Logan Darklighter Wrote:Actually in Columbia's case, the new "environmentally friendly" foam is what killed Columbia. The stuff that used to stick to the tanks before they changed it never had that problem. Thank you environmentalists for killing more people!
Columbia Accident Investigation Board report, August 2003 Wrote:F3.2-1 NASA does not fully understand the mechanisms that cause foam loss on almost all flights from larger areas of foam coverage and from areas that are sculpted by hand.
F3.2-2 There are no qualified non-destructive evaluation techniques for the as-installed foam to determine the characteristics of the foam before flight.
F3.2-3 Foam loss from an External Tank is unrelated to the tank's age and to its total pre-launch exposure to the elements. Therefore, the foam loss on STS-107 is unrelated to either the age or exposure of External Tank 93 before launch.
F3.2-4 The Board found no indications of negligence in the application of the External Tank Thermal Protection System.
F3.2-5 The Board found instances of left bipod ramp shedding on launch that NASA was not aware of, bringing the total known left bipod ramp shedding events to 7 out of 72 missions for which imagery of the launch or External Tank separation is available.
F3.2-6 Subsurface defects were found during the dissection of three bipod foam ramps, suggesting that similar defects were likely present in the left bipod ramp of External Tank 93 used on STS-107.
F3.2-7 Foam loss occurred on more than 80 percent of the 79 missions for which imagery was available to confirm or rule out foam loss.
F3.2-8 Thirty percent of all missions lacked sufficient imagery to determine if foam had been lost.
F3.2-9 Analysis of numerous separate variables indicated that none could be identified as the sole initiating factor of bipod foam loss. The Board therefore concludes that a combination of several factors resulted in bipod foam loss.
FUCK
YOU
DARKLIGHTER
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
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