Yesterday it was triumph.

Now we know it could have been tragedy.

And we have no idea of what the future holds.

NASA has announced that all shuttles will be grounded due to more problems with foam insulation breaking free during launch. Discovery will complete its mission and return, to be followed by...?

The shuttle Discovery, like Columbia, shed a large chunk of foam debris during liftoff that could have threatened the return of the seven astronauts, NASA said today.

While there are no signs the piece of insulation damaged the spacecraft, NASA is grounding future shuttle flights until the hazard can be fixed.

``Call it luck or whatever, it didn't harm the orbiter,'' said shuttle program manager Bill Parsons. If the foam had broken away earlier in flight, when the atmosphere is thicker increasing the likelihood of impact, it could have caused catastrophic damage to Discovery.

``We think that would have been really bad, so it's not acceptable,'' said Parsons' deputy, Wayne Hale. But he said early signs are Discovery is safe for its return home.

A large chunk of foam flew off Discovery's redesigned external fuel tank just two minutes after what initially looked like a picture-perfect liftoff Tuesday morning. But in less than an hour NASA had spotted images of a mysterious object whirling away from the tank.

Mission managers did not realize what the object was - or how much havoc it would cause to the shuttle program - until Wednesday after reviewing video and images taken by just a few of the 100-plus cameras in place to watch for such dangers.

Officials do not believe the foam hit the shuttle, posing a threat to the seven astronauts when they return to Earth on Aug. 7. But they plan a closer inspection of the spacecraft in the next few days to be sure.

``You have to admit when you're wrong. We were wrong,'' Parsons said. ``We need to do some work here, and so we're telling you right now that the ... foam should not have come off. It came off. We've got to go do something about that.''

The loss of a chunk of debris, a vexing problem NASA thought had been fixed, represents a tremendous setback to a space program that has spent 2½ years and over $1 billion trying to make the 20-year-old shuttles safe to fly.

``We won't be able to fly again,'' until the hazard is removed, Parsons told reporters in a briefing Wednesday evening.

Damn!

Posted by: Greg at 02:54 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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