Windtunnel tests in February will help NASA decide if it can launch a Space Shuttle with an external fuel tank (ET) that does not have a foam-covered protuberance air load ramp.
The ramp provides air-stream protection for the pressurisation lines and electrical cables that run along the ET. Analysis of the ET foam issue has found that the expansion and contraction of the tank, during cryogenic oxygen and hydrogen loading and unloading, causes the insulation material to crack.
These cracks are thought to be behind the foam loss that damaged Space Shuttle Columbia’s wing causing its destruction, and the piece that missed Discovery during its July launch this year.
“We will put a scale mockup in a windtunnel in February to decide. We are still going forward for a May launch,” says NASA.
A May launch would see Discovery fly again on the next scheduled mission to the International Space Station, STS-121. NASA says that no decision has been taken on the scale of the Shuttle mockup nor how extensive the tunnel tests will be.
Source: Flight International
