Shuttle external tank foam problems
- Thursday, July 28 2005 @ 07:19 AM CST
- Contributed by: filbert
- Views: 2,145
Did the EPA bring the Shuttle down? From NASA's application to the EPA for a waiver from the CFC ban:
A reduction in compressive and tensile strengths was also realized due to the change from CFC 11 blown foam." "The new foams were also more susceptible to a phenomenon known as "popcorning", sporadic loss of small pieces of foam at low heating rates, leading to ET Intertank foam loss that ultimately resulted in Orbiter TPS tile damage.