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Updated Information On Columbia Shuttle Tragedy
Thanks to all the readers who have sent links related to today's shuttle disaster. An Associated Press story carried on Salon says that an independent board (with members from the Air Force, Navy, Transportation Department and other federal agencies) has been appointed to investigate the disaster. CNN is carrying official statement from President Bush. Rediff.com has an article on the life of Indian astronaut Kalpana Chawla. borisonanovitch points to "more info on the science aboard Columbia and links to other NASA research." fabel reminds us "Most of the media is focusing on the slight damage that ocurred at takeoff (that NASA discounted at the time) but STS-107 was *delayed* for 6 months (original launch date 19 Jul 2003) Update: 02/01 23:51 GMT by T : [Note, should read "2002."] because of
cracks in the propellant feed lines to the 3 main engines. A defect that could have caused catastrophic failure. Did the fix work or not?"
Independent board to probe space shuttle
... There has never been enough money to do all the things we want to do in space. But that was true before this disaster and will be true after this disaster."
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By MATT KELLEY
Feb. 1, 2003 | WASHINGTON (AP) --
The government appointed an independent board Saturday to investigate the space shuttle Columbia disaster.
Experts from the Air Force and Navy -- which had five of the seven crew members -- will join officials from the Transportation Department and other federal agencies on the review panel, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said.
The space agency also will conduct its own investigation into the disaster, O'Keefe said at a news conference from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Both investigations will review all the information NASA collected as the Columbia began its
descent for landing, then started breaking up more than 200,000 feet over Texas.
That information would include transmissions from the crew, as well as records from the shuttle's sensors, analysis of the debris and data from military, government and commercial satellites.
Military satellites with infrared detectors saw several flashes as Columbia broke apart, according to a defense official who spoke only on condition of anonymity. It was unclear whether those "spikes"of heat indicated an explosion, the burning of pieces of debris re- entering the atmosphere or something else.
O'Keefe and other senior administration officials said there was no indication that any kind of attack from the ground caused the disaster.
FBI spokeswoman Angela Bell also said there was no indication of terrorism and that the FBI would have a minor role in the investigation, mainly helping collect evidence.
The independent investigation - similar to one after the 1986 explosion of the shuttle Challenger - is meant to assure the public and Congress that the cause of the disaster will be found and fixed.
"You can expect the shuttle (program) will be on hold and we will be waiting for the investigation to be completed,"said Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, who is on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
"NASA, the administration and Congress have faced tough choices in regard to funding
The Federal Emergency Management Agency took the lead in responding to the disaster. The military's Northern Command, which handles operations inside the United States, was coordinating the Defense Department's response.
Two F-16 fighters from an Air Force Reserve unit in Fort Worth, Texas, joined in the effort to search for pieces of the shuttle, said Maj. Clay Church, the unit's spokesman.
The Army's 1st Cavalry Division also sent a search and rescue task force from Fort Hood, Texas, to help search for debris.
The task force included helicopters and military police to search for and to guard pieces of wreckage for collection by NASA, Fort Hood spokesman Cecil Green said.
The teams were relying on UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters during the day and OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters at night, Green said.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge called officials in Arizona and New Mexico to warn them about possible debris, although those states were out of the likely debris field. Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana were more likely to see shuttle debris.
Shouldn't the story say July 2002? Just noticed that now... Very tragic day in our nation's history, I never thought that I'd live to see another Challenger event.
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There are reports of people in Nacogdoches (where most of the debris appears to have fallen) buying large bags at Walmart in order to scavenge for pieces of the wreckage in violation of federal law and ignoring personal safety concerns.
:(
Pieces of the shuttle are expected to appear on Ebay before too long, I wish I were making this up
Considering that on landing the main engines inside the shuttle are nothing but dead weight, I think we can easily rule out that propellent feed lines to the main engines were not the cause of the accident. The OMS engines, however, are a totally different story. a loss of 3 or 4 tiles on the front of the OMS engines would pierce the aluminum frame, melt and cause sudden decompression and explosion.
My bets on this are that some tiles fell off and caused a weak spot and implosion occured at 200,000 ft.
-electrawn
Oh please. Those fuel line problems might "cause catastrophic failure" on takeoff (when the engines are burning), but on re-entry, the only engines used are the maneuvering thrusters, and at the stage where Columbia failed, even those aren't used.
Really, some people are clutching at straws here... let's let the investigators do their jobs, and see what really happened.
Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make them all yourself.
Does anyone know where I can find a transcript of today's press conference? Thanks in advance.
The heat tiles on the shuttle have to be virtually 100% perfect for safe re-entry and as 110 or so safer re-entries have proven, NASA has done a good job of keeping the tile sets fixed. But... .50 cal rifles that can take down an airliner at two miles. Probably wouldn't need something this lethal to target the shuttle from a few miles away and simply break or crack a few tiles in a way that visual inspection wouldn't pick up. Normally I'd consider the sabotage scenario paranoid, but there was an Israeli astronaut aboard...
I fear that something happened to them this time, either through:
1) Sloppy re-tiling - loose adhesive, incorrect placement, etc. Some QA check procedure breaks down (al la the Hubble lens)
2) Launch debris (eg big chunks of ice) falling off the fuel tank (this happens all the time) and hitting a vunerable spot (like the leading edge of a wing where the tiles curve and are probably most vunerable. I wonder if there any way for the crew in orbit to do a visual inspection of the high (bottom) face of the shuttle to check for damage (-not sure they would be able to DO anything about it, perhaps that's why there's no procedure to look...if it were bad you wouldn't want to know)
3) (Hate to say this) Sabotage... This could occur several possible ways, either intentially poor install at the re-tiling works (good question: Is this the first time Columbia has flown since it's last retiling?) Or perhaps it was damaged remotely (rifle bullet) while on the pad or being transported? New Republic has an execellent article recently about the fad of inexplicably legal huge
While it's possible that she holds an American passport, I think it's unfair to say if Dr Chawla was exclusively Indian or American. It must be said that she never quite forgot her Indian identity; as this article says, she did maintain contacts with her school and carried what was essentially an Indian momento along with her.
The point I'm trying to make, really, is that there are many of us who'd like to lay claim to a dual nationalist identity (as opposed to a political identity, which is what passports, in the end, give). We grew up in one land and live/work in another. In the end, we'd like to think we're part of both, our affection equally shared, our gratitude forever split.
More than mere navel gazing.
" most experienced of the crew,"
no, she wasn't.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on