Groundhog Day At NASA

NASA:

Discovery crewmembers completed a camera survey of the heat shields of the leading edges of the orbiter's wings and its nose cone Wednesday. They also began preparations for Thursday's docking with the International Space Station and the mission’s spacewalks.

Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jim Kelly and Mission Specialists Soichi Noguchi, Steve Robinson, Andy Thomas, Wendy Lawrence and Charlie Camarda downlinked imagery taken of the External Tank after launch. The crew also photographed the Orbital Maneuvering System pod tile areas and sent down those files. Most of the heat shield survey, taking a close look at the reinforced carbon-carbon of Discovery's wings and nose was sent down live. The rest was sent down before the crew went to bed about 2:40 p.m. CDT.
...
Today’s imagery and laser scans will be compiled with other imagery taken during launch, and with data collected by wireless impact sensors in each panel of the wings’ leading edges. Downlink of both preliminary and raw data from the sensors also was completed today. A team of about 200 people across the country are working to analyze imagery from the early part of Discovery's mission, the most photographed Shuttle flight in history.

The big problem is that a piece of debris did come off during liftoff, though it doesn't appear to have hit Discovery, so I think the crew will be okay. 

This NASA picture (original edited for size) highlights the area where a piece of foam broke away from the external tank.  Hi-res picture of the entire tank available at NASA's Return to Flight site.

And now AP is reporting that the shuttle fleet is grounded (you know, 'cept for the one that's not on the ground) until they really fix the foam problem.

I recall a story about NASA engineers from way back.  They generally hate to fix things.  Not because they don't want stuff to work, but because fixes usually cause other problems. 

For example, Columbia's maiden voyage had a problem with the fuel cells caused by contaminants in a sensitive part of the cells.  The solution: install a filter that prevented particles from getting in.  On a subsequent flight they discovered that the filter caused a build-up of hydrogen gas and created a potentially explosive situation.  Fixed one thing, caused another.

I hope they can figure this one out without further harming safety.  A big drawback to relying on a vehicle that is so antiquated: there are lots of things to fix.

ntodd