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Description of Driving Event:

A metal halide high intensity light bulb in the O&C high bay ceiling inadvertently exploded. Glass fragments were spewed to the O&C high bay floor, which was clear of personnel and flight hardware at the time of the incident. The subject light fixture was inspected and cleaned of all debris. Metal halide bulbs are very bright and increase the amount of available illumination by 50%.

The explosion of the metal halide bulb caused concern so the bulb's fragments were collected and sent to NASA's malfunction lab for evaluation. The malfunction lab observed discoloration of some bulb fragments. According to the lab the discoloration suggests that the lamp was reaching the end of its useful life. It is not known what the manufacturer's recommended life for these particular lamps is, but once they reach that particular number of hours, under continued use, they have an increased propensity to explode. In addition, the lab studied the interface area between the lamp bulb and the metal housing, no anomalies were noted.