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Pastimes : Shuttle Columbia STS-107 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ownstock who wrote (377)	2/5/2003 6:59:37 PM
From: Bill Jackson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 627

Ownstock, You say you saw the wing bend? The mass of the foam would be low and not likely to bend the wing unless it became wedged between tank and shuttle. Of course in a ~1000 MPH slipstream it would not stay for long in the wedged position, but that wind would be translated into large end forces that would be likely to be able to move the wing. The tank being very frail by comparison would be indented far more by such a wedging, although the fluid inside would tend to make it keep it's shape. Do you know the spacing between tank and wing where the debris passes through. In a wedging situation the foam would certainly exert far more force and could make it move far more easily. How about the support struts that hold the shuttle wrt to the tank? Is the external tank recovered in any kind of inspectable condition, as in parachute descent? It would be informative to inspect the tank as it should receive the same sort of impacts as the shuttle. Any impaction marks that coincide with the left wing belly might suggest a wedging situation? Bill