{"id":62333,"date":"2010-11-10T16:13:35","date_gmt":"2010-11-10T20:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"tag:www.nasa.gov:\/\/9bcde72a0afaa4bb81cc285289eda747"},"modified":"2010-11-10T16:13:35","modified_gmt":"2010-11-10T20:13:35","slug":"external-tank-cracks-identified-repair-plans-being-evaluated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=62333","title":{"rendered":"External Tank Cracks Identified, Repair Plans Being Evaluated"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This morning during removal of external fuel tank foam insulation, technicians identified two cracks on a section of the tank&#8217;s metal exterior. The foam cracked during draining operations following the shuttle Discovery&#8217;s launch scrub on Nov. 5. They were found one of the stringers, which are composite aluminum ribs located vertically on the tank&#8217;s intertank area. The cracks are approximately 9 inches long. Engineers are reviewing images of the cracks to determine the best possible repair method, which would be done at Launch Pad 39A.<\/p>\n<p>  Crews have repaired similar cracks during external tank production by removing the cracked aluminum and replacing it with a &#8220;doubler,&#8221; which is a twice-as-thick stringer section before replacing the foam insulation. <\/p>\n<p>  Exact schedules and repair options still are being evaluated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This morning during removal of external fuel tank foam insulation, technicians identified two cracks on a section of the tank&#8217;s metal exterior. The foam cracked during draining operations following the shuttle Discovery&#8217;s launch scrub on Nov. 5. They were found one of the stringers, which are composite aluminum ribs located vertically on the tank&#8217;s intertank area. The cracks are approximately 9 inches long. Engineers are reviewing images of the cracks to determine the best possible repair method, which would be done at Launch Pad 39A.<\/p>\n<p>  Crews have repaired similar cracks during external tank production by removing the cracked aluminum and replacing it with a &#8220;doubler,&#8221; which is a twice-as-thick stringer section before replacing the foam insulation. <\/p>\n<p>  Exact schedules and repair options still are being evaluated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":612598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shuttle-update"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62347,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62333\/revisions\/62347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/612598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}