The crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia (left to right) are David Brown, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla, Michael Anderson, William McCool and Ilan Ramon
Not telling them was the kindest thing to do. That would’ve been my call, too.
Heartbreaking. I think that they made the right decision.
Tough call.....
Any warning that I can get that I am about to meet my Maker would be appreciated. Same reason I would have told them. (To say nothing of last massages to family and loved ones).
Tough decision. But I still would have wanted to get the choice to pray and say goodbye to my loved ones.
If it had been me, I would have wanted to know.
It is hard to say. I personally would rather not know.
I had a Cousin, actually he was my Father’s First Cousin die near the first of January. His Doctor had told him around six months ago that he had an inoperable aneurism in the aorta which would kill him fairly soon. As luck would have it, he was at one of his Daughter’s birthday celebration when it burst. His entire family was there in Nashville.
On January 26, there was a memorial service held near here.
His Son said he had a couple of minutes with his family before he passed out. He told them he was not afraid to die, then according to his Son he told the family that he loved them all then passed.
In his case I think it was good that he knew what was happening. He was also very religious and had been a pastor for around 60 years.
Would rather have the opportunity to send my PIN codes and regards.
Does anyone know if this bit is true, or if it’s tin-foil-hatdom?
Did “Environmentally Friendly” Materials Cause Shuttle Disaster?
August 27, 2003
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said recently that it had discovered what caused the space shuttle Columbia to break apart as it re-entered the atmosphere: a piece of “environmentally friendly” foam had peeled off the external fuel tank and struck the shuttle’s wing shortly after liftoff.
In its zeal to use “environmentally correct” materials, NASA had stopped using Freon-based foam because of the damage supposedly done by Freon to the ozone layer, claims John Berlau (Insight on the News), even though the agency had observed for years that bigger pieces of this new foam were likely to fall off.
Experts say this isn’t the first time that substituting “politically correct” materials for older, more reliable ones has brought about disastrous results:
•After the 1986 Challenger explosion, a scientist from the U.S. Geological Survey found that a new asbestos-free putty had allowed hot gases to burn through a joint in one of the solid rocket boosters.
•In 1997, after the first space shuttle launch using Freon-free insulating foam, NASA scientists found that nearly 11 times as many of the shuttle’s ceramic tiles were destroyed, compared to flights with the foam containing Freon.
Since the 1970s, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and various environmentalist groups and politicians have pressured NASA to use “environmentally friendly products,” even though old materials had proven effective with little or no harm to humans. Since then, most of the space shuttle fleet had already been designed with the new, environmentally-safe foam, says Berlau.
Source: John Berlau, “Lost in Space,” Insight Magazine, August 4, 2003.
The people sent on space missions are of the highest caliber. They would have been able to handle it.
Even so, in the final brief moments, they knew what was happening.
Am I the only person who has no memory of this event? It was only ten years ago, but the story is completely unfamiliar to me.
It was a chicken s#!* descision not to tell the crew. They had a right to know the truth. An hour to make peace, ask for forgiveness, and say goodbye is the least they were owed. I would have felt betrayed in the last minutes when we relized our ship was burning up on re-entry. Betrayed. And any crews that come afterwards will know mission cammand has lied in the past.
Inside Mission Control During STS-107 Columbia’s Failed Re-entry and disaster 19:48
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbnT8Sf_LRs
Why is the government telling us this info 10 years after?
- They knew the truth then, but withheld it?
- This is not the truth, but a cover story.
The government has lied in so many circumstances it’s impossible to take anything they say at face value.
Something tells me the pilot and mission commander knew they were in big trouble more than a few seconds before breakup.
Read the transcripts.
Not sure if I would want advanced warning or not because I’d sit there helpless and hope it doesn’t hurt too bad when it breaks up.
RIP, crew of Columbia!
I think they made the right decision by not telling them. However I find the lack of a rescue backup plan unacceptable. They had already lost Challenger, had extra shuttles and a space station and yet the policy seemed to be to not even try a rescue. My guess is they would rather risk a sudden explosion (one screw-up) than a possible failed rescue attempt (2 screw-ups).
Here is an article on that topic as FYI
http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030523rescue/
As several have said, I think they should have been informed. They were well trained big boys and girls.
It would be one thing if someone inside their family made the judgement call about informing them, but not an outsider who didn’t know them intimately. They put their lives on the line and someone sitting on the ground couldn’t square up with them and tell them the truth? OK, if it was just a minute or milliseconds I can see it, but even then...
On the other hand, I never shared the details of my son’s post-mortem autopsy. Of course at that point it doesn’t matter, but I wanted to know everything.