Actions for Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Launch Pad Avian Abatement Efforts Including Related KSC Road Kill Reduction Effort

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Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Launch Pad Avian Abatement Efforts Including Related KSC Road Kill Reduction Effort

Author
Schlierf, Roland
Published
May 20, 2007.
Physical Description
1 electronic document
Additional Creators
Payne, Stephen J., Missimer, Brad, Shaffer, John P., Hight, Ron, and Willis, Christopher
Online Version

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Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available.
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Summary
While birds might seem harmless, there's a good reason for the concern. During the July 2005 launch of Discovery on mission STS-1 14, a vulture soaring around the launch pad impacted the shuttle's external tank just after liftoff. With a vulture's average weight ranging from 3 to 5 pounds. a strike at a critical point on the Shuttle -- like the nose or wing leading thermal protection panels -- could cause catastrophic damage to the vehicle. The foam chunk that fatefully struck Columbia's wing in 2003 weighed only 1.7 pounds. (Cheryl L. Mansfield "Bye Bye Birdies" 2006) To address this issue, NASA formed an "Avian Abatement Team". The team goal is to have safer Shuttle missions by reducing the vulture population at KSC near the pad area thereby reducing the probability of another vulture strike during a Shuttle launch.
Other Subject(s)
Collection
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Collection.
Note
Document ID: 20130011654.
KSC-2007-078.
Terms of Use and Reproduction
No Copyright.
View MARC record | catkey: 15975146