About the last thing NASA needs right now is a new problem
to solve, but that’s exactly what landed on its plate following Wednesday’s
launch of Endeavour on a space station construction mission.
It’s a new twist on an old nemesis -- the insulating foam on the shuttle fuel tank. NASA redesigned the tanks after losing shuttle Columbia and its seven-member crew in 2003 due to a heat shield breach triggered by a piece of foam debris that fell off the fuel tank and hit the ship’s wing during launch.
Endeavour’s launch was marred by the loss of several pieces of foam from a new area of the tank, a part that had not previously been a problem.
“We have a bit of a mystery on the foam loss,” shuttle program manager John Shannon told reporters on Thursday. "It's from an area that we typically don’t expect foam to be lost."
During Endeavour’s climb to orbit on Wednesday, several pieces of foam were seen peeling off the inter-tank area, a section between the hydrogen and the oxygen tanks. Shannon said the foam in that area is thin, machine-sprayed and not subject to the intense cold affecting other parts of the insulation.
The foam fell off Endeavour’s tank late during ascent, when atmospheric forces were minimized, so that the debris did not have enough force to slam into the orbiter and cause damage. But if the shedding had occurred earlier during the flight, it could have been a different story.
"We're not worried about this one (Endeavour), but we need to understand what's going on for the next flight,” Shannon said.
NASA is targeting its next shuttle launch for Aug. 18. The agency is trying to wrap up seven more missions after Endeavour’s to complete construction of the space station and retire the shuttle fleet.
The goal is to have the work done by Sept. 30, 2010, the end of NASA’s next fiscal year.
After a month of delays launching Endeavour, there’s not much flexibility left in the schedule to handle new problems.
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