San Antonio
The board investigating the loss of the space shuttle Columbia has come one step closer to figuring out why the craft broke apart, officials said this week. Scientists fired a chunk of foam insulation into a shuttle wing panel to see whether debris that broke away and hit Columbia’s left wing on liftoff could have caused a fatal crack. The one-pound piece of foam was shot out of a cannon at 525 mph, and left a crack a tenth of an inch wide. The test bolstered the theory that superheated gases got into the wing and incinerated it. “You would not take a piece that is this damaged into space,” said Scott Hubbard, a NASA executive. The board will conduct more tests, and issue a report in July.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Aston Martin Vantage Roadster: 'a rare treat indeed'The Week Recommends The Roadster version of Aston Martin's new Vantage coupé makes even 'the most mundane journey feel special'
-
Bad Friend: Tiffany Watt Smith explores why women abandon friendshipsThe Week Recommends A 'deeply researched' account of female friendship through history
-
Brazil's reborn dolls crazeUnder The Radar The 'hyper-realistic' babies soaring in popularity in South American nation have spawned controversy
