Author Topic: Animal damage?  (Read 6273 times)

Offline Tahii

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Animal damage?
« on: 07/01/2005 11:29 am »
Here's an interesting question - have birds or animals ever caused damage to a shuttle, ET or SRB? I am looking at images of the shuttle at the pad, thinking that if the shuttle is out in the open (well, the ET and SRBs are anyway), then surely animals must get to them.

Has their been cases of rats taking out power cables (hey, don't laugh, we had one here take down NZ's whole telephone network)? Has a woodpecker ever done its darndest to an o-ring? Have they ever had to fire the shuttle engines longer due to excess guano on the shuttle?

Offline RRP

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RE: Animal damage?
« Reply #1 on: 07/01/2005 11:57 am »
Animal's do the darndest things. It is a serious problem. In Florida the problem is probably ants.

I once saw a cat short inself in a navy shipyard and took an entire section of a city into blackout for a while.

Yours was not a silly point.

Offline NASA_Twix_JSC

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RE: Animal damage?
« Reply #2 on: 07/01/2005 12:18 pm »
There have been instances where birds find the ET far too much of a good thing to go and peck, especially woodpeckers.

Offline anik

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RE: Animal damage?
« Reply #3 on: 07/01/2005 01:31 pm »
Quote
NASA_Twix_JSC - 1/7/2005  4:18 PM

There have been instances where birds find the ET far too much of a good thing to go and peck, especially woodpeckers.

Yeah... STS-70! ;)

Image from "STS-70 KSC Electronic Photo File"
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-70/images/images.html

Offline Rocket Guy

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RE: Animal damage?
« Reply #4 on: 07/01/2005 03:44 pm »
And STS-96 too...rolled back to repair it.

Offline anik

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RE: Animal damage?
« Reply #5 on: 07/01/2005 10:40 pm »
Quote
Ben - 1/7/2005  7:44 PM

And STS-96 too...rolled back to repair it.

Yes, Ben! But STS-96 rollback was because of hailstorm damage, not because of animals…


Offline Rocket Guy

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RE: Animal damage?
« Reply #6 on: 07/01/2005 11:25 pm »
You're right, I forgot. I was thinking both were woodpeckers.

Offline FransonUK

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RE: Animal damage?
« Reply #7 on: 07/04/2005 08:18 am »
Wow, I've never seen damage like that before and I've never seen that vent at the top. That's new to me.
Don't ya wish your spaceship was hot like me

Offline Jester

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RE: Animal damage?
« Reply #8 on: 05/10/2006 02:27 pm »
Here the video

http://space.ocs.nl/sts/STS-70-Woodpecker.wmv

it's small and short and horrible resolution, but ok

Offline SpaceCat

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Re: Animal damage?
« Reply #9 on: 05/10/2006 11:23 pm »
While the critters can be pests.... fire ants and yes, rattlesnakes in certain cable tunnels come to mind-- and "Mosquito Lagoon" is very aptly named.... the fact that all the Cape is a wildlife refuge often makes it a very enjoyable place to work.  I can't recall a single night shift, and boy, I did plenty- when I did not see deer along the roads.  One late fall afternoon I was driving up the stretch from the south gate to hanger row on CCAFS and came into a flock of red-brested robins so thick I had to slow down-- stopping by on their way to South America, I guess.  There are generally bald eagles nested on the Cape; alligators, armadillos and possums are a common sight.  I would often see entire herds of rabbits hopping along the fence line at old LC-34; and at night beautiful curious bobcats would sometimes wander into the glow of the parking lot lights.  Working in open hangers at night, it'd be pretty common to see a mouse or two run across the floor- who never caused any chewing problems on our project but they did steal one guy's bag of potato chips.  :)

Offline nethegauner

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RE: Animal damage?
« Reply #10 on: 05/11/2006 12:20 pm »
Take a look at this wonderful alternate STS-70 crew patch... ;)

That one's from www.spacepatches.nl

Offline SpaceCat

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Re: Animal damage?
« Reply #11 on: 05/11/2006 11:20 pm »
LOL- that's good.  Kind of appropriate too, considering Woody's creator, Walter Lantz, did promotional cartoons for NASA way back in the early '60's.  I think portions of one is shown in the Tom Hanks FTETTM series.

Offline Zoomer30

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RE: Animal damage?
« Reply #12 on: 05/12/2006 06:48 pm »
I hear the woodpeckers were mad becasue NASA had not paid for those Woody Woodpecker spots from the 60s yet, getting a little revenge ;)  

I remember a story from the flight hiatus after 51L, a crew was working on the STA that had been sitting out for some time and found that a bird had made a BIG nest in a nook of one of the rear attach points.

Makes you wonder if they should have TWO RSS on the pad, one to cover the shuttle and one to cover the backside of the tank and SRBs, could be like a clamshell.  But knowing the way they were re-cycling stuff from Apollo, they probably used steel from the old Apollo Mobile Service Structure to make the RSS.

Offline Jim

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RE: Animal damage?
« Reply #13 on: 05/12/2006 07:16 pm »
Quote
Zoomer30 - 12/5/2006  2:48 PM

I hear the woodpeckers were mad becasue NASA had not paid for those Woody Woodpecker spots from the 60s yet, getting a little revenge ;)  

I remember a story from the flight hiatus after 51L, a crew was working on the STA that had been sitting out for some time and found that a bird had made a BIG nest in a nook of one of the rear attach points.

Makes you wonder if they should have TWO RSS on the pad, one to cover the shuttle and one to cover the backside of the tank and SRBs, could be like a clamshell.  But knowing the way they were re-cycling stuff from Apollo, they probably used steel from the old Apollo Mobile Service Structure to make the RSS.

The shuttle originally wasn't suppose to be on the pad that long.  The RSS did not protect the orbiter, it only provided access to the payload bay.  Only later was protection added.  The Apollo LUTs were only used to build the FSS, the RSS was all new.

Offline Dana

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Re: Animal damage?
« Reply #14 on: 05/14/2006 09:41 am »
Here's a couple of favorites:

STS-81: Crawler vs. Turtle: who do you think got to the pad first? :)
"Don't play dumb with me! You're not as good at it as I am!"-Col. Flagg

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Offline Dana

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Re: Animal damage?
« Reply #15 on: 05/14/2006 09:47 am »
1970s: Hank emerged from his LC-17 office to find his Volkswagen had been eaten....
"Don't play dumb with me! You're not as good at it as I am!"-Col. Flagg

"'Second Place' is just the first loser."-Bobby Allison

Offline Dana

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Re: Animal damage?
« Reply #16 on: 05/14/2006 09:52 am »
1960s: "Hmmmm, where did my little Yorkie terrier go?"
"Don't play dumb with me! You're not as good at it as I am!"-Col. Flagg

"'Second Place' is just the first loser."-Bobby Allison

Offline Dana

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Re: Animal damage?
« Reply #17 on: 05/14/2006 09:56 am »
And how could I forget: the infamous Gemini 9A ATDA "Angry Alligator?" ;)
"Don't play dumb with me! You're not as good at it as I am!"-Col. Flagg

"'Second Place' is just the first loser."-Bobby Allison

Offline Dana

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Re: Animal damage?
« Reply #18 on: 05/14/2006 09:59 am »
BTW I don't think any pictures exist of the famous "Super Florida Mosquito" that rode into orbit with Stafford, Brand and Slayton on ASTP....
"Don't play dumb with me! You're not as good at it as I am!"-Col. Flagg

"'Second Place' is just the first loser."-Bobby Allison

Offline Kerwin

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RE: Animal damage?
« Reply #19 on: 05/18/2006 10:19 am »
There was the bird strike on STS-114.
Kerwin.

Producer - The Planet.
www.stirtonproductions.com

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