Foam's Power Surprises NASA Official

NPR has a great radio article on the first part of this testing here.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - The Columbia accident investigator in charge of a series of impact tests said Wednesday he is surprised by the incredible force with which a 1 1/2-pound chunk of space shuttle foam struck and deformed a fiberglass wing replica.

NASA's Scott Hubbard said he expects even more damage when real shuttle wing parts - weaker and more brittle than fiberglass - are used for the next round of testing, beginning Thursday. He expects the actual pieces, removed from shuttle Discovery, to actually break.

"This moves us a lot closer to saying that the foam can do this kind of damage," said Hubbard, a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.