Loss of single tile can spell doom: Ex-NASA engineer

The loss of a single ceramic tile under the wing of the space shuttle could set off a cascading series of events that would bring down the spacecraft, a former NASA engineer who studied the thermal protection system said on Monday. Robert D. Quinn, a heat transfer engineer now retired from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California, told Los Angeles Times that the Columbia disaster could have been triggered by the loss of just one 6-inch by 6-inch tile early in re-entry.

He laid out a scenario in which the loss of a single tile quickly leads to the loss of adjacent tiles through adhesive failure. Simultaneously, the missing tiles create a turbulent airflow across the affected wing, which increases its drag, or wind resistance. That increased drag raises the temperature even higher and causes the wing to lose some of its lift, leading the shuttle to start to roll toward that side.

In Houston on Monday, space shuttle programme manager Ron Dittemore detailed a series of clues that matched the scenario Quinn described. Dittemore said a single tile had been found in Fort Worth, Texas. (LATWP)