When Space Shuttle Columbia launched in January 2003 ... Who Knew), but ultimately mission managers concluded that the foam strike did not pose a threat to the safety of the orbiting shuttle ...

Before launching Discovery, NASA must be sure that foam won't fall from the external ... cracked a hole in the leading edge of the space shuttle Columbia's wing, resulting in the vehicle's ...

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A NASA report on the last minutes of Space Shuttle Columbia cited problems with ... when a large piece of heat-reflecting foam ripped off and gouged a hole in it.

Bill Gerstenmaier, the agency’s associate administrator for space operations ... a 1.67-pound chunk of foam peeled off Columbia’s external tank and punched a hole in that shuttle’s left ...

Twenty-five years ago, Space Shuttle Columbia launched the Chandra X-ray observatory and nearly ended in catastrophe. As the then-ascent flight director John Shannon observed: "Yikes. We don't ...

Forty-three years to the day after the space ... that sealed Columbia's fate was known to NASA engineers from almost the first day the orbiter took flight. Foam covering the shuttle's external ...