spacetoday.net: Boltcatcher problem could delay shuttle return-to-flight plans

Posted: Fri, Jun 13, 2003, 10:22 AM ET (1422 GMT)
STS-107: launch (NASA/KSC)

A problem with a device designed to protect the shuttle from debris from an external tank bolt could pose another hurdle in NASA's plans to return the shuttle to flight, Columbia accident investigators said Thursday. During a press briefing in Washington, members of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) said they came across the problem while working through "fault trees" to rule out alternative scenarios for the shuttle accident. They found that radar had picked up a small object in the vicinity of the shuttle 126 seconds after launch, around the time the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) separate from the external tank. Investigators believe that the object may be a portion of an 18-kilogram bolt used to secure the SRB to the tank or a less-massive "boltcatcher" designed to capture the bolt. Later ground tests showed that the boltcatcher device did not have adequate safety margins to withstand the impact of the bolt after it is severed from the SRB. While investigators don’t believe that the problem has anything to do with the Columbia accident itself, it is an issue they said NASA will have to resolve before the shuttle returns to flight.