Posted on 02/02/2003 6:35:58 PM PST by TLBSHOW
Astronauts doomed from the start
THE seven astronauts on space shuttle Columbia may have been doomed in the first moments after they were shot into space 16 days ago.
NASA officials are investigating whether loose foam from an external tank that struck Columbia's left wing during takeoff contributed to its disintegration under the stress of re-entering the Earth's atmosphere – one of the most dangerous parts of any shuttle mission. The last words between mission control at Houston and shuttle commander Rick Husband gave no clue of impending disaster:
Mission control: "Columbia, Houston, we see your tyre pressure messages and we did not copy your last."
Cdr Husband: "Roger, but . . ." No more was heard.
The homeward-bound space shuttle broke up in flames and trails of smoke and vapour over Texas yesterday, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
The disaster struck 16 minutes before Columbia, the oldest in the shuttle fleet at 22 years, was due to land at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Echoing the tragedy of space shuttle Challenger, which stunned the world 17 years last week, Columbia exploded at an altitude of about 63km as it was travelling 18 times the speed of sound.
The explosion scattered debris and human remains across hundreds of square kilometres in Texas and Louisiana and shook houses in the area around Nacogdoches, Texas.
Police in Hemphill, eastern Texas, said human remains believed to be from the crew of Columbia had been recovered.
"I can confirm human remains from the space shuttle Columbia have been found in the debris," Hemphill police spokeswoman Karen Steele said, declining to elaborate.
A burnt torso and thigh bone were found on a Texan country road while elsewhere a scorched helmet and arm patch from one of the space suits were discovered.
In a televised address to the nation, an emotional President George W. Bush paid homage to the astronauts, saying, "The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to earth but we can pray that they are safely home".
The sparse information NASA had yesterday seemed to point to failures on the craft's left side.
Sensors on the shuttle's left wing and in the left wheel gear detected a sudden temperature increase or failure minutes before the vehicle exploded 63km over Texas as it flew at more than 20,000km/h.
NASA had concluded only two days ago there was no serious damage to the tiles, but was uncertain last night.
"As we look at that now in hindsight we cannot discount that there might be a connection," stunned shuttle manager Ron Dittemore said.
Investigators have all but ruled out terrorism as a cause because the shuttle's high altitude and extreme speed effectively put it out of range of an attack from the ground.
Officials are focusing on the extent of damage sustained during take-off.
Experts said many other malfunctions could have destroyed the shuttle during re-entry, when a cocoon of hot plasma envelops the spacecraft.
Columbia's underside and the leading edges of its wings would have been subjected to some of the highest temperatures during re-entry – up to 1650C – as friction from air rushing by heated its surface, experts said.
During this critical period, computers control the shuttle's angle of descent as it flies with its nose pointed about 40 degrees upward; the slightest deviation from the ideal orientation can expose underprotected parts of the vessel, causing it to burn up.
The shuttle's chief defences against an inferno are about 28,000 heat-resistant tiles attached to its vulnerable aluminium exterior. Experts have worried about the tiles' tendency to break off during flights since the earliest days of experimental test flights.
Relatives of the astronauts – six Americans and an Israeli – watched in horror while waiting at Cape Canaveral's VIP area to welcome their loved ones.
Residents in Texas, Louisiana and Alabama reported hearing the explosion as the shuttle fell apart at more than 18 times the speed of sound.
Bob Molter from Palestine, Texas, said he had seen the shuttle break up in the sky.
"There was a big boom that shook the house for more than a minute, and I went outside because I thought there had been a train accident," he said.
"I looked up and saw the trails of smoke zig-zagging, going across the sky."
Thousand of pieces of debris landed over vast areas of Texas and Louisiana which experts said may take years to find. People were warned not to touch any wreckage because it might be contaminated with toxic propellants.
President George W. Bush rushed to the White House from where he described the disaster in a televised address as a national tragedy.
"The Columbia is lost. There are no survivors," he said, before later ordering all flags be flown at half-mast.
The crew, six of whom were married and five of whom had children, were relatively inexperienced. Only three had flown in space before.
NASA has ruled out human error.
Yeah, it was big. If it was ice, then it was massive.
Or are you afraid to?
Why would the left wing overheat if the tiles were intact?
It seems to me that they COULD have done something about it!
They could have:
(1) NOT left the earth's atmosphere in the first place, scratched the mission and headed back for home
(2) Gone on the mission, but NOT reentered the earth's atmosphere until (3) and (4) were done
(3) Instead, gone to the Space Station and tethered Colombia until a space walk could be done---now or on another Shuttle Flight
(4) Do a space walk to VISUALLY EXAMINE the entire craft, particularly the left wing (and underneath it), and REPAIR the damage (now if posible or later if necessary)
(5) Ride down on the Russian Soyeus (sp?) that was coming up to the Space Station on either Sunday, Monday or Tuesday to get back to earth and pick up needed parts for repairs
(6) Send another large crew back up in another Shuttle to do the repairs and fly both the new Shuttle and the Colombia home
After seeing on the local news how UTTERLY FRAGILE and BRITTLE the black heat-shield covering is which covers the HIGHLY FLAMMABLE STYOFOAM, it is INCONCEIVABLE that NASA would NOT assume the black heat shield would LIKELY be damaged and UNSAFE!!!
I don't care if that turns out NOT to be the cause of the problem (although I would be extremely surprised if if didn't have something to do with it)---NASA SHOULD NEVER HAVE ASSUMED THERE WAS NO DAMAGE TO THE EXTREMELY FRAGILE AND BRITTLE HEAT-SHIELD WITHOUT VISUALLY EXAMINING IT WITH A SPACE WALK---NOW OR ON ANOTHER SHUTTLE FLIGHT!!!
Also, NASA needs to IMMEDIATELY find a heat-resistant substance that is not nearly so FRAGILE and BRITTLE!
BTW, the fact that the "Go ahead" guy took sooooooo long to give them the "Go ahead"---literally at the last second---could very easily have contributed to the problem because it meant that Colombia had LESS TIME to start SLOWING DOWN.
David Finfrock (KXAS-NBC-DFW) noticed that Colombia was TWO MINUTES EARLY when it crossed the DFW area (8:01 AM CST instead of 8:03 AM CST)---i.e. possibly GOING TOO FAST. Being TWO MINUTES OFF on a Space Shuttle is a LOT of time!
It seems to me that they COULD have done something about it!
They could have:
(1) NOT left the earth's atmosphere in the first place, scratched the mission and headed back for home
(2) Gone on the mission, but NOT reentered the earth's atmosphere until (3) and (4) were done
(3) Instead, gone to the Space Station and tethered Colombia until a space walk could be done---now or on another Shuttle Flight
(4) Do a space walk to VISUALLY EXAMINE the entire craft, particularly the left wing (and underneath it), and REPAIR the damage (now if posible or later if necessary)
(5) Ride down on the Russian Soyeus (sp?) that was coming up to the Space Station on either Sunday, Monday or Tuesday to get back to earth and pick up needed parts for repairs
(6) Send another large crew back up in another Shuttle to do the repairs and fly both the new Shuttle and the Colombia home
After seeing on the local news how UTTERLY FRAGILE and BRITTLE the black heat-shield covering is which covers the HIGHLY FLAMMABLE STYOFOAM, it is INCONCEIVABLE that NASA would NOT assume the black heat shield would LIKELY be damaged and UNSAFE!!!
I don't care if that turns out NOT to be the cause of the problem (although I would be extremely surprised if if didn't have something to do with it)---NASA SHOULD NEVER HAVE ASSUMED THERE WAS NO DAMAGE TO THE EXTREMELY FRAGILE AND BRITTLE HEAT-SHIELD WITHOUT VISUALLY EXAMINING IT WITH A SPACE WALK---NOW OR ON ANOTHER SHUTTLE FLIGHT!!!
Also, NASA needs to IMMEDIATELY find a heat-resistant substance that is not nearly so FRAGILE and BRITTLE!
BTW, the fact that the "Go ahead" guy took sooooooo long to give them the "Go ahead"---literally at the last second---could very easily have contributed to the problem because it meant that Colombia had LESS TIME to start SLOWING DOWN.
David Finfrock (KXAS-NBC-DFW) noticed that Colombia was TWO MINUTES EARLY when it crossed the DFW area (8:01 AM CST instead of 8:03 AM CST)---i.e. possibly GOING TOO FAST. Being TWO MINUTES OFF on a Space Shuttle is a LOT of time!
"Why would the left wing overheat if the tiles were intact?"
Look, I don't pretend to be a rocket scientist, nor to I "speculate" like some of "mankind" seems to do before I have more facts. I do try to weed out some of the Barbra Streisand that I see and hear. There are many who seem to want to talk about seeing "tiles falling" and "events happenning" over California and Las Vegas etc. I'm watching ALL that, very curiously....
Not to be argumentive but I don't belive that. The shuttle was descending. The point of maximum heat stress in a normal descent would've been over Texas. I think the force of the atmosphere caused the damaged tiles to cause other tiles to come off over California. Then at maximum heat stress over Texas burn through occurred.
BTW, I don't trust ANY of the pictures we've seen so far.
If that video showing the left wing impact was shown before the tragedy, then I would guess it's trustworthy.
Hmmm. The way it sprayed, it looked brittle like ice. We'll have to see.
I bet you're so excited, aren't you? I bet your hands are tingling. Have you been to DU and told them how "right" you are? I bet those "rats" will really think you're something now, won't they?
You can ride from thread to thread, claiming YOU warned us all. You're such a hero!
Can you possibly believe that you are the ONLY person here on FR figured out that a RAG like the New York Times would run with a story that would bash George W. Bush?
Are you that out of touch with what the rest of us here KNOW?
Not one person here didn't realize somebody was going to try to tar Bush with it. What we were so upset about is how HAPPY you seemed to be to FIND ANYTHING to smear Bush with, as usual.
And it's not going to be "heating up." It's a non-story about a man who didn't even complain about the things involved with this accident!
I wonder when they're going to release these pictures.
Back that up with PROOF or forever be known as a faker.
I thought the same thing as soon as I heard there was an Israeli on board.
However, because of the TV demonstration of the EXTREME FRAGILE and BRITTLE nature of the black heat-shield coating on the styrofoam and the object which apparently hit the left wing's black heat-shield coating, I now lean more toward the heat-shield damage theory. With styrofoam under the heat-shield coating, there is NOTHING to really support the coating if it is even lightly hit---it gets punctured!
I don't think that it's much of a stretch to look at NASA's evidence that the left wing was overheating and had more drag than the right wing to speculate that there were damaged tiles.
Actually, at the moment they broke up there were, in fact, at the maxium point of descent.
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