Posted: Mon, Apr 14, 2003, 7:55 PM ET (2355 GMT)
The Associated Press reported Monday that internal NASA documents revealed that another shuttle orbiter suffered a serious crack in a critical panel on the leading edge of its left wing. According to those documents, engineers found a 5-centimeter fracture in one of the reinforced carbon-carbon panels on the leading edge of Discovery's left wing after its STS-102 mission in March 2001. While the damage was considered serious, NASA concluded that it did not pose a threat to crew safety, linking the damage to corrosion caused by oxygen. The report provides additional evidence that Columbia's panels might have become brittle with age because of corrosion, allowing a falling chunk of foam to break one during its January 16 launch. In related news, the New York Times reported last week that investigators no longer believe that an object spotted on radar moving away from the shuttle a day after launch was a carrier panel. Searchers combing debris fields in Texas and Louisiana have recovered the carrier panels from the left wing, leading investigators to conclude that the object spotted on radar is from another portion of the orbiter. The debris that has been recovered will be stored and made available to future researchers, NASA officials said Monday afternoon.

Related Links:

•  AP article
•  New York Times article
•  SPACE.com article