NASA still plagued with foam problems

Published: Nov 23, 2005
Source: www.cnn.com



(CNN) -- Under mandate to keep space shuttles grounded until its issues with foam insulation are resolved, NASA discovered nine small cracks in the foam coating on an external tank that had been slated for use by space shuttle Discovery, the agency said Tuesday.

Engineers found the cracks while investigating why a large piece of foam broke from Discovery's external tank during its last liftoff. Analyzing the cracks could help NASA understand the causes of foam shedding, which has emerged as a chronic and dangerous problem for the space agency.

"How do these cracks that we've found figure into that? We don't know," said John Chapman, manager of the External Tank Project at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. "It would certainly be premature to say the cracks play a factor in that. We don't know that right now. But they might."continue..