Alliant to make repair kits to patch any shuttle holes

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jan 15, 2005 | by Edmond Lococo Bloomberg News

Alliant Techsystems Inc., the sole maker of the solid rocket motors used on the space shuttle, said it will make repair kits that could patch a hole in the edge of the spacecraft's wing, a situation that doomed the Columbia shuttle two years ago.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's space shuttle program control board Thursday approved Alliant's repair technique, Ronald Dittemore, president of the company's Utah-based Thiokol unit, said in a telephone interview.

The $20 million project will be completed by April, satisfying one of the recommendations of the board, which investigated the Columbia's disintegration in 2003. A piece of insulating foam broke from Columbia's external fuel tank and tore a hole in the left wing, allowing gases as hot as 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit to enter the ship and kill seven astronauts.

"They had no coverage, no alternative, if they did get a 6-inch hole," said Dittemore, who headed NASA's shuttle program at the time of the accident. "We were able to develop a technique that through the last several months of testing has proved to be very capable. NASA has selected that as their technique for the future."

The repair kit would allow in-space repair of the wing edge, he said. It would carry about 20 or 30 carbon silicone carbide patches and would fit into a typical payload locker in the cabin in the shuttle's middeck.

The designing and testing of the kits occurred at Thiokol's Promontory facilities in Box Elder County. The kits will be assembled at the Johnson Space Center.

Dittemore said the crew could carry the repair kit during a space walk and bolt the patches to the wing's leading edge, where the heat buildup is greatest during re-entry.

The $20 million will cover development and fund the purchase of about six of the $500,000 kits, he said. The company will now look into whether it can also develop in-space repair techniques for the heat-resistant tiles that protect the underside of the shuttle, he said.

The kits will enable shuttle astronauts to repair holes as large as 4 inches in the reinforced carbon-carbon panels on the leading edge of the wings, as tests showed that insulating foam or ice could fall off and damage the orbiter, Kelly Humphries, a spokesman for Johnson Space Center, said in an interview.

Workers at Johnson Space Center are still trying to develop a separate liquid-repair kit that would allow astronauts to use a "goo" to repair cracks as large as 4 inches on other areas of the shuttle, Humphries said.

The two kits could be used together and combined with caulk to allow astronauts to repair several different kinds of damage, Humphries said. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board, an independent panel that probed the Columbia disaster, recommended that NASA develop ways to repair damage in orbit.

More testing has to be done before it's decided to put the kits on board the next shuttle flight, scheduled to take place in April or May, Humphries said. NASA's fleet of space shuttles has been grounded since the Columbia accident and the agency has relied on Russia to take supplies and crews to the International Space Station.

"We're still several months away and there's lots of testing left to be done," Humphries said in a telephone interview. "We're continuing down that path because it's got promise."

Shares of Alliant, based in Edina, Minn., rose 18 cents Friday to close at $65.20 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have risen 13 percent in the past year.