Lamp dings foam on shuttle fuel tank

Workers at Kennedy Space Center today dinged foam on an external fuel tank that's scheduled to fly with the shuttle in July.

They were preparing to replace a valve and were repositioning a halogen lamp when it fell. It caused "extremely minor" damage to the insulating foam near the nose, NASA spokeswoman Jessica Rye said.

Though work continues on the bottom of the tank, where technicians from the Lockheed Martin-run Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans are getting inside the tank to replace problematic engine cutoff sensors, work at the top of the tank has been put on hold.

"We're in the process of completing a detailed inspection of the area before we'd be able to determine what, if any, repairs are required," Michoud spokesman Marion LaNasa said. "We have a significant amount of experience repairing damage in this area of the ET."

Last year, he said, birds damaged foam near the nose of a tank, and that foam was repaired, though that tank ended up not flying for other reasons.

"We don't think this is going to be any impact or concern at this point," Rye said.

There are two current investigations into recent accidents at KSC. In one, a construction worker fell off a roof and died from his injuries. In another, a shuttle robot arm was dinged.