NASA Finds 4-5" Crack in Shuttle Insulation

PresidentKang writes "Spaceflight Now is reporting that a large crack has been found in an external tank foam of Space Shuttle Discovery on the launch pad. According to the article: "Engineers inspecting the shuttle Discovery's external tank following Sunday's launch scrub found a crack in the tank's foam insulation near a bracket holding a 17-inch oxygen feed line in place. Some engineers believe the crack must be repaired but senior managers say a variety of options are on the table, from fly as is to making repairs.""

Patch it

[tygerstripes]

The current intention is to patch the crack. However, senior officials insist that unless the problem grows "significantly worse" over the next few days then they see no reason to issue the patch until the second Tuesday of the month.

Crack hidden away in the insulation?

[Anonymous Coward]

Did they get posession charges or was there enough crack that they got booked for traffiking?

DNF, Vista, or Shuttle

[Belgarion89]

So now the real question becomes, which will launch first, DNF, Windows Vista, or the Shuttle? I say the Shuttle, it's cracks aren't nearly as big as Vista's (an M$ product) will be.

BBC: Shuttle Upgraded for Time Travel

[damburger]

Look at the 'Latest' news on the right [bbc.co.uk]

Surely they should just get the thing working before they add extra features like that?

Re:And what about the pilots?

[`Sean]

I wonder what those managers would say if they had to fly the shuttle.

"Hello, ISS, yes, we'd like to make reservations arriving July 4th. Departure date? Uhm...we're not sure...how quickly can Russia get a lifeboat up here?"

Re:DNF, Vista, or Shuttle

[damburger]

You are assuming they are unrelated.

If the shuttle needs to have its heatshield repaired, Astronauts must spend longer in orbit. They require a stimulating game to stop themselves going space crazy - and NASA have decided that must be DNF.

And, of course, DNF was designed from the outset to take advantage of the new features of Vista...

Re:DNF, Vista, or Shuttle

[Kesch]

Me, I'm all for Duke Nukem Vista in Space!

Meanwhile monitoring the astronauts...

[TheStonepedo]

Mission control: "Astronaut this is mission contol. We have a problem. Over."
Astronaut: "Mission control this is Astronaut. What is the problem. Over."
Mission control: "Astronaut we're looking at the live biosigns from your transmitter and have come across a concern. Did your mother drop you as a child? Over."
Astronaut: "I don't believe so. Why? Over."
Mission control: "Because..."
*general snickering from mission control*
Mission control: "Because there's a big crack in your butt! Over and out."

Re:Punctuation!

[mph]

Punctuation is your friend, I had to read that last sentence 4-5 times before I could parse it correctly.

Choose your friends wisely [wikipedia.org]. May I introduce you to my friend, the semicolon?

Re:DNF, Vista, or Shuttle

[Das Modell]

I've been seeing the BBC's headline "crack found in shuttle tank foam" all day long, but now that I finally clicked on the link I realized that they weren't talking about drugs that were found aboard a shuttle.

Re:And what about the pilots?

[Anonymous Coward]

NASA: Need Another Seven Astronauts.

Inverted flight

[rodney dill]

If they fly upside down, they'll have crack up

Re:Shouldn't Fuel under uncertain Weather conditio

[x2A]

"Oh, and btw, if the weather report says 'in 12 hours, a hurricane will hit your town' you can safely sit at home and eat popcorn. It's not going to hit you"

Unless they also say "the levvies will hold", in which case, you know you're in trouble