CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Nearly two years after Columbia shattered in the sky, NASA still has no way of repairing the kind of holes that could doom another shuttle, space agency officials acknowledged Monday in their latest status report on the return-to-flight effort.
The development of patches for the shuttle wings and other vulnerable locations is proving far more difficult than imagined just months ago and, along with devising a way for astronauts to inspect their spaceship in orbit, represents “one of the most challenging and extensive return-to-flight tasks,” the 268-page report said.
Nonetheless, NASA continues to aim for a May or June liftoff of Discovery and contends it has dealt with all 10 remaining return-to-flight recommendations put forth by the Columbia accident investigators.
An oversight task force will look at NASA’s progress during a public hearing next week in Alabama. Five other recommendations already have been met by NASA to the task force’s satisfaction.
A piece of foam insulation that broke off from Columbia’s external fuel tank tore a hole between 6 inches and 10 inches in the left wing during liftoff last year, and exposed the spaceship to the searing atmospheric gases of re-entry.
NASA said it is aggressively pursuing repair techniques for the reinforced carbon panels that line the edges of the shuttle wings, but did not yet have a completion date. Engineers are struggling to come up with patches that would stick to the panels during the intense heat of re-entry and create a smooth surface.
Boeing is a prime contractor for the shuttle program.
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