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Shuttle Probe Eyes Flying Bolt Fragment
Air Force Maj. Gen. John Barry, right, a member of the Space Shuttle Columbia Accident Investigation Board, talks about a dangerous new threat to America's remaining three space shuttles, a fault affecting the heavy bolts that connect the powerful solid-rocket boosters to the external fuel tanks, as the board discusses its current findings in Washington, Thursday, June 12, 2003. At left is former shuttle astronaut and board member Sally Ride. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

09:46 AM EST June 13, 2003
The Associated Press


WASHINGTON

Investigators looking for the cause of the space shuttle Columbia disaster may have found a problem that could have led to a future catastrophe in space.

Members of the Columbia Accident Investigation board said Thursday that a flaw in space shuttle hardware could have allowed a 40-pound bolt fragment to zip free and possibly smash into the spacecraft during some future launch.

The flawed device, called a bolt catcher, can now be fixed easily and will present no problem when the shuttle starts flying again, experts said. But if the faulty equipment had not been found, it had "the potential to be catastrophic in the future," said Air Force Maj. Gen. John Barry, a member of the investigation board.

A 40-pound bolt smashing into the wing of the space shuttle almost certainly would have caused major damage to the craft's heat shield, officials said.

At a news conference, Barry said investigators found radar evidence of an object drifting near Columbia just moments after solid-rocket boosters expended their fuel and separated from the shuttle's external fuel tank during the spacecraft's launch in January.

Barry said that during that phase of the flight, about 126 seconds after launch, engineers say there should be no debris near the orbiter.

Investigators looking for a possible source of the radar image determined that the object could have been part of a heavy, 2-foot-long bolt that joins the solid-rocket booster to the shuttle's external fuel tank. The bolt is explosively severed during the booster separation and the two pieces are supposed to be captured by the bolt catcher.

Barry said the bolt catcher used on Columbia was made by a new manufacturer and records showed it had not been tested dynamically. When board investigators conducted a test on the device, it failed.

"The bolt catcher is not as robust as it is supposed to be," the board's chairman, retired Adm. Hal Gehman, said. He said the bolt catcher was supposed to withstand 68,000 inch-pounds of force when the severed bolt is slammed inside, but in tests the device came apart under just 56,000 inch-pounds of force.

Gehman said all of the tested bolt catchers failed where they had been welded together.

Now that the problem is known, board member Scott Hubbard said the device can be fixed so it will not pose a threat to future space shuttles.

Barry said there was no evidence that a bolt smashed into Columbia and that the board is sticking by its working scenario for the cause of the space shuttle disaster.

The board's theory is that a block of foam insulation peeled off the external tank and smashed into the left wing of Columbia during its launch. The collision is thought to have broken the heat shield on the leading edge of the wing, leaving an opening for the hot gas of re-entry to penetrate the hollow wing and melt it from inside.

Columbia broke apart during its Feb. 1 return to Earth. Seven astronauts were killed and debris was scattered across parts of Texas and Louisiana. The other three space shuttle orbiters have been grounded while the investigating board looks for the cause of the accident.

Tests last week in which a chunk of foam was slammed into a mock-up of a space shuttle wing demonstrated that the reinforced carbon panels on the wing can be cracked by the collision. Experts, however, said the tests did not prove that the foam collisions could cause cracks big enough to cause the wing to fail during re-entry.

The 13-member board has moved to offices in Washington to begin writing its report. Gehman said most of the investigation phase was over and groups of board members who were assigned specific tasks were writing chapters for the final investigation report.

Gehman said the goal was to have the report ready before Congress adjourns in August, but he said the board was prepared to work longer if necessary "to get the report right."

In a public hearing Thursday, experts said the National Aeronautics and Space Administration had a lean budget for almost a decade and was forced to move money from the space shuttle program to pay for other space agency programs. The board is investigating whether a shortage of funds in the shuttle program compromised safety.

"The shuttle has been, if you want, the cash cow to finance the rest of the parts of the agency," said John Logsdon, a board member and a professor at George Washington University.

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On the Net:

Columbia Accident Investigation Board site: www.caib.us

National Aeronautics and Space Administration: www.nasa.gov

 
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