[ExI] environmental friendliness blamed for both shuttle losses

[Harvey Newstrom]

On Tuesday 05 August 2008 11:46:07 Lee Corbin wrote:
> The new foam
> had been chosen for shuttle mission - the day after
> the Columbia  tragedy - because it was
> "environmentally friendly."

Do you have a source for this?  Because here in Florida, people are concerned 
about how deadly toxic that foam is.  I never heard the theory that it was 
environmentally friendly before.

> "In 1977, the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the
> use of asbestos in a wide range of paint products. NASA,
> through the mid-1980s, had used a commercially available,
> "off-the-shelf" putty manufactured by the Fuller O'Brien Paint
> Company in San Francisco to help seal the shuttle field joints.
> But the paint company, fearful of legal action as a result of the
> asbestos ban, stopped manufacturing the putty. NASA had to
> look for another solution.

I find this hard to believe, as well.  The O-rings were well documented to lose 
their flexibility at low temperatures.  And the temperatures that morning were 
below the threshold already established.  The problem was the decision to 
launch outside operational parameters.

-- 
Harvey Newstrom <www.HarveyNewstrom.com>
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