NASA Commemorates Space Shuttle Tragedies

eldavojohn writes "Space.com is covering NASA's commemoration of the Apollo 1 crew & the last shuttle crews of both the Challenger and Columbia orbiters. The Apollo 1 crew was lost forty years ago yesterday to a fire while testing their spacecraft on a launch pad. From the article: 'While the nearly two decades separating NASA's three space disasters allowed room for the agency to grow complacent, the relatively short time between the 2003 loss of Columbia and the end of the shuttle program could avoid a repeat of such behavior.'"

Comments

Antiques

[Original Replica]

the relatively short time between the 2003 loss of Columbia and the end of the shuttle program could avoid a repeat of such behavior.

So could replacing the shuttles. Even if we keep the basic design, make one or two that are built for more frequent service and toss the rest. The only reason to "end" the shuttle program is that it became stagant.

Re:Antiques

[Nyeerrmm]

Unfortunately the unsafe-ness of the shuttle isn't a small thing can be fixed, its a result of the side mounted configuration. With Apollo/Orion type capsules, or even a top mounted space plane, you can have an escape system that pulls the manned component off the top, and it's impossible to damage it with falling debris from other parts of the launch vehicle.

Also, the very idea of the reusable manned/cargo vehicle is inherently flawed. My personal favorite analogy is like deciding that you should buy a truck (instead of a truck and a small car) because you need to haul stuff around occasionally, with gas costing $1000 per gallon.

The new configuration, assuming it works as they say it will, is superior in l ways but one. The Ares V will have 130 m-T capability to LEO instead of the shuttles 24 m-T. The Orion capsule is in fact reusable, and while smaller than the shuttle, it doesn't make sense to launch the labs every time you go up. This goes with the idea that the ISS will become something useful. Having another tragedy like Columbia, while not only less likely, would also not cause a loss of our cargo capacity as well, which led to the current state of the ISS. The only real disadvantage is our inability to return things from orbit, and as far as I know we've never used that capability.

Well, what can we say more..

[radu.stanca]

god bless you all.

Cancel War - Restart NASA

[canuck57]

For the heroic efforts of the astronauts who died for enhancing our knowledge of the universe, I salute you all!!! I just wish our governments would turn to peaceful efforts and get the space program back into space -- and further than ever before.

We aught to get out of stupid wars, recover a little financial sanity and work on getting NASA going full tilt to warp drive...

Let's Commemorate Them Properly

[turgid]

With safe, cheap access to Earth orbit.

With a permanent human presence on the Moon.

With human exploration of Mars.

And with a long-range, focused, ambitious programme for human involvement in space exploration that will take us to all the major planets in our solar system, pushing science and technology for the benefit of the whole human race.

Sorry, I've been at the malt whisky.

Re:Lessons being forgotten already

[Y-Crate]

Challenger had to get off the ground as soon as possible. Columbia's loss was in part due to "we don't have time to check that" attitudes from those who could have looked for damage while the orbiter was still in orbit (i.e. photography from other spacecraft) and the assumption that there was no real problem. Challenger, yeah. Columbia? Not so much. Even if they did take the time to get satellite pics of the damage, there was nothing to be done. There was no feasible plan for rescuing the crew. Not enough fuel to fly to the ISS, not enough supplies for them to wait for Atlantis to be prepped for launch, and no means of resupplying them. NASA put all their eggs in one basket, and then broke the basket. Once that foam hit and they reached orbit, they were screwed. The shuttle is simply overly complex and delicate. The problem is more that they went out of their way to not find out if Columbia was OK. Engineers were worried and put in a routine request with the DoD to have one of their birds take a few shots of the orbiter, but NASA managers found out and had it canceled. They were adamant that everything was fine and there couldn't possibly be a need to take a closer look at what happened, despite the fact it wasn't any skin off their back to evaluate the situation further. It wasn't like they were really putting the DoD out in any way, they would have gladly taken some pictures and then resumed whatever it was they were doing with the satellite.

It was a case of "My theory is 100% infallible and don't you dare counter it even if it can be done effortlessly and for free"

Stood Up by Columbia

[Chysn]

My parents have a time-share in Orlando during the first week of February. On our way to the time-share from the airport, on January 31, 2003, my parents told me and my siblings, "We have a surprise for you guys. We bought you tickets to Kennedy Space Center to see Columbia land tomorrow."

Columbia was due at about 9:16am, and the tour bus dropped us off at about 8:55am. There was a crowd of maybe 200 people outside the main entrance of the space center looking up at the sky and listening to mission control's updates on a speaker mounted outside. 9:16 came and went, and the PA system went silent. At about 9:25 my dad called my cell phone and told me that they had lost communication with Columbia.

At this point, we didn't know if they were going to close the space center to the public, so we redeemed our passes to get into the place. Kennedy staff members were crying, but they continued to be helpful. We made our way to the Shuttle Pavilion, where there was a feed from mission control indicating that there had been a "contingency," and that people who found parts of the orbiter should keep their distance due to potential hazardous materials.

As the day went on, people flowed to the Space Center. At 1:00 or 1:30 there was a ceremony at the astronauts' memorial, and the flag was lowered to half mast.

The tours of the facility were closed, but the displays, including the magnificent Rocket Garden, were available.

It was an unreal day, one I'll never forget. I could have learned a lot more about what happened at home on CNN, but I'm glad I was there.