Columbia's Problems Began on Left Wing

NYT.com ^

[Republic of Texas]

It was too heavy to dock with the ISS. They were afraid it might damage it.

[John Jamieson]

Too heavy. In fact this was the heaviest reentry ever due to space hab. Heavier it is the more heat to slow it down.

Main wreckage is probably near Ft Polk, LA. Aircraft shutout there.

[OReilly]

It wasn't the tire pressure, but the compartment where the tires are located. The heat sensor went off, which could mean the missing tiles allowed heat to get into the interior areas.

I disagree... The "off scale low" does not mean low pressure. It could, just as easily, have meant no reading... cause by a off scale high reading that was not temetered.

[null and void]

Not me, I hate heights.

'sok, at that distance it's not up - it's out...

[John Jamieson]

Too heavy to reach ISS.

[Trust but Verify]

It was my understanding the sensors did not 'go off' indicating excessive heating, they went 'off-line' indicating loss of connectivity.

[Sub-Driver]

like a zipper effect...........BTW, they usually do NOT examine the craft during spacewalks, they work out of the bay......

[bribriagain]

How sad if true.

[dennisw]

If true than every mission should include a spacewalk/inspection. IIRC this mission did not! Same way you take a walk around your car, take a look at tires, check the belts& oil, before a long trip.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

I read somewhere that Columbia was not capable of flying high enough to dock with the ISS due to some kind of technological impediment.

Where do you think it was for the past 16 days?

[Clara Lou]

Investigators trying to figure out what destroyed space shuttle Columbia immediately focused on the left wing and the possibility that its thermal tiles were damaged far more seriously than NASA realized by a piece of debris during liftoff.
Just a little over a minute into Columbia's launch Jan. 16, a chunk of insulating foam peeled away from the external fuel tank and smacked into the ship's left wing.
Question: Why is it that the Times publishes articles wherein the information given does not align with the title given? The title of this article presents as fact that Columbia's problem was the foam debris that hit the left wing. Nowhere in the article is that "fact" substantiated.

[Light Speed]

Info on STS 107 from SpaceRef.com

STS-107 Launch of Space Shuttle Columbia for Spacehab NASA, SPACEHAB, and members of the STARS Academy have been preparing for the STS-107 mission for over two years. Scheduled for launch on July 19, 2002, this research mission of sixteen days is sure to be an exciting event. With the debut of SPACEHAB’s Research Double Module on this flight, over 100 experiments are expected to take place onboard the U.S. Space Shuttle Columbia. The flight inclination for this mission is 39 degrees and the flight altitude is 150 nautical miles. This mission will be launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida from launch pad 39B. Seven talented astronauts will be flying this critical research mission. They include Mission Commander Rick Husband, Pilot William "Willie" McCool, Payload Commander Michael Anderson, Mission Specialist 1 Kalpana Chawla, Mission Specialist 2 David Brown, Mission Specialist 3 Laurel Clark, and Payload Specialist 1 Ilan Ramon. For the STARS Academy locker, Anderson, Chawla, and Ramon are the assigned crew. As the 111th shuttle mission and Columbia’s 28th flight, this shuttle just celebrated the 20th anniversary of its maiden voyage. Columbia returned to service, fresh from a year and a half of maintenance and upgrades that have made it better than ever. More than 100 modifications and improvements have been made to make Columbia ready for flight on STS-107. Highlights include a “glass cockpit” with nine full-color, flat-panel displays, reduced power needs, old wire removal, and a user-friendly interface.

Columbia's launch for July was scrubbed:****

June 24, 2002 Ed Campion Headquarters, Washington (Phone: 202/358-1694) James Hartsfield Johnson Space Center, Houston (Phone: 281/483-5111) Bruce Buckingham Kennedy Space Center, Fla. (Phone: 321/867-2468) Release: #H02-117 NASA MANAGERS DELAY STS-107 LAUNCH NASA managers today temporarily suspended launch preparations for Space Shuttle Columbia until they have a better understanding of several small cracks found in metal liners used to direct the flow inside main propulsion-system propellant lines on other orbiters in the fleet. Columbia's launch on STS-107, previously planned for July 19, will be delayed a few weeks to allow inspections of its flow liners as part of an intensive analysis that is under way. Recent inspections of Space Shuttle Atlantis and Space Shuttle Discovery found cracks, measuring one-tenth to three-tenths of an inch, in one flow liner on each of those vehicles. Some of the cracks were not identifiable using standard visual inspections and were only discovered using more intensive inspection techniques. "These cracks may pose a safety concern and we have teams at work investigating all aspects of the situation," said Space Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore. "This is a very complex issue and it is early in the analysis. Right now there are more questions than answers. Our immediate interests are to inspect the hardware to identify cracks that exist, understand what has caused them and quantify the risk. I am confident the team will fully resolve this issue, but it may take some time. Until we have a better understanding, we will not move forward with the launch of STS-107." The impact of the investigation on other upcoming space shuttle launches has not been determined.

[mewzilla]

Anything can fail along the signal path, including something called multiplexers and/or signal transmitters. Or whatever cabling was connecting this stuff to the flight computers. We didn't hear about any temp spikes being noted beforehand, at least not yet.

[The Great Satan]

The title of this article presents as fact that Columbia's problem was the foam debris that hit the left wing.

No it doesn't.

[Republic of Texas]

I did not mean to sound like an expert, that is what I heard described on the radio today. I'm sure there are people here with more knowledge of these things than I. Either way, that was the area they'd noticed before all the sensors on the left side went out.

[John Jamieson]

Flying a space hab in the payload bay. Mini station that goes up and down. Down seems to have been the problem.

[Preech1]

It wasn't at the ISS..this was the first mission in a while that was not intended to dock at the space station. Just science experiments in the payload bay.

[mewzilla]

It didn't dock with the ISS on this mission, and couldn't have if they'd wanted to. No docking ring on board.

[Alberta's Child]

Do you have any evidence that the Columbia had docked with the ISS while it was in orbit?

The ISS crew was scheduled to be rotated out during a mission later this month (maybe the Discovery?) -- None of the video feeds I've seen of this shuttle mission show any interaction between this crew and a member of the ISS crew.

[SarahW]

I don't understand why any shuttle, ever, was allowed to go into space without some means of repairing damaged tiles having been developed.

It's time to re-engineer new shuttles.