"It's certainly possible that we had cases of it earlier, and they were appreciably so harmless that we completely missed them," Koenigsmann said. It is also possible that a small process was changed so that all of the lacquer was not removed, as this particular treatment is done by an outside vendor. But, he admitted, "It's difficult to explain how this works for so many years and then, suddenly, you see this coming up in the data."
What Koenigsmann seems confident in is that the issue will not occur again. The company's engineers now understand it, know how to look for it, and won't be surprised by it again. "Rocketry is tough and requires a lot of attention to detail," he said. "It's always a challenge. It's always difficult. You have to be on your toes to get this right."
