Columbia's Problems Began on Left Wing

NYT.com ^

[John Jamieson]

NASA did say at first that some sensors showed high temps, then changed it to: all of them failed low as if the wires were cut.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

I read in an earlier post that the repairing of the tiles in space was impossible due to the cold.

Nothing is impossible!

Have you ever seen a lineman up a pole in a cocoon on a cold day?

There are ultrastrong adherents that can be prepared in a warm ready-box.

[John Jamieson]

Should they have carried spare parts for every possibility? Each tile is different and has a serial number.

[Sub-Driver]

I'm sure that will NOW be SOP........(standard operating procedure, for those non military types)

[adaven]

Where do you think it was for the past 16 days?

Nowhere near the IIS.

[mewzilla]

I think that guy later said during the conference that he misspoke, and that what they noticed was the sudden loss of signal. No spike.

[mewzilla]

The early flights did indeed carry tile repair kits. If repairs were impossible, why bother?

[bribriagain]

Your tag is great!

[Republic of Texas]

When Challenger exploded, NASA said not to speculate on the cause prior to their investigation. Ironically, the investigation, which took years, confirmed the original speculation, the O-ring.

I think that may be the case here. So far, the signs point to the tiles. We'll see.

[TheDon]

"Dittemore said that even if the astronauts had gone out on an emergency spacewalk, there was no way a spacewalker could have safely checked under the wings, which bear the brunt of heat re-entry and have reinforced protection.

Even if they did find damage, there was nothing the crew could have done to fix it, he said.

``There's nothing that we can do about tile damage once we get to orbit,'' Dittemore said. ``We can't minimize the heating to the point that it would somehow not require a tile. So once you get to orbit, you're there and you have your tile insulation and that's all you have for protection on the way home from the extreme thermal heating during re-entry.''

The shuttle was not equipped with its 50-foot robot arm because it was not needed during this laboratory research mission, and so the astronauts did not have the option of using the arm's cameras to get a look at the damage.

NASA did not request help in trying to observe the damaged area with ground telescopes or satellites, in part because it did not believe the pictures would be useful, Dittemore.

Long-distance pictures did not help flight controllers when they wanted to see the tail of space shuttle Discovery during John Glenn's flight in 1998; the door for the drag-chute compartment had fallen off seconds after liftoff. "

I heard this part of the shuttle manager's answer to a question, and was chilled. He almost made it sound like they would send the crew to their deaths if they found the tiles damaged, so why bother looking at them.

If this played a part in the thinking, the shuttle program should be closed down permanently. That attitude is not what one would expect from the NASA "can do".

Either the people need to change that kind of thinking, or if it is valid, they need to provide solutions for this kind of problem.

It would seem a member of the crew could have been tethered and taken a look at the damage. If the call was made that it was unsafe, why not dock with the space station, and send down as many people as possible with the ISS rescue pod? Sure it leaves no failsafe for whoever is left behind, but it gives more chance for survival. Hopefully, those left of the ISS would have enough life support to last until another shuttle rescues them, or some other rockets are sent to take them home.

The ISS should have sufficient rescue pods for an entire shuttle crew, and the ISS crew.

[OReilly]

It wasn't the tire pressure, but the compartment where the tires are located. The heat sensor went off, which could mean the missing tiles allowed heat to get into the interior areas.

I disagree, the sensor in the Landing gear compartment could easily have burnt up and started reporting (off scale low). One of the astronauts sent a text message indicating a problem with the tire pressures. Houston Acknowledged the text message and said your last voice transmission was not clear. That was the last TX.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

It's time to re-engineer new shuttles.

My son will be studying aeronautical engineering and design soon.

Today he told me he will dedicate himself to designing a safer shuttle.

That's my boy!!

[Pushi]

Could they have aborted the flight immediately after the foam hit the wing and landed in Spain?

[Ditter]

This piece answers the question I have had in my mind all day. The answer is no, nothing could have been done to save them. God rest their souls.

[John Jamieson]

I know, I was there.

[John Jamieson]

The problem was found reviewing film, hours after liftoff.

[Republic of Texas]

Did you work for NASA?

[cgbg]

I don't know if NASA had a contingency plan for something like this. I would hope they had one

I am afraid you just found out what their contingency plan is.

(1) Call the President and tell him the bad news.

(2) Keep the families away from the press.

(3) Mobilize local and federal emergency teams to recover debris.

Some of the NASA speeches sound like they came from the script of Capricorn One.:-(

[Campion]

Where do you think it was for the past 16 days?

Columbia was not docked with the ISS; it was in a different and lower orbit doing experiments with the Spacehab module.

Columbia was heavier than the newer orbiters, and couldn't get up to the ISS's orbital altitude under any circumstances. Also, on this mission, its orbit was at a totally different inclination.

[VRWC For Truth]

It was the second time in just four months that a piece of fuel-tank foam came off during a shuttle liftoff. In October, Atlantis lost a piece of foam that ended up striking the aft skirt of one of its solid-fuel booster rockets. At the time, the damage was thought to be superficial. Dittemore said this second occurrence ``is certainly a signal to our team that something has changed.''

Well, duh. Who's guarding the hen house? The fox?