Posted on 02/02/2003 6:35:58 PM PST by TLBSHOW
Astronauts doomed from the start
THE seven astronauts on space shuttle Columbia may have been doomed in the first moments after they were shot into space 16 days ago.
NASA officials are investigating whether loose foam from an external tank that struck Columbia's left wing during takeoff contributed to its disintegration under the stress of re-entering the Earth's atmosphere – one of the most dangerous parts of any shuttle mission. The last words between mission control at Houston and shuttle commander Rick Husband gave no clue of impending disaster:
Mission control: "Columbia, Houston, we see your tyre pressure messages and we did not copy your last."
Cdr Husband: "Roger, but . . ." No more was heard.
The homeward-bound space shuttle broke up in flames and trails of smoke and vapour over Texas yesterday, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
The disaster struck 16 minutes before Columbia, the oldest in the shuttle fleet at 22 years, was due to land at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Echoing the tragedy of space shuttle Challenger, which stunned the world 17 years last week, Columbia exploded at an altitude of about 63km as it was travelling 18 times the speed of sound.
The explosion scattered debris and human remains across hundreds of square kilometres in Texas and Louisiana and shook houses in the area around Nacogdoches, Texas.
Police in Hemphill, eastern Texas, said human remains believed to be from the crew of Columbia had been recovered.
"I can confirm human remains from the space shuttle Columbia have been found in the debris," Hemphill police spokeswoman Karen Steele said, declining to elaborate.
A burnt torso and thigh bone were found on a Texan country road while elsewhere a scorched helmet and arm patch from one of the space suits were discovered.
In a televised address to the nation, an emotional President George W. Bush paid homage to the astronauts, saying, "The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to earth but we can pray that they are safely home".
The sparse information NASA had yesterday seemed to point to failures on the craft's left side.
Sensors on the shuttle's left wing and in the left wheel gear detected a sudden temperature increase or failure minutes before the vehicle exploded 63km over Texas as it flew at more than 20,000km/h.
NASA had concluded only two days ago there was no serious damage to the tiles, but was uncertain last night.
"As we look at that now in hindsight we cannot discount that there might be a connection," stunned shuttle manager Ron Dittemore said.
Investigators have all but ruled out terrorism as a cause because the shuttle's high altitude and extreme speed effectively put it out of range of an attack from the ground.
Officials are focusing on the extent of damage sustained during take-off.
Experts said many other malfunctions could have destroyed the shuttle during re-entry, when a cocoon of hot plasma envelops the spacecraft.
Columbia's underside and the leading edges of its wings would have been subjected to some of the highest temperatures during re-entry – up to 1650C – as friction from air rushing by heated its surface, experts said.
During this critical period, computers control the shuttle's angle of descent as it flies with its nose pointed about 40 degrees upward; the slightest deviation from the ideal orientation can expose underprotected parts of the vessel, causing it to burn up.
The shuttle's chief defences against an inferno are about 28,000 heat-resistant tiles attached to its vulnerable aluminium exterior. Experts have worried about the tiles' tendency to break off during flights since the earliest days of experimental test flights.
Relatives of the astronauts – six Americans and an Israeli – watched in horror while waiting at Cape Canaveral's VIP area to welcome their loved ones.
Residents in Texas, Louisiana and Alabama reported hearing the explosion as the shuttle fell apart at more than 18 times the speed of sound.
Bob Molter from Palestine, Texas, said he had seen the shuttle break up in the sky.
"There was a big boom that shook the house for more than a minute, and I went outside because I thought there had been a train accident," he said.
"I looked up and saw the trails of smoke zig-zagging, going across the sky."
Thousand of pieces of debris landed over vast areas of Texas and Louisiana which experts said may take years to find. People were warned not to touch any wreckage because it might be contaminated with toxic propellants.
President George W. Bush rushed to the White House from where he described the disaster in a televised address as a national tragedy.
"The Columbia is lost. There are no survivors," he said, before later ordering all flags be flown at half-mast.
The crew, six of whom were married and five of whom had children, were relatively inexperienced. Only three had flown in space before.
NASA has ruled out human error.
ROTFLMCO!
I don't understand why everyone gets so angry over these discussions and I don't mean to raise heart rates over this issue.
You realize, don't you, that that is the photographer's characterization of his own pictures, that NASA hasn't seen them yet.
Klingons or Romulans?
And I agree. My point was that there was damage to the left wing during takeoff, the extent of which was not known, and it should have been checked out. "Utopia" and "perfection" have nothing to do with it.
On the other hand, maybe there was no way to "check it out" - - in which case we have another problem, and an inexcusable one, given the history of debris flying off the fuel tanks and tiles leaving the orbiter during launch. (See Jael's post #140.) "Utopia" and "perfection" have nothing to do with that, either.
"In addition, Dittemore said images taken by an observer in California that appears to show an early trail of debris behind the shuttle will be examined and compared with the actual telemetry.
"We're going to overlay his report with what the data shows to us and hopefully the two of them will help us piece together a path that might help lead us to the cause," Dittemore said. "Again, we're very early in our analysis and we're still poring over a lot of data. So bear with us as we go through this effort and bear with us as we report to you because it's going to be fluid, it's going to change, and it's certainly possible we'll contradict ourselves from day to day. That's just the nature of what we have to go through right now."
BINGO!
Possible damage to the left wing heat-shield tiles MAY NOT have been the ultimate cause of the break up, but it SHOULD have been checked out instead of just ASSUMING such a CRITICALLY IMPORTANT item was okay.
See my post #185.
Here's what you said:
That being said, if a few did fall off over California, the catastrophic events wouldn't have happened immediately and since it was traveling so fast, I still think the even happened over Texas.
I don't believe that a few tiles coming off would've caused immediate catastrophy. I believe that a few tiles coming off would've caused burn-through and would've taken a few minutes.
Well they were green and small ....but Im unsure of their religion, maybe baptist
What is the reason the shuttle did not do what it was expected to? I am sure that is what TLBSHOW is asking for.
Yes, I know. But I believe that the damage on launch was extraordinary damage due to the size of the object that struck the wing and the way it sprayed as if it was brittle.
Per NASA's own reports. It takes a big hole to cause real damge and loss of the orbiter.
Yep. Or missing tiles in crucial areas.
NASA considers loos of up to 40 tiles routine.
Yes I know.
But a big whack taking out a group of 10-12 might be a completely different result.
This is what could've happened on launch.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.