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Did A Woodpecker Shoot Down The Space Shuttle Columbia?

Did A Woodpecker Down The Space Shuttle Columbia?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zup3XN90xSg

In the past there has been problems with woodpeckers, pecking the foam on the space shuttle. It is doubtful that the Columbia’s foam was damaged by woodpeckers in 2004, because NASA has gone to great lengths to prevent woodpeckers from damaging the foam. However they have had damage in the past from woodpeckers, is it possible that woodpeckers or bark beetles or something of that nature damaged the foam prior to take off?
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During the launch countdown for STS-70, scheduled to lift off on Memorial Day 1995, the launch team discovered that a pair of Northern Flicker woodpeckers (Colaptes auratus) were trying to burrow a nesting hole in the spray-on foam insulation (SOFI) of the shuttle External Tank (ET) on pad LC39-B. Flickers generally construct their nests in the soft wood of palm trees or dead trees, and initially found the SOFI to their liking. However, upon striking the aluminum skin of the ET beneath the SOFI layer, they would stop and move to another spot to try again. The birds were quite persistent, and continued to peck holes until there were at least 71 spots on the nose of the ET that could not be repaired at the pad. As a result, the launch management team decided that the stack had to be rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for repairs to the damaged insulation.

Rolling the shuttle back to the VAB is a difficult problem, but one NASA knows how to handle. The other problem of keeping the Flickers from returning and doing further damage to the ET SOFI is a little more complex. The Northern Flicker is a protected species, so we couldn’t do anything that would physically harm the birds. In true NASA style, shuttle management formed the Bird Investigation Review and Deterrent (BIRD) team to research the Flicker problem and come up with a plan for keeping the birds away from the pads. After studying Flicker behavior and consulting ornithologists and wildlife experts the world over, the BIRD team devised a three-phase long-term plan.

Phase 1 of the plan established “… an aggressive habitat management program to make the pads more unattractive to Flickers and to disperse the resident population of Flickers.” Palm trees, old telephone poles, and dead trees were removed from the area around the pads. The grass around the pad was allowed to grow long to hide ants and other insects, the Flickers´ favorite food. Phase 2 implemented “scare and deterrent tactics at the pads.” Plastic owls, water sprays, and “scary eye” balloons were used to make the area inhospitable to the birds and frighten them away without injuring them. Phase 3 involved the “implementation of bird sighting response procedures.”

With the BIRD team plans in place and the Flickers successfully relocated, STS-70 was able to launch at 9:41 A.M. on July 13, 1995.
http://enterfiringroom.ksc.nasa.gov/funFactWoodpecker.htm

Following an extended Memorial Day weekend holiday, Shuttle workers discovered that Northern Flicker Woodpeckers at Launch Pad 39B had pecked about 200 holes in foam insulation on Discovery’s external fuel tank. Some holes were as much as four inches deep.

Attempts to repair the damage at the launch pad were unsuccessful, so Discovery was rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building on June 8, 1995. Launch was reset for July 13, 1995. Repairs to the external tank were completed, and Discovery was returned to Launch Pad 39B on June 15, 1995.

A variety of noisemakers and physical deterrents were installed at both Space Shuttle launch pads as a result of the woodpecker damage. In addition, permanent human woodpecker spotters were deployed at the launch pads around the clock.
http://www.spaceline.org/shuttlechron/shuttle-sts70.html

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