NASA launch pad sustains damage during STS-124 liftoff

William Atkins
Tuesday, 03 June 2008 06:54

Science - Space

NASA announced Monday June 2, 2008, that the launch pad from which the space shuttle Discovery and its STS-124 crew lifted off on Saturday, May 31, 2008, at about 5 p.m., suffered serious damage.

LeRoy Cain, the head of the NASA mission management team for STS-124, announced the news at a media briefing conducted at the Johnson Space Center, in Clear Lake City, just outside of Houston, Texas.

Cain stated that launch complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida sustained what he called “some fairly significant damage” brought on by the space shuttle lifting off.

NASA inspectors called the damage of an “unprecedented” magnitude.

Cain said that a section of heat-resistant brick and concrete blocks about 75 feet by 20 feet (23 meters by 6 meters) in size was torn away from one of two flame trenches, which are large, mostly concrete conduit structures almost 500 feet (150 meters) long that bisect the launch pad.

The flame trench diverts the fiercely hot flames—which comes from the orbiter’s three rocket engines and two solid rocket boosters (SRBs)—away from the manned vehicle itself.

The section that was destroyed forms “the facing on the rise leading to the pad.”

Because the section was destroyed, debris (primarily bricks and mortar from the trench) was blasted out on the north side of the launch pad, and beyond the perimeter fence surrounding the launch pad—something that NASA says should not happen under nominal conditions.

The perimeter fence is located approximately 1,500 feet (460 meters) from the launch pad itself.

Cain, stated, “For the shuttle program, I think it’s unprecedented in terms of the magnitude.”

The incidence was the first of its kind in the history of the space shuttle program. And, Cain, along with other NASA officials, were very concerned that it happened.

Additional information about the damage to LC-39A appears on page two.