NASA briefing on Columbia shuttle tragedy
(14 Feb 2003)
Houston, Texas February 1, 2003 (NASA TV - Access All)
1. Shuttle tracking on screen
2. UPSOUND Flight Director
"Everything look good to you? Control and right seems normal right?"
3. UPSOUND Flight Control
"Control has been stable through the rolls that we've ..."
4. UPSOUND Flight Director
"Go ahead Max"
5. UPSOUND Flight Control
"FYI I've just lost four seperate temperature transducers on the left side of the vehicle. The hydraulic return temperatures."
Houston, Texas February 14, 2003
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Leroy Cain Flight Director
"From the very first indications that we had of the hydraulic return temperature indications failed, that gave me pause. There were several smaller events leading up to the loss of signal where I became increasingly concerned given that most of the activity in the sensors that were failed and the like was on the left wing. So there was som increasing concern."
Houston, Texas February 1, 2003 (NASA TV - Access All)
7. UPSOUND Flight Director
"Columbia Houston com check"
Houston, Texas February 14, 2003
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Leroy Cain Flight Director
"We had recieved some unconfirmed information based on some sightings and when I put that information with the known events that we already had it gave me great puase."
Houston, Texas February 1, 2003 (NASA TV - Access All)
9. UPSOUND Flight Director
"TC Flight, lock the doors."
Houston, Texas February 14, 2003
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Leroy Cain Flight Director
"The first time I thought about that was the very first call from the mechanical systems officer, from Max, that said that flight max had lost four hydraulic return temperature indications."
Houston, Texas February 1, 2003 (NASA TV - Access All)
11. Flight Controller crying
12. Video screen of telemetry
STORYLINE:
The Columbia investigation board is trying to zero in on what caused the hole in the shuttle's aluminum skin that apparently allowed super-hot gases to penetrate the wing
and destroy the spacecraft.
The investigators have said that a gash or some other kind of
breach probably doomed the spacecraft.
The board is analyzing various possible causes for the breach.
One possibility, raised from the very start of the investigation, is that the shuttle was damaged by a hard piece of foam insulation that fell off the external fuel tank during liftoff.
On Friday, flight director Leroy Cain said that the foam debris immediately came to mind on Feb. 1 during the shuttle's final moments when he was first told of sensors breaking down in the spacecraft's left wing as it glided toward home.
"That gave me pause. That was the first time I had thought
about that debris hit we took on ascent," Cain said. But he said that when he learned about the sensor readings, he did not imagine that it would spell the end for the shuttle and its crew: "I did not think that we would lose it."
One by one, sensors embedded throughout Columbia's left wing
began recording unusual readings as the shuttle approached the California coast on Feb. 1. The precise meaning of those readings was not immediately clear to Mission Control, Cain said.
The wings have only a few sensors, not enough to confirm in real time whether the landing gear hatch had come open or had been breached to allow the superheated gases, called plasma, to penetrate the wing, he added.
Seven minutes after the first indication of a problem, Columbia broke up in the sky over Texas, killing its crew of seven.
In Mission Control, it took minutes for the flight team to
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Пікірлер: 55
Linda ham is to blame for not releasing video imagery !
Love ❤️LeRoy Cain. Even with that kind of mental and emotional stress, he was so professional and cool.
@DominicciSkycam
3 жыл бұрын
well Leroy Cain had a meeting on Jan 23 (7 - 8 days before) where he spoke to Barbara Conte and he said that he did not want help from DOD to get images of the impact on the left wing of the Shuttle. Phil Engelauf, the guy sitting behind Cain and the guy that tells him Bryan Austin saw the shuttle break up - was the same person who convinced Leroy Cain that the impact of the debris on the left wing of the Shuttle was a turnaround issue and not a safety issue. So mr. moustache and Leroy Cain BOTH were involved in squashing requests for better imaging of the impact. "The SSP was asked directly if they had any interest/desire in requesting resources outside of NASA to view the Orbiter (ref. the wing leading edge debris concern). They said, No. After talking to Phil, I consider it to be a dead issue." - Leroy Cain - Thursday, January 23, 2003 12:07 PM. Mr Moustache, Phil Engelauf, FD Leroy Cain, Linda Ham, Calvin Schomburg did everything they could to keep the STS program on schedule, instead of addressing safety concerns that ended up costing these astronauts their lives.
Mr. Cain, you are a hero in my book. God Bless the efforts of all involved. Amen.
You did the very best you could mate. You're a hero in my eyes. You kept your cool and remained professional at a time of horror and dismay. Hats off to you sir. I just hope the someone who decided not to inspect the wing is held responsible one day
RIP Columbia and all her crew. 18 years ago today 2/1/2003-2/1/2021.
The lock the doors. Chills
Today is the first I heard about this incident. I'm devastated. More so by the fact that it could have been prevented and that they could have spacewalked to another shuttle. Rest in Peace those we lost on STS-107. :(
@tusse67
3 жыл бұрын
Had they looked into the issue, they would have faced a different problem. Due to normalization of deviance foam strikes was considered harmless. Realizing the damage this would no longer be possible, as foam strikes would now be categorized a potential LOCV. Had they rushed Atlantis for a rescue mission it would risk suffering the same fate. Would it be fair to risk the lives of even more astronauts? Tough call! Of course there would be astronauts more than willing to risk it to go save their collegues and had they succeeded it would be NASA’s finest hour up there with Apollo 13. Sadly, this disaster, like Challenger, was a demonstration of a couple of the serious design flaws (or compromises if you will) of the shuttle... Strapping your fragile heat shield, not designed to stand any impacts, on the side of the rocket was bad decision, as was strapping your human payload to SRB’s excluding the possibility of an abort until they were burned out (you would risk being caught in their plume had the shuttle aborted the stack prematurely... same reason the ejection seats on the first shuttle launches was just for show... furthermore the shuttle probably couldn’t take the dynamic loads of an abort in the lower atmosphere).
@t.mitchell9135
3 жыл бұрын
@@tusse67 Yes, while not theoretically impossible, a rescue mission with Atlantis would have been so difficult as to be practically impossible. Challenger was a very preventable tragedy. Columbia not so much.
@thhomasmarks
Жыл бұрын
Linda ham of NASA blocked two separate requests for Imaging photography of the left wing and is the person responsible for the death of the Columbia crew.
I would like to make this clear. The block of foam that hit the left wing was the size of a breifcase...roughly 1.6lb in weight. Now!! The 1.6lb of foam would not have damaged the left wing on it's own...what do i mean? The 1.6lb of foam could not have damaged the left wing on its own....the 1.6lb of foam was dry before lift off....once the shuttke gets to the stratosphere temperature changes. Also...the foam absorbed some water in the air. Now once the foam becomes wet and the shuttle is entering the stratosphere...that damp foam will freeze. So now you have a piece of foam the size of a suitcase that weighed 1.6lb has just turned into a block of ice...it's no longer 1.6lb..its no longer brittle foam. When you hit a wing with a block of ice at 5600mph you can be sure damage will occur. It's not nasa fault. It's not the engineer's at fault. It's not the astronauts fault. Its not mission controls fault. This was an unprecedented or unthought of situation. Yes in the past small parts of foam had fallen of...but not this size and not at that altitude or speed. Shit happens and we don't know of it till it actually happens. Merry Christmas.🌲
@yogabee2222
2 жыл бұрын
You miss the point that although damage from the high velocity impact was no one's fault it was the responsibility to have informed the crew and assessment of the damage. They had a fiduciary responsibility to inform the crew.
Linda Ham
Why did he gave the command to "Lock the doors"?
@AnakinIT
4 жыл бұрын
To avoid that staff people leaves Flight control room. They must stay there for an interview with flight director and to make sure that all logs, telemetry and any kind of useful data is saved and kept safe for further investigations. I think that they should also switch off phones and other things that allow to communicate outside just to avoid possible witnesses alterations due to speaking with other person about that fact. "Lock the doors" is used when crew is dead during mission, it has been used two times: 1986 (Challenger) and 2003 (Columbia, this video).
@TheAhmedvienna
4 жыл бұрын
It's a crime scene. Must be preserved.
@jacko4932
4 жыл бұрын
Turns Mission Control into a crime scene, no one can leave,
By luck or chance if some one survives they must ask to Nasa at least you inform us after mission we can do something and still alive. Why Nasa why ?
He knew they were doomed way before re-entry. They all knew the crew were dead the moment they seen the damage to the wing
@hoghogwild
4 жыл бұрын
No one ever saw ANY damage of the wing, that's the problem. All that was seen was a 1.6 pound piece of foam hitting the wing at at 540mph.
@benwinn6075
3 жыл бұрын
Very false. They didn't know. After NASA investigated the piece of foam falling off during lift off, NASA "thought" that they were fine. The crew wasn't told of the risk. They didn't know they were doomed.
@Furious703
3 жыл бұрын
@@hoghogwild 1.6lb ? Yeah, that's what it should've been....you forgot to mention that while the shuttle was approaching the stratosphere THAT...1.6lb of foam became wet and then froze...it was literally a breifcase size of ice that hit the wing.
@hoghogwild
3 жыл бұрын
@@Furious703 No, that piece of foam was not wet, the Thermal Protection System's tiles are injected with a waterproofing chemical to prevent such incidences. Moisture in the TPS would indeed freeze and cause the tiles to degrade.
@clintonire4579
Жыл бұрын
@@hoghogwild well someone forgot or missed the injection in a spot. That isn't possible though... Right?
Herr Direktor
Why Nasa didn't try to rescue them in back up pods, at least they inform them after mission before re entry they try to fix or space walk, you are in earth but they are in space near the flight they have one chance to do something.
@DavidVerbout
4 ай бұрын
@sambro5968 Because, contrary to popular belief, the powers that be CAN and DO put a price on human. If human life were truly priceless, there would never be war.
Dostana pomniki jak Elvis presley
Criminals and murders too those already knows while lift up, spent crores in Afghanistan didn't have back up plans to rescue ! Missions is important life is not.
As usual,as usual,nobody but the lost astronauts burned for NASA's mission failure!
He order his crew to lock the doors after realizing what happened. They should have put Leroy in prison and locked his cell door for not following up on the foam strike. How much we're we paying this clown?
@hoghogwild
4 жыл бұрын
He was a Flight Director, it wasnt up to him to follow up on anything. That responsibility laid with the management, ie Linda Ham.
@moulivikramkg
4 жыл бұрын
lock the door means - the crew is dead. he cant do anything at the movement
@michelleroberts4476
4 жыл бұрын
Lock the doors is a request for data to be kept safe
@michelleroberts4476
4 жыл бұрын
And might I add he was utterly professional
@hoghogwild
4 жыл бұрын
@@michelleroberts4476 Yes, no one enters or leaves. No one walks in or out with a thumb drive, a stack of papers, or has any contact with the outside world. The call for "Lock the doors" is akin to NASA "circling the wagons" in regards to keeping internal information inside. Think of this as NASA's way of containing a crime scene, just like the police place that yellow "police tape" around their scenes where major incidents occur. Mr . Cain is simply following the NASA Contingency Operations manual. Closing and "locking the doors" is literally portion of a checklist that all flight directors would following, no matter exactly who is the Flight Director that day.