NASA: Shuttle Damage From Bird Strike Unlikely
POSTED: Wednesday, July 27, 2005
UPDATED: 7:08 am EDT July 28,
2005
NASA officials said space shuttle Discovery was probably traveling too slow to sustain any damage when a bird slammed into the craft's fuel tank nose cone seconds after liftoff Tuesday, according to Local 6 News.Tuesday night, NASA released an image of Discovery striking the bird.
"It happened just as Discovery was clearing the launch pad and it is too early to tell whether that strike caused any flight safety issues," Local 6 News reporter Mike DeForest said.
SLIDESHOW: Debris Falls Off Shuttle
VIDEO: Video Shows Pieces Coming Loose
IMAGES: See The Launch
The image was captured by one of more than 100 cameras photographing every angle of Discovery's launch."Without ever having seen these camera angles before, they don't know if debris has always shed off or if they had hit birds in the past," DeForest said. "This is their first glimpse and of course they will do inspections later this week to see if that caused any type of dangerous situation."NASA officials were also looking at video of a portion of Tuesday's shuttle launch "frame-by-frame" after one of several cameras aboard the craft captured what appeared to be pieces of debris separating from Discovery.
NASA said Wednesday a chipped thermal tile on Discovery's belly does not appear to be a danger, and it cautioned the public against overreacting to every speck of damage sustained by the shuttle during liftoff. The space agency expected some debris to fall off during launch, and some did. The big question is whether any of it harmed Discovery, and the answer is still a few days away, NASA said one day after the ship blasted off on the first shuttle mission since the Columbia tragedy 2 1/2 years ago.Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
Copyright 2006 by Internet Broadcasting Systems and Local6.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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SLIDESHOW: Debris Falls Off Shuttle VIDEO: Video Shows Pieces Coming Loose IMAGES: See The LaunchThe image was captured by one of more than 100 cameras photographing every angle of Discovery's launch."Without ever having seen these camera angles before, they don't know if debris has always shed off or if they had hit birds in the past," DeForest said. "This is their first glimpse and of course they will do inspections later this week to see if that caused any type of dangerous situation."NASA officials were also looking at video of a portion of Tuesday's shuttle launch "frame-by-frame" after one of several cameras aboard the craft captured what appeared to be pieces of debris separating from Discovery.
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Previous Stories:
- July 26, 2005: Shuttle Discovery Heads To Space Station
- July 26, 2005: Possible Debris Spotted Falling From Shuttle
- July 26, 2005: F-16s Escort Plane After Shuttle Launch Security Breach
- July 26, 2005: Shuttle Discovery Launches
- July 26, 2005: F-16 Fighter Jets Patrol Shuttle Launch
- July 26, 2005: 107 Cameras To Watch Shuttle
- July 25, 2005: NASA Plans To Launch Shuttle Even If Problem Recurs
- July 24, 2005: Countdown Clocks Ticking Again For NASA's Return To Space
- July 21, 2005: NASA Will Try To Launch Shuttle Tuesday
- July 19, 2005: Local 6 Editorial: Space Shuttle Launches
- July 19, 2005: Fuel Gauge Problem Stumps NASA
- July 16, 2005: NASA Delays Discovery Launch Indefinitely
- July 14, 2005: Sunday Shuttle Launch Possible But Not Likely
- July 14, 2005: Bad Sensor Could Push Launch To September
- July 14, 2005: Glitch Forces Discovery Launch Scrub
- July 14, 2005: NASA May Try Saturday Shuttle Launch
- July 13, 2005: Astronauts Head To Shuttle
- July 13, 2005: 107 Cameras To Watch Shuttle Discovery's Launch
- July 13, 2005: Shuttle Fueling Completed; Countdown Continues
- July 13, 2005: Shuttle Discovery Tile Damage Repaired
- July 12, 2005: NASA Works To Repair Shuttle Tile Damage
- July 12, 2005: Funnel Cloud Spotted Near KSC Landing Facility
- July 12, 2005: Family Of Israeli Astronaut Killed In Columbia Disaster Will Not Attend Shuttle Launch
- July 12, 2005: NASA Confident Discovery Will Launch On Schedule
- July 12, 2005: Astronauts Arrive At Launch Site, Beating Hurricane
- July 10, 2005: NASA To Keep Discovery On Launch Pad
- July 7, 2005: Shuttle Discovery Set To Launch July 13
- July 7, 2005: NASA Monitors Terror Attacks, Hurricane As Shuttle Launch Date Nears
- June 28, 2005: NASA Chief: Shuttle Is Ready To Go
- June 9, 2005: Shuttle Rollout Slips To Tuesday
- June 6, 2005: Discovery Set To Get New Fuel Tank
- June 2, 2005: NASA Fuels Shuttle For First Time In More Than 2 Years
- June 2, 2005: Astronauts Wrap Up Shuttle Test
- May 2, 2005: Astronauts Arrive AT KSC For Rehearsal
- April 29, 2005: NASA Makes Shuttle Launch Delay Official
- April 21, 2005: NASA Delays Discovery Launch Until May 22
- April 6, 2005: Despite Crack In Foam, Shuttle Rolls Toward Pad
- April 6, 2005: Shuttle May Miss Liftoff Date
Copyright 2006 by Internet Broadcasting Systems and Local6.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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