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 ...

Just before it disintegrated, space shuttle Columbia experienced an abnormal ... possible effects of the impact from the fuel tank’s foam insulation and concluded “it did not represent a ...

(CNN) --The space shuttle Columbia, lost with its seven-person ... insulation fell off the the external fuel tank and seemed to strike the shuttle during its eight-minute race to orbit, possibly ...

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 ...