We were hit by a very strong hail storm at Kennedy Space Center last night, delivering the largest hail I've ever seen (roughly ping-pong ball size). After the storm cleared, we heard word over the net that there was 'extensive' damage to the shuttle's External Tank, and when we saw the video on the monitors we knew there was very little chance we would be flying that way. So, we will likely be rolling back to the Vehicle Assembly Building and either repairing the tank or (more likely) swapping tanks. Our group will probably be offloading our propellants and securing over the next couple days to prepare for roll-back, but I'll try to put a substantive post in tomorrow.
You can see an example of the size of the hail in this picture. This isn't my car, but I had similar damage to mine. Hopefully the dents will pop out.
(FYI: The storm stayed well clear of our house, so fortunately there was no garden damage.)
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