NASA mission managers are assessing the damage to Atlantis, which is posed to send the STS-117 crew to the International Space Station on March 15, 2007. Damage to the surface of the external tank (ET) is contained within its upper third surface. The ground surrounding the ET after the storm contained hail of various sizes, ranging in diameter of 0.64 to 2.54 centimeters (0.25 to 1 inch).

Previous Shuttle missions have also been affected due to similar damage from hail. For instance, the ET of the Space Shuttle Discovery was damaged in 1999, as was the ET of Atlantis in 1990. Only minor damage was inflicted to Atlantis, and its mission was not delayed due to the hail. However, Discovery was forced to roll back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) atop the Mobile Launcher Platform and Crawler-Transporter when 650 hail holes were found on the ET.

(Of note, other similar calamities can strike the ET. In 1995, Discovery was forced to roll back to the VAB when Yellow Flicker woodpeckers drilled nearly 200 holes into the foam insulation of the ET.)

Mission managers and engineers will take serious precautions and lengthy considerations with these 700 damaged spots due to past problems with pieces of foam insulation flying off the ET and striking the Shuttle. As well remembered, the Space Shuttle Columbia and its seven-member crew were lost in 2003 after foam flew off the ET and damaged the underbelly of the orbiter during liftoff, causing it to disintegrate over the skies of New Mexico and Texas while in its landing phase.

For additional information on the flight of the STS-117 astronauts, including their biographies, go to the ITwire article “NASA Space Shuttle scheduled for launch on March 15, 2007”.

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