Space Travel
12, Feb, 2012

Safety Issues Cause NASA to Suspend Space Shuttle Flights
Written by spacetravel.org   
Saturday, 30 July 2005 22:50
On July 28, 2005, NASA suspended further Space Shuttle flights until it determines why a large piece of the Discovery’s fuel tank broke away on lift-off, Tuesday, July 26. NASA has acknowledged that it does not know the cause of the accident, even though it has already spent more than $1 billion on safety improvements to deal with this type of mishap. A piece of foam flew off Discovery’s redesigned tank two minutes after lift-off. NASA monitored images of a mysterious object whirling around the tank less than an hour later. Mission mangers did not realize what the object was until Wednesday evening.

The insulation fault is reminiscent of the 2003 accident that caused Columbia to be destroyed. Columbia burned up on re-entry after a suitcase-sized piece of foam gouged a hole in the shuttle during lift-off. On the Discovery mission, the foam did not strike the shuttle.

The seven-person crew docked at the International Space Station on Thursday, July 28. They will have to depend on smaller Russian spacecraft to get them home if there is serious damage to the shuttle.

The shuttle Atlantis was supposed to lift off in September, but that mission has been put on indefinite hold.

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