spacetoday.net: Additional tank debris may have hit shuttle

Posted: Sat, Feb 22, 2003, 10:27 AM ET (1527 GMT)
STS-107 patch (NASA)

Up to three chunks of debris from the external tank may have struck Columbia's left wing during liftoff, according to evidence NASA released Friday. The data show that three pieces of debris™insulating foam or other material™fell off the external tank during the January 16 launch; at least two, if not all three, struck the left wing of Columbia. NASA had previously reported that only one piece of debris had fallen from the tank to the shuttle. NASA also released email messages written by engineers while the shuttle was in orbit as they attempted to assess the magnitude of any damage. One email warned that if any gouge in the tiles caused by debris reached the left wing landing gear door, it could cause the tires to explode. Another estimated that if the debris that struck the shuttle was ice and not foam, it would be the equivalent of a 225-kg safe striking the wing at 590 kmph. In its latest issue, Aviation Week reported that NASA found as far back as 1988 that the rough surface of Columbia's left wing, when combined with tile damage, could create enough heating to melt tiles and burn through the orbiter's aluminum skin. NASA also announced late Friday that it had found a piece of tile from the shuttle's tail near Littlefield, Texas, 65 km northwest of Lubbock and nearly 500 km west of the Fort Worth area, the previous western limit of shuttle debris discoveries.