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Columbia: Foamologists gaining ground

NASA blames disaster on foam
Wed Apr 23, 7:04 AM ET Add Top Stories - USA TODAY to My Yahoo!


Alan Levin and Traci Watson USA TODAY

HOUSTON -- NASA (news - web sites) investigators have concluded that a piece of foam that hit Columbia during its launch is what caused a hole to open in the front edge of the shuttle's left wing and allowed superheated air to burn it apart on re-entry.


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Reuters
Slideshow: Space Shuttle





The conclusion is a turnaround for NASA. In the early days after Columbia disintegrated on Feb. 1, NASA's top officials said they did not see how the foam insulation that fell off the external fuel tank could have significantly damaged the shuttle's heat-protective skin. Administrator Sean O'Keefe derided critics who had placed blame on the foam as ''foamologists.'' NASA also relied on an engineering analysis conducted before Columbia's re-entry that said the foam hit would not pose a danger.


Space agency engineers plan to brief the independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board, which is in charge of the probe, about their findings in a closed meeting Thursday.


The foam impact quickly became a key suspect in the investigation, but other possible causes were not ruled out. Now, NASA investigators believe they have enough evidence to push aside other theories, officials and sources familiar with the investigation said.


Officials said the board also suspects that the foam impact probably caused the disaster, but it does not agree entirely with NASA. The sources cautioned that NASA's conclusion is preliminary.


In its weekly briefing Tuesday, the accident board released new information that supports the theory that foam damaged the wing, but the board also made it clear that it is not ready to formally declare the cause of the accident:


* An examination of an external fuel tank identical to the one used for Columbia's launch on Jan. 16 found 74 deformities in the foam, said Navy Rear Adm. Stephen Turcotte, a member of the investigation board. In one case, examiners found an air pocket 2.4 inches long. The deformities were found in the same spot where foam broke loose on Columbia's launch.


* Clusters of debris found in Texas suggest that pieces of the left wing's front edge in the spot where investigators believe the foam hit were the first to come off, board member James Hallock said.


* Harold Gehman, chairman of the accident board, said ''we think we're about 80% in agreement'' with NASA's theory. ''Most of what we're going to learn is on the table,'' he said. Even so, he cautioned that the board has just begun the phase of the investigation in which it attempts to analyze what happened.


The evidence that the foam probably caused the accident in which the crew of seven died is largely circumstantial. A temperature sensor located near where the foam struck the wing recorded the first unusual temperature increase during re-entry. Other sensors went blank, which indicates that wires routed near the front edge of the wing had burned through.

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