> It really astounded me when I learned no shuttle was inspected for damage while in orbit until after the loss of the Columbia.
Atlantis was hit by tank insulation during launch of STS-27 (1988). While in space, the astronauts inspected the tiles using a camera mounted on the Canadarm. Hoot Gibson says that it "looked like it had been blasted by a shotgun." They were convinced that they were going to die on re-entry, and Gibson had even planned what he'd say to Houston in his final transmission before he died.
They got very, very lucky. There were 700 damaged tiles, but only one missing tile. And the one missing tile just happened to be over an antenna mounting bracket, which made the structure stronger than the rest of the wing. If the foam had hit just a couple of tiles over, then they would've died.
This was the second flight after the Challenger disaster. It might have ended the Shuttle program, right then and there.
Another account can be found in Mike Mullane's memoirs, Riding Rockets. Mullane was a mission specialist on STS-27, and operated the Canadarm during the tile inspection. He says that he kept thinking about the tiles, and had trouble sleeping. Hoot Gibson advised him: "No reason to die all tensed up."
Remember -- STS-27 was the second mission after the Challenger explosion. Not enough time yet for complacency to have set in. In addition, Mike Mullane had an it-was-absolutely-not-an-affair-we-were-just-friends relationship with Judy Resnick. So he knew very personally just how dangerous the Shuttle could be.
Atlantis was hit by tank insulation during launch of STS-27 (1988). While in space, the astronauts inspected the tiles using a camera mounted on the Canadarm. Hoot Gibson says that it "looked like it had been blasted by a shotgun." They were convinced that they were going to die on re-entry, and Gibson had even planned what he'd say to Houston in his final transmission before he died.
They got very, very lucky. There were 700 damaged tiles, but only one missing tile. And the one missing tile just happened to be over an antenna mounting bracket, which made the structure stronger than the rest of the wing. If the foam had hit just a couple of tiles over, then they would've died.
This was the second flight after the Challenger disaster. It might have ended the Shuttle program, right then and there.