Friday, January 29, 2010

Launch Control Center Flooded After Pipe Bursts

A fire suppression system pipe burst at Kennedy Space Center late Thursday, showering the Launch Control Center and parts of the Vehicle Assembly Building with an estimated 60,000 gallons of water.

A damage assessment is underway this morning in Firing Room 4 of the LCC, but the planned Feb. 7 launch of shuttle Endeavour is not expected to be delayed. NASA and contractor engineers will conduct the launch countdown from that Firing Room.

"They are still assessing damage but right now it doesn't appear as if it will delay launch," KSC spokesman Allard Beutel said.

Some launch control consoles in the Firing Room got wet, but it appears the damage was done mostly to carpets and ceiling tiles, Beutel said.

The external tank and solid rocket boosters for STS-131 in March were not damaged, Beutel said. The hardware is stacked in High Bay No. 1 or the Vehicle Assembly Building, awaiting the arrival next month of the orbiter Discovery. Discovery is scheduled to launch March 18 on an International Space Station assembly-and-outfitting mission.

The incident occurred about 8:30 p.m. Thursday during a routine test of the fire suppression system in the connected complexes. Several floors of the Launch Control Center were flooded. Stairways, lobbies and hallways appear to have suffered the most damage.

The Launch Control Center is closed to all but essential personnel as the damage assessment continues.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

trying to stretch the shuttle schedules out a little more into 2011, cause, damaged firing room

Anonymous said...

Wow, I am sure that is the reason....must be awesome being so bitter and twisted everyday of your life.

Anonymous said...

must have been the crack head they haven't found yet

Anonymous said...

Yea, it's just the "crackhead" that made the first comment here.. gezzz how do people live with themselfves...

Anonymous said...

Broken water pipe?

Bong Water all over the place now I suppose.

That is really going to smell.

Anonymous said...

Dang, now that they have heard the news they are going to scuttle the place.

Anonymous said...

not good

Anonymous said...

It must be George Bushs fault.

Anonymous said...

Milk it baby, Milk it!

Anonymous said...

Good thing they are shutting that place down.
Could someone tell me how old that infrastructure is again ?
Sounds like a major safety concern and or problems may be lurking due to the age of the hardware and facilities.
Dang...go check the fuel farms too while your at it.
We got to get those next 5 off.

Anonymous said...

There isn't just one crackhead working out there, I assure you of that.

Brad in M.I.

Anonymous said...

fire suppression system using water around electronic equipment???? have they heard of HALON systems????

Anonymous said...

should be conserving water

Anonymous said...

Probably someone smoking who should not have been there.

Anonymous said...

Hehehehe

Anonymous said...

Maybe we should spend that Ares money on facilities.

Anonymous said...

I worked in those firing rooms for over 20 years keeping those consoles and support equipment working so they could make the launches happen. Never in the time that I was there did the equipment in the firing rooms stop a launch. The new fire suppression system is much better than the halon system they used to use. If the halon system went off you did not have much time to get out. This system was much better.

Anonymous said...

The LCC was equiped with a Halon system but due to the tree huggers and the EPA, NASA had to remove it and install a brand new water fire suppression system. The system was only 7 years old. Now maybe makes you think...was this a faulty pipe or something else????

Anonymous said...

You people are idiots. I responded to the incident the morning after it happened and there was no "conspiracy" here. It is exactly as they said. I saw the ruptured pipe with my own eyes. The damage to the firing room is minimal...@ 2000 ft2 of wet carpet and a line of saturated insulation. The water breached the ceiling on the center and north side after the system had a problem with over-pressure. Now, if there are no more questions you can all go back to drowning in that beer.

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