Later analysis would show the foam impacted the underside of the left wing at a relative velocity of more than 500 mph, instantly disintegrating.Įngineers could not determine exactly where the foam had hit, and Columbia was not equipped with a robot arm to enable an inspection in space.īut an engineering analysis based on software modeling for much smaller impacts indicated the foam strike did not pose a “safety of flight” issue. Tracking cameras showed the foam disappearing under the shuttle’s left wing and emerging an instant later as a cloud of fine particles. No one knew at the time what, if anything, the light show might mean.īut 16 days earlier, 81.7 seconds after liftoff, a briefcase-size chunk of lightweight foam insulation had broken away from Columbia’s external tank as the spacecraft accelerated through 1,500 mph. Space enthusiasts across the western United States would capture dramatic video of Columbia’s dawn descent, including unusual changes in the shuttle’s white-hot plasma trail along with flare-like points of light separating and falling away. Over the next 12 minutes, an on-board data recorder would track a cascade of alarming sensor readings and failures on the left side of the spacecraft that indicated a rapidly escalating catastrophe as the blazing heat of re-entry engulfed the ship.īut it initially played out behind the scenes in the ship’s flight computers, which waged an increasingly desperate struggle to keep Columbia on track for a planned landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida where friends and family were waiting.Īnd so, at 8:53:26 a.m., Columbia crossed the coast of California, right on schedule, at an altitude of 44 miles while traveling 23 times the speed of sound. EST - a sensor in the space shuttle Columbia’s left wing first recorded unusual stress as the orbiter and its seven crew members headed back to Earth to close out a successful 16-day science mission. Twenty years ago this Wednesday - on Feb. From left to right (in red): Kalpana Chawla, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark (in blue): David Brown, William McCool, and Michael Anderson. The new document lists five "events" that were each potentially lethal to the crew: Loss of cabin pressure just before or as the cabin broke up crewmembers, unconscious or already dead, crashing into objects in the module being thrown from their seats and the module exposure to a near vacuum at 100,000 feet and hitting the ground.STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION The seven-person crew of the space shuttle Columbia in orbit during their 16-day science mission. The new report comes five years after an independent investigation panel issued its own exhaustive analysis on Columbia, but it focused heavily on the cause of the accident and the culture of NASA. Had all those procedures been followed, the astronauts might have lived longer and been able to take more actions, but they still wouldn't have survived, the report says. The gloves were off because they are too bulky to do certain tasks and there is too little time to prepare for re-entry, the report notes. One wasn't in the seat, one wasn't wearing a helmet and several were not fully strapped in. The report said it wasn't clear which of those events killed them.Īnd in the case of the helmets and other gear, three crewmembers weren't wearing gloves, which provide crucial protection from depressurization. An internal NASA team recommends 30 changes based on Columbia, many of them aimed at pressurization suits, helmets and seatbelts.Īs was already known, the astronauts died either from lack of oxygen during depressurization or from hitting something as the spacecraft spun violently out of control. The agency hopes to help engineers design a new shuttle replacement capsule more capable of surviving an accident. In fact, by that time, there was nothing anyone could have done to survive as the fatally damaged shuttle streaked across Texas to a landing in Florida what would never take place.īut NASA scrutinizes the final minutes of the shuttle tragedy in a new 400-page report released Tuesday. At least one crewmember was alive and pushing buttons for half a minute after a first loud alarm sounded, as he futilely tried to right Columbia during that disastrous day Feb. WASHINGTON - Seat restraints, pressure suits and helmets of the doomed crew of the space shuttle Columbia didn't work well, leading to "lethal trauma" as the out-of-control ship lost pressure and broke apart, killing all seven astronauts, a new NASA report says.
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