-for the second time in nasa s history, a space shuttle has been lost along with its entire crew. once again, we are asking ourselves, how could this have happened? -do you have any idea how big that piece of foam was that came off? -we d heard some reports that during launch there had been some concerns that some debris hit the wing. is that true and is that any cause of concern and that could have caused today s problems? -it is true. it was judged that, erm , that event did not represent a safety concern. -this happened under my watch, but i didn t have the answers. in every public forum i m gonna have to be in, how am i gonna explain this to anybody? at this time, we have no indication that the mishap was caused by anything or anyone on the ground. -nasa never wants to look stupid. nasa wants to be the agency with the answers. -my thoughts are on what we missed, what i missed to allow this to happen. -but if you overlook something, it will come to bite you one day or anot
i had put together a report about the foam loss and the damage to the solid rocket booster. and i presented the case that said, that amount of foam, that mass, in one chunk coming off shuttle atlantis this was the vehicle telling us something is wrong, here s your warning. at risk of being insubordinate, i said to the heads of the shuttle program sitting around the centre table, i was adamant at that meeting, either fix the problem or don t fly an external tank on the next launch, which is impossible. from that meeting, i never heard any discussion of let s get a better understanding of this before we schedule the next launch. -in other words, again, they were thinking it was more of a turnaround issue. and so, it wasn t preventing shuttle flights from going forward.
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Late october of 2002, after sts112 atlantis, i went to a meeting about that flight. I had put together a report about the Foam Loss and the damage to the solid rocket booster. And i presented the case that said, that amount of foam, that mass, in one chunk coming off Shuttle Atlantis this was the vehicle telling us something is wrong, heres your warning. At risk of being insubordinate, i said to the heads of the Shuttle Program sitting around the centre table, i was adamant at that meeting, either fix the problem or dont fly an external tank on the next launch, which is impossible. From that meeting, i never heard any discussion of lets get a better understanding of this
Linda was recalling sts112, a flight two flights before. [ indistinct ] main engine start. Two. One. We got Booster Ignition and liftoff of the Space Shuttle atlantis. Sts112 had a very similar piece of foam come off from almost the same location, but in that case, the foam hit solid Rocket Booster and put a dent in it. The foam traveled traveled down. It struck right here, these three lines