Posted on 12/31/2008 1:34:25 PM PST by BuckeyeTexan
Not to mention environmental regulations on adhering the tiles
Ugh.
And their souls are forever at peace in heaven and in the loving arms of Jesus.
IIRC, NASA wanted to use a liquid booster, but the solid boosters were manufactured in Walter Mondale’s district, so that’s what they had to use.
I was lucky to get the chance to meet James McDivitt many times as a kid due to my grandfather’s business dealings with him. One of the early rocket jocks who loved being a hero to kids like me.
I heard that Morton Thiokol Engineers stated that Columbia had 33% chance to fail upon lift due to the cold temperatures. BEFORE Columbia lifted off.
They were excused from the meeting and the managers took over and gave NASA the OK to launch.
I could be wrong though but I heard that in an engineering meeting back in the day.
The space program was very important to Titusville residents. We watched every launch with pride. I knew immediately that Challenger’s launch had gone terrible wrong. My history teacher had applied to be the “Teacher in Space.” He was in the top 15. He walked around in a daze for weeks after the accident.
I was taking my daughter to gymnastics class when the Columbia broke apart. Again I was watching from a parking lot. I had just told my daughter about witnessing the Challenger accident. I couldn’t speak for several minutes afterward. I went inside the gymnasium to tell some other parents that we had just lost Columbia ... nobody cared.
I think you’re bad luck.
The report makes it clear that the astronauts were buffeted so badly that their heads were smashed against the interiors of their helmets. The blows to the head would have rendered them unconscious and then dead within a few seconds. As the forces got worse, their harnesses gave way apparently.
It doesn’t sound like there were any intact corpses even before the vehicle exploded. What a very very sad event.
“And let’s not forget that both accidents were also caused by NASA’s insistence on going with the cheapest possible design for a shuttle.”
And here I thought it was faulty O rings on an otherwise over priced, oever engineered craft.
Except physics got in their way.
It was, in fact, THE earliest report of a problem. A FReeper from the Las Vegas area, as I recall, posted that they had seen the re-entering shuttle shed a large glowing object.
Subsequent research of time stamps by news organizations revealed that this was the very first report of a possible problem.
Shortly thereafter came the report from North Central Texas that there were multiple vapor trails on the expected track, suggesting a break-up.
When Columbia failed to show up on time at KSC, most FReepers already grasped the truth of what had happened.
Go read what caused the explosion on board Apollo 13. Go read about the loss of three heroes on the pad in Apollo 1. Neither of those mistakes were 'The Right Stuff.'
NASA made grave mistakes then, and they make them now. Whenever you have to make literally millions of decisions, one or two will be wrong. Unfortunately, when that one decision is wrong, people often die. That is the nature of Space Flight.
“And their souls are forever at peace in heaven and in the loving arms of Jesus”.
Why? Because they were astronauts?
From the bit I've read of the report the investigation showed NASA a lot of places where safety could be improved in general, although none of them would have helped in this case.
The rubber O rings were a cost cutting measure. The Russians use expensive titanium fittings for the same application because they knew synthetic rubber was useless at low temps way back in the 1960's.
You're both right.
Seriously.
Personally I don’t see the need to release the report to the public but it is good to study. That’s how improvements are made.
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