Italian astronaut: Re-entry angle incorrect?

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Sunday, February 2, 2003

[JohnHuang2]

An Italian astronaut who's been on two space flights says an incorrect angle of re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere could have caused the space shuttle Columbia to disintegrate.

Falling space shuttle debris (Photo: nbc5i.com)

"It is too early to speculate on the precise causes of the accident but the images from Texas suggest that the Columbia broke up into at least three pieces due to an improper angle as it returned into the atmosphere," Umberto Guidoni told Italy's ANSA news agency.

NASA declared an emergency after losing all contact with Columbia 16 minutes before it was due to land at 9:16 a.m. Eastern. It was at an altitude of 200,700 feet at the time, traveling at 12,500 mph.

"Re-entry through the atmosphere is one of the most critical moments in the mission of the shuttle," Guidoni said. "An error of several degrees could provoke a catastrophe similar to what happened today."

"The angle of penetration should be at 40 degrees to the horizon. ... The margin of error is at most three or four degrees. Beyond that range the shuttle becomes uncontrollable."

[JohnHuang2]

Sunday, February 2, 2003

Quote of the Day by monocle

[Northern Yankee]

I find this statement rather absurd, as their angle of descent is monitored by onboard computers, computers at the Space Center, and by the astronauts themselves.

These guys are the cream of the crop, and know what the hell they are doing. They understand the problems with a wrong angle of descent can result in destruction, so it is all done with extreme care.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

I think Guidoni could be confusing cause and effect. By the time he was able to see the angle of descent, it seems likely that the shuttle had already been thrown off its normal path by loss of tiles or other components.

[Northern Yankee]

Good Point!

I am also curious as to how he can tell the angle of descent at 200,000 feet.

[bmwcyle]

If the left wing started burning, the shuttle can not hold the angle.

[BullDog108]

Italian astronaut!?!? Whodathunk? Isn't he the one on the mission to the sun? Ya know, the one that landed at night so it wouldn't burn up?

[Clara Lou]

Gee, here's news we haven't heard before-- the wrong angle of renetry could have caused the break-up. That Italian is just brilliant. And, to top it all off, what good does is such idle speculation?

[Clara Lou]

"entry"

[mewzilla]

Well, hope they look at the software, anyway. For a number of reasons.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I was wondering about that at about 9:15 EST, but the the flight director said the trajectory was "perfect...nominal" so I discounted it. From what I've read the trajectory is determined from downlinked onboard sensors, there do not seem to be a lot of external sensors, like radar or optical. The volume 200,000 feet above Texas - or almost any that isn't a missile range - isn't particularly interesting. One or two instrumentation radar and an optical tracker might be in the budget in the future.

In 1986, the recovery of the Challenger was complicated by the fact that a software "upgrade" had reduced the bandwidth of the instrumentation radar tracker loop, which resulted in smoother and more accurate tracks in nominal conditions, but caused a loss of track on this occasion.

[mewzilla]

Mr. Mew just told me that Columbia's two year refit included the new glass cockpit and the fly by wire capability, and this was only the second flight with it. So this could have something to do with it, if the software encountered something it was programmed for or programmed correctly for.

[mewzilla]

not prorammed for...And what about the attitude? Was that normal, has anyone heard?

[_Jim]

Italian astronaut: Re-entry angle incorrect?
WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Sunday, February 2, 2003

NOT according to the telemetry NASA was receiving back!

Because: NASA has like this Ultimate Onstar system -

- they can read the Space Shuttle's speed, their altitude, and the spacecraft's attitude which includes yaw, roll and pitch.

So, like these folks at World Nut Daily and this astronaut REALLY don't know how the Space Shuttle is instrumented?

If so, - it sounds like they are engaging in un-informed journalism!

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

All day yesterday I said I think we will find it was a tile problem. When they did lift off, an object hit a wing.

Many years ago, I remember being GLUED to the tv, as we watched a re-entry worried about the exact same thing. That trip ended well. But the point was made that if a tile was damaged, it could cause the Shuttle to burn up during re-entry. I wondered why the Astronauts didn't do a spacewalk and check it out.

Later yesterday, we heard that they didn't have the payload arm on board and they couldn't do a walk. But today, I heard a veteran Astronaut say they could have done a walk.

We are afraid that this will end up being the cause. It was an important issue a long time ago.. and something DID happen on take off. Did the debri cause damage to a tile? IF so.. it was a fatal mistake. Hopefully, we will find out for sure, and prevent such a tragedy in the future.

God Bless the crew..and prayers continue for their families and friends.

Prayers continue for the Black Hawk crews, and other service members who also have died recently.

Our nation and our troops remain in our prayers daily.

Vets

[mr.pink]

I am also curious as to how he can tell the angle of descent at 200,000 feet.

On one of the final communications between mission control and the shuttle, mission control states the descent at angle at "57 degrees to horizontal" (I'm 95% sure that's what I heard).

There was no alarm, or trace of concern in the voice of the controller.

[_Jim]

Italian astronaut: Re-entry angle incorrect?

I guess my questions to this astronaut would be:

Did you observe the press conference NASA gave at the KSC yesterday where Milt Heflin gave a rundown of what the telemetry showed in those final few minutes?

Does he recall Milt saying that the flight looked normal up through at least 7:65 AM CDT?

[mewzilla]

But shuttles have lost a few tiles before, up to a couple of dozen was the worst I'd heard, though it would depend on where they were lost, too. What I don't get is why if there was a heat problem, no heat spikes were registered before the break-up, just a loss of sensors in the left wing.

[meyer]

This, to me, seems like an insult to the intelligence of those at NASA. They've flown hundreds of spacecraft out and back into the atmosphere - I would suspect that they know, within a much smaller margin than 3-4 degrees, what the angle of entry ought to be.

[TLBSHOW]

Thanks for posting this one.

[Lancey Howard]

I have not heard mention of turbulence.
Would an encounter with severe turbulence at a critical manuever cause enough of a change in trajectory to cause burn-up? Or could turbulence at the right instant knock off some tiles?