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NOTE TO EDITORS:
PANEL TO SHARE LANGLEY'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO COLUMBIA ACCIDENT
INVESTIGATION
News media are invited to a lecture Oct. 23 at which panel
members will discuss NASA Langley Research Center’s
contributions to the space shuttle Columbia accident
investigation.
The talk will be held from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in the H.J.E. Reid
Center auditorium at NASA Langley in Hampton, Va. The four panel
members are Mark Saunders, director of the Space Access and
Exploration Program Office; Charles Miller, head of the
Aerothermodynamics Branch; Mark Shuart, director of the Structures
and Materials Competency; and Charles Poupard, head of the Applied
Technologies and Testing Branch.
Media Opportunity: Members of the media who wish to attend
should contact Kimberly W. Land at (757) 864-9885 or 344-8611
(mobile) to arrange for credentials.
NASA Langley made significant contributions to the accident
investigation using:
- Ground-based testing in hypersonic wind tunnels, and
computational fluid dynamics computer codes to determine potential
foam impact areas.
- State-of-the-art of nondestructive technologies to evaluate the
spray-on foam insulation and its bond to the external tank
surface.
- Analyses and tests addressing failure scenarios and developing
a list of causes and recommendations, which will be appended to the
external tank investigation report.
Langley also took part in the Interagency Photo Working group
that was instrumental in digitally enhancing photographs of the
launch. The enhanced photos helped investigators understand the
impact of the foam on the shuttle during ascent.
Finally, Langley participated in debris collection in Texas,
with five teams helping over a two-month period. Ground crews
searched some 672,000 acres and collected more than 84,700 pounds
of debris, or 38 percent of the weight of the shuttle.
For information about this and other lectures, visit the
Colloquium and Sigma Series Lectures web site at:
shemesh.larc.nasa.gov/Lectures/
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