and does not pose a safety hazard, the American space agency (NASA) announced tonight (Friday).
NASA's announcement came a day after it grounded all future space shuttle launches from its domain, after a piece of foam fell from Discovery's fuel tank. Such a piece - but from another place - also fell two and a half years ago from the shuttle "Columbia" and caused it irreparable damage that damaged its landing, as a result of which all the crew members were killed, including the Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon.
NASA Administrator's message regarding the foam that fell from the external fuel tank
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin was quoted in a press release on the NASA website:
"NASA engineers are assessing the significance of the loss of a large piece of insulating foam from the space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank during launch. Based on the initial estimates - the foam, which is 60-80 centimeters long and 25-30 centimeters wide, and 6-20 centimeters thick is visible in high-resolution cameras that were installed following the conclusions of the Columbia disaster. "
"There is no evidence that the pieces of foam seen at takeoff hurt or caused any damage to Discovery. The shuttle will undergo additional inspections to try and locate if any significant damage has occurred to the shuttle. As with any unexpected event, we will thoroughly evaluate the incident and make all the necessary changes to the shuttle before we return to flying."
Griffin added that: "This is a test flight in which, among other things, we are testing the stability of the connection of the insulation foam and the performance of the new cameras that were installed to detect problems. The cameras worked well. The foam did not work as we expected."
"Discovery's team members are constantly updated on the latest data we have and the latest conclusions of the foam loss analysis and they take part in the testing process." Griffin concludes.
The space agency announced that based on the photos taken before the shuttle docked at the International Space Station, the condition of the shuttle is excellent
The space shuttle Discovery escaped serious damage from the potentially fatal piece of foam that broke off from the fuel tank during liftoff. The AP news agency reported that the space agency NASA announced that the spacecraft looks safe enough to fly back home in a week.
The good news came after the agency's control center received spectacular images of Discovery, taken by the crew of the International Space Station. The shuttle performed an unprecedented backflip to expose its underside to the cameras before docking at the station.
NASA wanted to make sure that the Space Shuttle did not suffer a fatal injury of the kind that had sealed the fate of the shuttle Columbia two years earlier. "The initial report is that it looks great and we have no cause for concern about Discovery," said Flight Operations Director John Shannon. He emphasized that it will take several more days before the agency can state with certainty that the ferry is in good condition.
As you may recall, yesterday NASA suspended all future shuttle flights after it was learned that a large piece of insulation foam, weighing about 400 grams, had detached from the external fuel tank of the Discovery, in an alarming reproduction of the problem that caused the Columbia crash. However, unlike that case, this time the piece of foam did not hit the shuttle, and smaller pieces of foam also missed the body of the spacecraft.
All that remains before NASA can clear Discovery and its seven passengers to land is an inspection, which will likely be conducted on Friday, using a beam with a laser beam at the end that will provide 30D images of the thermal tiles scratched on the underside of the shuttle. The beam, which is XNUMX meters long, will be able to withstand the depth of what currently appear to be superficial scratches.
If everything turns out as NASA hopes, Discovery will be allowed to return to Earth on August XNUMX as planned, at the end of an eight-day stay at the space station.
To the announcement of the NASA director on the agency's website
Yadan back to space
For the news in the BBC version
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