NASA gave the green light for a shuttle liftoff yesterday despite worries about a piece of foam that popped off Discovery's external fuel tank while the spacecraft sat on the launch pad.
"We're go to continue with the launch countdown," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator.
The decision on Monday for a 2:38pm launch was sure to stir more debate about whether the space agency was putting its flight schedule ahead of safety.
Gerstenmaier said there was a "very good discussion" among the NASA officials who made the decision to launch, but"there were no dissenters when we went around the room ... no concerns raised."
He said the astronauts and NASA administrator Michael Griffin were also in on the discussion. Griffin "didn't raise any question or comments but he listened intently," Gerstenmaier said.
The 7.62cm triangular piece of foam that appeared to come from a 12.7cm-long crack late on Sunday or early Monday is far smaller than the foam chunk that brought down Columbia, killing seven astronauts in 2003.
Gerstenmaier held up the piece of foam, which looked like a wedge of toast.
"I don't think we're taking any additional risk than we did in our original assessment" in going ahead with a launch, he said.
But managers spent most of Monday pondering the problem.
NASA has spent millions of dollars trying to prevent foam from breaking off at liftoff, threatening the kind of damage it did to Columbia. The foam loss on the launch pad is a rare occurrence.
Some outside experts said they were uncomfortable with the agency's decision going ahead, although they did not have all the information.
Paul Fischbeck, a Carnegie Mellon University risk and engineering professor who has consulted with NASA on the shuttle's delicate heat protection system, wondered why foam had broken off on the launch pad.
"It's something you might want to understand before you launch," he said.
The patch of foam fell off an area that covers an expandable bracket holding a liquid oxygen fuel line against the huge external tank. NASA engineers believe ice built up in that area from condensation caused by rain on Sunday.
The tank expanded when the super-cold fuel was drained after Sunday's launch was canceled because of the weather. The ice that formed "pinched" some of that foam, causing the 0.6cm crack and the piece of foam to drop off, officials said.
The size of the fallen foam was less than half the size of one that could cause damage, NASA officials said.
Inspectors spotted the crack in the foam insulation during an overnight check of the shuttle. NASA had scrubbed launch plans on Saturday and Sunday because of weather problems.
The forecast for a liftoff yesterday was better than previous days, with just a 40 percent chance that storm clouds would prevent liftoff.
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