As a personal rule I never comment on or critique NASA here. However, this is so unprofessional and just awful you need to see it.
A crack was discovered in the foam of big external tank of the Space Shuttle Discovery. NASA patched it, end of story right?
Look at the job they did.
What an unprofessional, sloppy, uncraftsmanship’s like job! The vertical ribs looks hand gouged at best. It looks like they started on the left one then said “who cares” and half heartily chipped out the rest. Yes, it will probably work, but what does this say about the level of quality and craftsmanship. If my plumber did this sloppy of a job I would make him rip it out and do it again. This is the Space Shuttle!!!!
Shouldn’t the Space Shuttle have at least the craftsmanship of a nice cabinet? Sloppiness is not cheaper or cost effective.
Aside from what this says about lack of pride and concern, wouldn’t you want to polish up the old girl before her last flight?
What took down Challenger and Columbia wasn’t tech, it was attitude. This shows nothing has changed.
Original Crack (about 20 inches wide)
The patch from another angle.
Are these perhaps in-progress photos? Surely this isn’t the finished product – it looks like the periphery has all sorts of space for turbulence and like an even bigger chunk will almost surely come off.
Well, if it does work why waste time and increase possibilities of mistake? Seems like Russian way and Russians fly humans without deadly accident since nearly 40 years, so they must be onto something.