-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
who didn t believe that foam could break reinforced carbon-carbon. -we re here at southwest research institute in san antonio, texas, to conduct a test to show whether foam could create a hole big enough to destroy the vehicle. -everything came down to whether or not the foam shot was gonna break an rcc panel. but if our investigative analysis is wrong, then what? -five, four, three, two, one. -whoa! [ indistinct chatter ] -ok. foam will break reinforced carbon-carbon. -i mean, there was no doubt at that point, right?
all of that data pointed to a problem at rcc panel 8. something very different happened in this location on the orbiter. and so, let s go see if we can understand what that was. -ok, so, as the vehicle is entering the atmosphere, these black tiles are protecting the structure, the aluminium of the vehicle, in high-heat areas. and the grey is the wing leading edge reinforced carbon-carbon, rcc panels. those protect the vehicle from the highest level of heat, those 3,000 degree temperatures, so that you don t get metal melting. but we had never had any experience in breaking a panel.
-what was starting to join up was you ve got video analysis that says the strike on the orbiter created a hole in the wing. and you can see that there had been some sort of penetration against the rcc panel. hot gas had entered in, the shuttle had lost aerodynamic control and crashed. but i think the challenge for a lot of folks at nasa was believing that foam had done that. they would say foam can t break reinforced carbon-carbon. there were a lot of people that said there s something else that explains this. -we decided to ask nasa about the history of foam strikes, which had never been done. -i was asked by the accident investigation team to help find that type of information.
Those protect the vehicle from the highest level of heat, those 3,000 degree temperatures, so that you dont get metal melting. But we had never had any experience in breaking a panel. What was starting to join up was youve got Video Analysis that says the strike on the orbiter created a hole in the wing. And you can see that there had been some sort of penetration against the rcc panel. Hot gas had entered in, the shuttle had lost aerodynamic control and crashed. But i think the challenge for a lot of folks at nasa was believing that foam had done that. They would say Foam Cant Break reinforced carboncarbon