Posted on 01/28/2016 4:12:35 AM PST by WhiskeyX
Here is a quick timeline of what occurred around the time of the video: Video recording started at 08:41:35 a.m. (EST) February 1, 2003... Video ends at 08:48:14 a.m. Shuttle is moving at mach 24.66 (18,771 mph) at an altitude of 230,348 ft.
The first indication that something is wrong occurs at 08:48:39 a.m ( 25 seconds after video ends ) when one of the Strain (correlates to force) gauge sensors on the left wing Fails (this is close to where a piece of foam had hit the space shuttle during launch)
Followed by the first sign of unusual Heating occurring at 08:48:59 a.m ( 45 seconds after video ends) when a Temperature sensor near one of the left wing panels that was hit by foam shows an abnormal increase.
Between 08:48:59 a.m ( 45 seconds after video ends) and 08:52:29 a.m. ( 4 minutes 15 seconds after video ends) a number of the sensors on the left side of the shuttle are showing some unusual readings.
Continued...
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
08:52:29 a.m. ( 4 minutes 15 seconds after video ends) First signs of trouble begin to appear on right side of shuttle when approximately 10 percent of the strain gauges in the right wing show a small but unusual data trend.
After this point, heating abnormalities become more and more of a problem causing some holes in the left wing to allow hot gasses to enter the internals of the wing and create imbalances in the flow over the wing.
The shuttle is on auto-pilot and begins making small adjustments to compensate for the abnormal flows which are causing the shuttle to veer off its planned course.
08:53:45 a.m. ( 5 minutes 16 seconds after video ends ) First report of debris observed leaving the orbiter.
For the next 5 minutes, multiple failures occur due to the excessive heat. Debris is seen leaving the orbiter from observers in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Mexico.
At 08:58:04 a.m. ( 9 minutes 5 seconds after video ends ) Very large adjustments are calculated by the auto-pilot to correct major flight instability.
08:58:20 a.m ( 9 minutes 16 seconds after video ends ) Shuttle crosses Mexico border into Texas.
08:58:48 a.m. ( 9 minutes 44 seconds after video ends ) Shuttle Commander Rick Husband transmits a radio communication "And, uh, Hou(ston)..."
08:59:32 a.m. ( 10 minutes 33 seconds after video ends ) Rick Husband transmits his last radio communication "Roger, uh buh (CUTOFF)" (Editor's note: Phonetically, sounded like first syllable of "before" or possibly "both;" he may have been responding to the BFS fault messages for both left-side main landing gear tires) This coincides with the INITIAL LOSS OF SIGNAL (LOS) at which point no data is able to be streamed to mission control.
Major Crash/Breakup occurs around 09:00:02 a.m. A final data burst is transmitted from the shuttle but reports mostly errors and garbled data, only a few of the measurements could be analysed. ( 11 minutes 3 seconds after video ends )
At the time of breakup the shuttle was travelling about 12,500 mph at an altitude of 207,000 feet
Normally this onboard video would have recorded the entire landing sequence all the way to touchdown at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
This video was recovered from the wreckage but the final moments were damaged and so it ends premature.
Unfortunate as it was, at the very least, the crew was doing something they loved. God bless them:
Commander: Rick D. Husband, a U.S. Air Force colonel and mechanical engineer, who piloted a previous shuttle during the first docking with the International Space Station (STS-96).
Pilot: William C. McCool, a U.S. Navy commander
Payload Commander: Michael P. Anderson, a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and physicist who was in charge of the science mission.
Payload Specialist: Ilan Ramon, a colonel in the Israeli Air Force and the first Israeli astronaut.
Mission Specialist: Kalpana Chawla, an Indian-born aerospace engineer who was on her second space mission.
Mission Specialist: David M. Brown, a U.S. Navy captain trained as an aviator and flight surgeon. Brown worked on a number of scientific experiments.
Mission Specialist: Laurel Blair Salton Clark, a U.S. Navy captain and flight surgeon. Clark worked on a number of biological experiments.
In Memoriam
Apollo 1 AS-204 - January 27, 1967; 23:31:19 UTC 49 years ago
Challenger OV-099 - STS-51-L January 28, 1986 11:39:13 EST (16:39:13 UTC) 30 years ago
Columbia OV-102 - February 1, 2003 08:59 EST (13:59 UTC) almost 13 years ago
That is the stuff courage is made of, knowing you will be in peril and proceeding, embracing that danger and going forward. They all have my respect, and undying gratitude for raising the bar to new heights.
Space shuttle crash was, in part, caused by the EPA mandating an environmentally friendly foam on the external fuel tank.
Of course it turned out to be not so environmentally friendly to have several tons of space shuttle and roasted human remains vaporized in the atmosphere over the U.S. on a failed reentry. But, at least NASA got to show how it used that nice ozone-safe foam.
I’m right there beside you. I grew up with the space program and vividly remember every one of these events. These were men (and women),with feet of clay, to be sure. But they were heroes to me, especially Grissom, Chaffee, and White. And I actually got the chance to talk at length with Jack Swigart, the Command Pilot for Apollo 13.
I remember sitting next to the radio, listening to the Jose Jiminez skits, waiting for the countdown...and holding my breath when it started.
It’s a shame what has happened to our space program. Undoubtably there’s political corruption and waste that contributed to the massive shuttle budget. That being said, I wish most of the money we spend on entitlement programs went instead to the space program. We should be on Mars by now.
I’m a 20-year pilot in the US Army. Years ago I went through the process of applying to be an astronaut. It’s tough for us to get in as we’re not fast-mover aviators like Navy and AF. I knew I had about a 1% chance of being accepted. My wife an I would joke that “we” were the perfect candidate if we could combine ourselves. She’s the Johns Hopkins engineer with perfect grades but scared of heights, I was the military test pilot with combat experience.
I’ll never forget watching the Challenger disaster live as it happened. I was 15 watching in a school assembly. Brutal. Also remember Reagan’s incredible speech:
“We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God.”
Still brings tears to my eyes 30 years later.
They actually had problems with the shedding of foam from the External Tank from the very first launch of the Shuttles.
At least they never knew what hit them.
...
Unfortunate as it was, at the very least, the crew was doing something they loved. God bless them.
Indeed.
Cultural suicide by political correctness.
I remember reading, after the fact, that Rick Husband had told his wife ‘if anything happens, just know I’m going higher’. I pray that the loved ones of those lost in our Space programs have carved out a good life, going forward. My heart breaks for the children especially.
I fully agree.
I remember the "Why are we spending all that money in space when we have problems right here at home?" crowd.
Well, if we had spent more in space, we'd have more in space. But instead we spent it here and now we have more problems here.
Funny how that worked.
I have to wonder if there was that fleeting recognition of their predicament. They were professionals, after all. It is a shame, either way.
I will never forget the image of being in the massive Gift Shop, or whatever they called it then, and seeing all of the TV's running the VCR tape of 20+ minutes of debris falling from the sky following the explosion. That tape was for sale at the time and I did not have the presence of mind to buy it right then and there. I returned a few months later and was told that the tape was no longer for sale.
That was an America to be proud of. And men who carried that pride with them everywhere they went.
Thanks for the link to the video.
I was a Shuttle engineer working for Rockwell out of Downey, CA for many years.
I have related the story below a couple of times, but I want to insure that future space historians have all the facts to determine what really happened with Columbia.
I was assigned to a team from Lab & Test Dept. to go to JSC and make them aware of the problems with the RCC leading edge on Columbia. I do not recall the year, but I think it was between 1995 and 1997.
Specifically, L&T found tiny craters on the RCC leading edge after one of Columbia’s flights. Note that the RCC was visually checked for problems using magnified images.
L&T concluded that the shock wave off the nose was impinging on the RCC (Reinforced Carbon-Carbon) leading edge resulting in very high heating rates in that area. At high enough temps, the oxygen molecules were crossing the glass coating and forming CO (carbon monoxide) which then outgassed causing the craters. They reproduced these results in the Lab.
L&T dubbed this process “de-densification” and showed that the RCC lost it’s structural integrity over time. After CT scanning, they learned that the RCC on Columbia had become so weak, you could poke your finger through it.
I was in that meeting at JSC and still have my notes on who was there.
I recall that at the time we were told, “RCC is $30,000 per square foot. There is NO money in the budget to replace the leading edge on Columbia”.
I left the program to work on the CSOC proposal.
Did they replace the RCC before the foam impact? I do not know and most of my contacts have retired.
Someone needs to look into this to find out if it was simply the foam or whether the weakened RCC was an accident waiting to happen.
Ice-laden foam was always a hazard and known risk. However, the loss of the Orbiter may have also been due to a budgetary oversight by the Agency.
I hope my information helps.
Thank you, that fits into the kind of stories I was hearing from some engineers. You may find this interesting:
Case Histories
Journal of Failure Analysis and Prevention
February 2006, Volume 6, Issue 1, pp 39-45
Failure analysis of the space shuttle Columbia RCC leading edge
M. Bykowski, A. Hudgins, R. M. Deacon, A. R. Marder
NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia: Quick Facts
and Issues for Congress
Marcia S. Smith
Specialist in Aerospace and Telecommunications Policy
http://www.iwar.org.uk/news-archive/crs/20245.pdf
Corrosion Suggested in Shuttle Crash
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3077582/#.VqpKGM_2Yu4
The Untold Story: Columbia Shuttle Disaster and Mysterious ‘Day 2 Object’
http://news.yahoo.com/untold-story-columbia-shuttle-disaster-mysterious-day-2-135349666.html
Timeline
http://www.iasa-intl.com/folders/shuttle/RCCdegTimeline.htm
Dynamic Impact Tolerance of Shuttle RCC Leading Edge
Panels Using LS-DYNA
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20050220706.pdf
Materials Analysis: A Key to Unlocking the Mystery of the Columbia Tragedy
Brian M. Mayeaux, Thomas E. Collins, Gregory A. Jerman, Steven J. McDanels, Robert S. Piascik, Richard W. Russell, and Sandeep R. Shah
http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/0402/Mayeaux-0402.html
Test and Analysis Correlation of Form Impact onto
Space Shuttle Wing Leading Edge RCC Panel 8
http://www.cs.odu.edu/~mln/ltrs-pdfs/NASA-2004-8lsdyna-elf.pdf
CASE STUDY: AXIOMATIC DESIGN OF THE SPACE SHUTTLE WING – LEADING
EDGE
http://www.axiomaticdesign.com/technology/icad/icad2004/icad-2004-35.pdf
One of those authors was the JSC customer that we visited about the weakened RCC leading edge.
I am a busy guy with a business to run. However, I still have my notes archived including the notes from that meeting.
Someday, I will write a book about what I know.
By the way, if anyone has a geiger counter, I was told that there is a nuke reactor buried under the old runway at the Downey plant.
One day in 1983 or so, I was chatting with one of the old timers from North American.
He said, “I think everyone else on the team is dead now. I am probably the only one who knows.”
“What?” I asked.
He then told me, “Back in the late 40s, every aircraft company wanted to have a nuclear reactor. We got a contract from the government and set up a small reactor. When the government suddenly canceled the program in 1949, we dug a hole under the runway and buried it in concrete. Almost nobody knew because the program was classified”.
I think it is a car sales lot now. This would be South of Stewart & Gray and East of Lakewood in Downey. The old runways ran diagonal across the back of the lot. They used to build and fly Consolidated Vultee aircraft out of there as well as North American aircraft later.
I have a geiger counter but no time to go search for it.
The land belonged to the USAF before it got deeded to the City of Downey, IIRC.
I guess that now I am the Old Timer, hah!
The Downey location is where we visited the Space Shuttle Inspiration while doing some location scouting for a motion picture. We also went up to the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, where I took a number of location shots. I think I still have those somewhere in storage.
For the information about the nuclear reactor at Downey, see the Water Boiler Neutron Source at:
Atomics International
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Atomics International was a division of the North American Aviation company (later acquired by the Rockwell International company) which engaged principally in the early development of nuclear technology and nuclear reactors for both commercial and government applications. Atomics International was responsible for a number of accomplishments relating to nuclear energy: design, construction and operation of the first nuclear reactor in California (1952),[1] the first nuclear reactor to produce power for a commercial power grid in the United States (1957)[2] and the first nuclear reactor launched into outer space by the United States (1965).[3]
[....]
Company history
Following World War II, the potential of nuclear power captured the interest of the United States Government and the general public. In 1948, North American Aviation created an internal organization called the Atomic Energy Research Department to manage its government and commercial nuclear research and development activities. The Atomic Energy Research Department designed, constructed and operated a 5 watt thermal aqueous homogeneous reactor at Downey, California, which on April 21, 1952 became the first nuclear reactor to operate in the State of California.[5] In 1955, the AERD was renamed the Atomics International division of North American Aviation.
[....]
Downey Facility
The Atomic Energy Research Development Group began operations in the North American Aviation plant located on Lakewood Drive in Downey, California. They performed basic research and constructed at least one aqueous homogeneous reactor named the Water Boiler Neutron Source. The four watt reactor was shut down and moved to the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in December 1955.[12] The reactor-related facilities were examined and determined to be free of residual radioactivity and reused as general office space. The Downey facility was transferred to the City of Downey and the buildings subsequently demolished and replaced with a variety of commercial buildings.
[....]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomics_International#Downey_Facility
Whiskey, that is excellent research.
However, I am talking about a DIFFERENT reactor. The program was classified, therefore the reactor was not known to the public. According to my source, this reactor did NOT end up at Santa Susanna.
I’ll bet there were not more than 5 execs or managers in the company that even knew it existed. Everybody who was on the project had long since died. That was in 1983.
I don’t know how much experience you have, but in some of the companies that I worked for, the Black programs had a different chain of command than the regular programs. The Division President and COO did not know exactly what was being done in their own divisions or buildings. And they knew not to ask either.
I know this because one of my inventions became classified. I had to brief some corporate guy that you would never suspect of being in the loop. There was only one level above him instead of the usual chain of command that was five levels deep.
Unless the old man lied, there IS a nuke reactor buried under the runway.
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