Shuttle Doomed at Takeoff (Astronauts doomed from the start)

abc news ^ | 4/18/2003 | Lisa Stark and Gina Treadgold

[TLBSHOW]

Shuttle Doomed at Takeoff

Telltale Heat Spike Was Recorded After Debris Strike

April 18 — Investigators now have the strongest evidence yet that the space shuttle Columbia's left wing was critically punctured during liftoff, when falling debris started the fatal chain of events that led to the breakup of the shuttle when it re-entered Earth's atmosphere, ABCNEWS has learned.

The evidence comes from an old magnetic tape recorder that is part of the Orbiter Experiment Support System, sources said.

It shows an unusual temperature increase in a key sensor just behind the leading edge of the left wing near the spot where foam that fell from the shuttle's external fuel tank is suspected of striking the shuttle, just 81 seconds into the flight.

The temperature spike happens within the next 40 seconds. Usually during this phase of flight, the temperature would be decreasing or holding steady, sources said.

"All the evidence is pointing there," a knowledgeable source told ABCNEWS. "It's kind of like the lady in California. Everybody knows it's her, but they just can't officially say it yet." The data comes from a temperature sensor behind the front spar of the left wing near a shuttle's protective thermal panels known as reinforced carbon carbon panels, or RCC. These panels are supposed to protect the shuttle from the heat of re-entry.

This video image released by NASA shows the likely catastrophic debris strike approximately 81 seconds after liftoff. Pieces of debris are observed ahead of the left wing. (NASA, HO/AP Photo)

Investigators say it was a breach in the left wing near the leading edge that led to the breakup of Columbia on Feb. 1 when it plunged back into the Earth's atmosphere at more than 20,000 mph. All seven astronauts on board perished.

The Columbia Accident Investigation Board is still trying to piece together the puzzle of the shuttle disaster — but they have already recommended that NASA do a much better job of inspecting RCC panels for any weaknesses prior to liftoff.

The board is concerned that as the shuttle fleet ages, the RCC panels may be more susceptible to failure — and that Columbia's age may have been a factor in the shuttle accident. Columbia flew its first mission in 1981, making it the oldest shuttle in the fleet.

The board will hear from more experts at another public hearing next week. Members will start to write their report at the end of May and hope to issue it sometime in June.

None of the information from the recorder could have helped save the doomed shuttle. It was not available to ground control at launch, and controllers would not have noticed the spike until the shuttle landed and, weeks later, analyzed the data.

And even if they had known, it is open to debate what could have been done.

"If they suspected the damage, could they have done something? Probably not," a source said. "But you never want to say there was nothing that could have been done, because you never know what 1,000 people all working on one problem might come up with."

[konaice]

"It sounds like a bunch of sensor data was processed in a very basic form and simply 'laid onto magnetic tape' -"

This craft was instrumented with a lot more sensors than the others because these were embedded at build time for performance analysis on the early vehicles.

Most of this extra sensors and the wires to support them were torn out (saveing 7000 bounds (or was it kilos) of vehicle weight.

According to nasa, only those few sensors that were hard to get to were left in place. (This per one of the televised briefings a month ago).

Im speculating thats where these measurements came from.

[konaice]

"Incredibly stupid comment IMHO. The decision to abort would only be made if an obvious catastrophic event was taking place, as an abort is serious sh_t in itself. "

Serious ?
Financially maybe, but abort to Rota is PLANNED in every mission. Its practiced in the simulator time and time again.

The largest consequence (other than the loss of the mission) is the cost of flying the shuttle back across the Atlantic on the 747.

[Fledermaus]

There are countless things we've gotten from the space program once a process or experiment or a device was, by the companies they contracted, developed for commercial use. Like mircowave ovens.

Would that stuff have been invented on it's own? Probably. But the innovation was sparked by working on the space program.

And NASA's budget is nothing compared to the vast waste of money on some worthless and proven unworkable gov't programs.

Regardless, we are explorers and we always will be.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

They chose not to send up another orbiter after them. They knew they could have and chose not to.

And yes, shuttle launches have been scrapped due to woodpecker damage. They have been rolled back to the assembly building for it from the pad.

"NOTE: Workers at Launch Pad 39-B are preparing the Shuttle Discovery
for rollback to the Vehicle Assembly Building beginning at 3:30 a.m.
Thursday. The decision to go back to the VAB was made in order to
repair damage done by woodpeckers in the foam insulation of the
external tank. It is estimated that about six days will be needed to
repair the woodpecker holes once access is gained to the external
tank in the VAB."

[TLBSHOW]

they died because of NASA and their problems!

[TLBSHOW]

ping

[ironman]

The article implies the data was recorded and was never engineered or intended to be transmistted.

[leadpenny]

Thanks for the heads-up. What is your best WAG or SWAG for a date that we may see another shuttle launch? If ever?