NASA STATEMENT ON LOSS OF COMMUNICATIONS WITH COLUMBIA

NASA ^ | 2/1/03 | NASA

[AStack75]

NASA STATEMENT ON LOSS OF COMMUNICATIONS WITH COLUMBIA

A Space Shuttle contingency has been declared in Mission Control, Houston, as a result of the loss of communication with the Space Shuttle Columbia at approximately 9 a.m. EST Saturday as it descended toward a landing at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla. It was scheduled to touchdown at 9:16 a.m. EST.

Communication and tracking of the shuttle was lost at 9 a.m. EST at an altitude of about 203,000 feet in the area above north central Texas. At the time communications were lost. The shuttle was traveling approximately 12,500 miles per hour (Mach 18). No communication and tracking information were received in Mission Control after that time.

Search and rescue teams in the Dallas-Fort Worth and in portions of East Texas have been alerted. Any debris that is located in the area that may be related to the Space Shuttle contingency should be avoided and may be hazardous as a result of toxic propellants used aboard the shuttle. The location of any possible debris should immediately be reported to local authorities.

Flight controllers in Mission Control have secured all information, notes and data pertinent to today's entry and landing by Space Shuttle Columbia and continue to methodically proceed through contingency plans.

News media covering the Space Shuttle should stay tuned to NASA Television, which is broadcast on AMC-2, transponder 9C, C-Band, located at 85 degrees West longitude. The frequency is 3880.0 MHz. Polarization is vertical and audio is monaural at 6.8 MHz. Reporters can also go to any NASA center newsroom to monitor the situation.

New information, including the times and locations of press briefings, will be posted to this page.

NASA Home Page

[Joe Hadenuf]

They must have some kind of communtications, or reports of a problem from the crew, just prior to this event.........

My bet is that they have some communication from the crew, just prior to this, acknowledging a problem, unless the problem was so damn sudden..........

[Joe Hadenuf]

Thanks......

[Terriergal]

yeah... and of course they're going to publicly say that the loss of the insulation isn't going to be a problem.. because there's nothing to be done about it except carry out the mission. Can you imagine them saying as we watch it going up "whoops we see a piece of the insulation has fallen off... that means they will be burnt to a crisp on reentry, folks."

[Chi-townChief]

That's amazing.

[Steel Wolf]

It has been posted on the other thread that the last voice comm was the pilot giving an instrument reading before the sound faded to static. At Mach 18, whatever went wrong likely became fully catastrophic in less than a second.

[Tree of Liberty]

because there's nothing to be done about it

If the insulation that hit the wing was known to cause a problem on re-entry, at the very least the astronauts could have sought refuge in the space station and ditched the shuttle, or stay up there while the Atlantis or Endeavor goes up to effect repairs.

[Joe Hadenuf]

It has been posted on the other thread that the last voice comm was the pilot giving an instrument reading before the sound faded to static. At Mach 18, whatever went wrong likely became fully catastrophic in less than a second.

No doubt you are correct, however, if debris had hit one of the wings on take off, the crew had to be concerned about that during the mission and it had to be an issue during the entire flight. Do you or anyone else know if the crew and ground control had been discussing this issue during the mission

Thanks to anyone that can answer this.......

[Terriergal]

Possibly.

[chainsaw]

¿¿¿Foam Insulation???

[No Truce With Kings]

"If the insulation that hit the wing was known to cause a problem on re-entry, at the very least the astronauts could have sought refuge in the space station and ditched the shuttle, or stay up there while the Atlantis or Endeavor goes up to effect repairs."

If the wing was damaged on liftoff, then they were doomed from that point on. This Orbiter could not have rendezvoused with ISS. It was in the wrong orbit and the wrong altitude. A nominal launch date of March 1 for the next mission means -- best case and all the angels on your side -- a launch no earlier than 20 February. By then the Columbia crew would have suffocated, as air would probably have run out. Electricity, water, and food reserves would not have lasted much longer. I don't think they had reserves for more than a few more days of any consumable.

Better to go out the way they did. They enjoyed two weeks in space on a good mission and died quickly, without having it creep up on them an inch at a time. I doubt they experienced much pain. It would have been over almost as swiftly as it started.

[DoughtyOne]

If you would like a screen saver of this photo, right click on it to download an 800x600 version.
If you would like a 1024x768 version, please left click.  Once the new photo comes on the screen, right click to download it.
NASA allows free distribution of their images.  This should not be redistributed for profit.
I just noticed a flaw in the larger version and will replace it shortly.

[DoughtyOne]

If you would like a screensaver of the Columbia crew, please see post 51. Thank you.

[M. Peach]

Any chance terrorism is involved?

[joesnuffy]

[No Truce With Kings]

"Any chance terrorism is involved?"

Zip. Zero. Nada.

Whatever brought this bird down we bought it ourselves, fair and square.

The engineers are gonna be busy trying to figure what we did wrong and how we fix it. But we will.

[Siegfried]

How many shuttles are remaining now? The only one I can think of is Endeavor and I haven't heard this subject mentioned by any of the talking hairdo's on TV.

Thanks.

[No Truce With Kings]

Three. From oldest to youngest:

Discovery
Atlantis
Endeavour

[vger]

God bless the brave crew of Columbia.

[P-Marlowe]

I think the fact that they were discussing a problem with tire pressure right before the converstaion was cut off is significant. It is possible that the landing gear doors had been somehow damaged and the heat from re-entry got into the landing gear compartment and the tires exploded. If the tires exploded it would take out the bottom of the craft and the whole craft would instantly disintegrate.

I'd be willing to bet that the problem stemmed from the tires overheating and overinflating.

[Joe Hadenuf]

I'd be willing to bet that the problem stemmed from the tires overheating and overinflating.

Yes, but something caused that to happen, and losing temp sensors had to be cause for alarm just prior to breakup.