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NASA Risk from ice impact on shuttle OK
Columbia and its crew of seven were lost in February 2003 because a piece of foam insulation fell off the fuel tank during liftoff and damaged the ship's wing. As the shuttle attempted to return to Earth 16 days later, Columbia was torn apart in the upper atmosphere.
After the accident, NASA honed in on problems with the tank's insulating foam and changed how and where it was applied. As the agency prepared to return the fleet to flight in May, as originally expected, concerns ice could be just as damaging as foam began to surface.
"We started out thinking that debris impact was debris impact," Muratore said.
But tens of millions of computer simulations showed ice impacts create deep, narrow cavities and foam creates shallow, wide craters, he said.
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