Posted on 03/09/2003 8:27:33 PM PST by John W
March 9 — As the space shuttle Columbia was breaking apart over Texas on Feb. 1, one of the shuttle's pilots may have attempted to take control of the spacecraft, ABCNEWS has learned.
On re-entry, the shuttle normally is controlled by on-board computers. But recovered data from the last seconds of flight indicates that one of the pilots, commander Rick Husband or Wille McCool, may have attempted to disengage the auto pilot in what would have been a futile effort to regain control of Columbia, sources working with investigators told ABCNEWS.
Astronauts are taught to take control of the shuttle when it "wanders," former astronaut Charles Bolden said.
"If Rick [Husband] sees a problem, it's likely he tried to take control," Bolden said.
If so, it would be the first time a pilot ever attempted such a move during re-entry. And it could mean the seven astronauts on board had at least a few seconds of knowledge that they were in dire trouble.
Only minutes earlier, traveling at 20 times the speed of sound, Columbia crossed the California coastline. In the middle of the state, investigators now believe, the first piece of debris came off the shuttle.
At that time, evidently, neither the seven astronauts nor flight controllers at Mission Control knew the shuttle was coming apart.
So far, investigators have found no debris west of Texas.
They have started to map out a debris path using analysis done on photos, video and Federal Aviation Administration radar data.
Based on radar data, investigators believe that a "fairly large" piece came off near the town of Caliente, Nev.
A large number of U-shaped panels from the leading edge of the left wing have been found. The missing panels apparently came from the area closest to where the wing attaches to the fuselage. It is in that area that investigators now believe plasma entered the shuttle's wing.
The plasma apparently entered the left wing while the shuttle was in a right bank.
When Columbia started to bank left, the plasma shifted direction, as well. It entered the left wheel well, coming in contact with hydraulic lines, wires and sensors.
Investigators now believe the hot plasma forced its way out the left wheel-well door.
What allowed the plasma into the left wing remains unknown.
However, it is believed that no matter what either of the pilots attempted, nothing would have been able to save the shuttle and its seven astronauts.
ABCNEWS' Mike Gudgell and Gina Treadgold contributed to this report.
They were missing in the pic taken at Kirtland A.F.B.
I want to see what space.com has to say...
From CBS News Coverage (Status Report 85 - 3/9/03 06:00PM EST):-
That same two seconds of "ratty" telemetry shows one of the cockpit's two rotational hand controllers, or joysticks, may have been briefly engaged as early as 9:00:01.7 a.m. That was nearly 30 seconds after commander Rick Husband's final interrupted transmission to Houston at 8:59:32 a.m. But the timing is uncertain because of the duration of software-driven data sampling rates. The final bit of telemetry, however, shows Columbia digital autopilot was still in control when the flow of data finally ceased and that the hand controller was in its normal "centered" position. As such, it is not known whether the RHC was bumped inadvertently by the commander or pilot or whether one of them intentionally gripped the stick with thoughts of taking over manual control.If you recall, the control stick had been 'bumped' in the early part of the film NASA recovered, and McCool had to reset the auto-pilot. I doubt that the crew had any real concept of how dire their position was from the time of LOS to breakup; those few seconds they were doing everything they had trained for to effect recovery.
-- snip --
The final bit of telemetry from Columbia showed a computer fault message regarding the rotational hand controller. While the "digital autopilot roll stick function" was initialized, "available vehicle data indicates the RHC was in detent (in the normal centered position) and (the) digital autopilot was in AUTO."
What I am trying to say is that I just have no idea...
Some of the "play by play" of data stream.
Columbia STS-107 Entry Timeline [As of 03/10/03 Rev. G] (CBS News); posted 03/10/2003 7:21 PM EST by brityank.
Excerpts:
08:43:47 a.m. - STS-ICOM: Clark: "Is that jets firing on the DAP, I guess."08:43:58 a.m. - STS-ICOM: McCool: "That might be some plasma now."
STS-ICOM: Clark: "Think so, already?"
STS-ICOM: McCool: "Yeah, the jets are not firing right now."
STS-ICOM: Clark: "All right, it was quite a (GARBLE), actually."
STS-ICOM: McCool: "We see it out the front, also."
STS-ICOM: Husband: "That's some plasma."
08:44:09 a.m. - Actual moment of entry interface. The shuttle falls into the discernible atmosphere 395,010 feet over the Pacific Ocean at a velocity of Mach 24.56 (+30.833-167.556)
08:44:09 a.m. - STS-ICOM: Clark: "Copy, and there's some good stuff outside. I'm filming overhead right now."
STS-ICOM: McCool: "It's kind of dull."
STS-ICOM: Husband: "Oh, it'll be obvious when the time comes."
08:44:18 a.m. - STS-ICOM: Clark: "Well, Willy, I guess I could give you the camera to put out the front window."
STS-ICOM: Husband: "Here, let's, uh, no, let's don't do that."
STS-ICOM: Clark: "OK."
08:45:42 a.m. - MCC-Commentator: "Columbia with wings level and nose angled up at about 40 degrees to control heating as it descends into the atmosphere. It's altitude now 68 miles. As Columbia descends into the atmosphere and approaches the continental United States it'll perform the first in a series of four banks it performs as it approaches the Kennedy Space Center. That first bank to the right, then back to the left, then back to the right and then a final bank to the left as it approaches Kennedy and the Shuttle Landing Facility runway. Those designed to dissipate speed for the shuttle as it descends into the atmosphere toward landing."
08:45:49 a.m. - STS-ICOM: Husband: "It's noisy in there, isn't it?
08:47:14 a.m. - STS-ICOM: Husband: "OK." (said as if to tell the crew it's time to start paying attention)
08:47:32 a.m. - Editor's Note: The ICOM video tape ends at this point.
08:59:31.4 a.m. - Flight control system channel 4 aerosurface position measurements start trending toward their null values. This indicates worsening failures and wiring shorts. NEW
08:59:32 a.m. - Columbia is approaching Dallas, Texas. H=200,700; Mach: 18.1 (+32.9-99.0) NEW
08:59:32 a.m. - STS-CDR: "Roger, uh buh (CUTOFF)"
The aft RCS jets maneuver the spacecraft until a dynamic pressure of 10 pounds per square foot is sensed (0.1 G ?); at this point, the orbiter's ailerons become effective, and the aft RCS roll jets are deactivated. At a dynamic pressure of 20 pounds per square foot, the orbiter's elevators become effective, and the aft RCS pitch jets are deactivated. The orbiter's speed brake is used below Mach 10 to induce a more positive downward elevator trim deflection. At Mach 3.5, the rudder become activated, and the aft RCS yaw jets are deactivated (approximately 45,000 feet).Entry flight control is maintained with the aerojet DAP, which generates effector and RCS jet commands to control and stabilize the vehicle during its descent from orbit. The aerojet DAP is a three-axis rate command feedback control system that uses commands from guidance in automatic or from the flight crew's RHC in control stick steering. Depending on the type of command and the flight phase, these result in fire commands to the RCS or deflection commands to the aerosurfaces.
In the automatic mode, the orbiter is essentially a missile, and the flight crew monitors the instruments to verify that the vehicle is following the correct trajectory. The onboard computers execute the flight control laws (equations). If the vehicle diverges from the trajectory, the crew can take over at any time by switching to CSS. The orbiter can fly to a landing in the automatic mode (only landing gear extension and braking action on the runway are required by the flight crew). The autoland mode capability of the orbiter is used by the crew usually to a predetermined point in flying around the heading alignment cylinder. In flights to date, the crew has switched to CSS when the orbiter is subsonic. However, autoland provides information to the crew displays during the landing sequence.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.