Astronauts doomed from the start

.heraldsun ^ | 2/3/2003 | PHILLIP COOREY and ANNA COCK

[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.

[First_Salute]

Bump.

[TLBSHOW]

You should check out Drudge he is slamming NASA from that thread last night. Why they didn't heed Mr Nelson.

[TLBSHOW]

It looks like a mess to me.

[TLBSHOW]

This started at re-entry it was on fire from the start!

[Howlin]

Then say "mess."

[Howlin]

You should check out Drudge he is slamming NASA from that thread last night. Why they didn't heed Mr Nelson.

To: Nephi

It is worth noting that none of the issues this man listed appear to have anything to do with what happened.

In any collection of 1,000 people, there is always going to be one who runs around telling anyone who will listen that the sky is falling. Some of these people are, quite frankly, royal pains in the butts. They become even bigger pains when -- as has happened here -- something does go wrong (even though it's not anything they warned us about) and they jump on the rooftop to say they told us so.

I have no patience with such weenies. This guy is playing a giant game of "neener neener" with a real tragedy. He's a despicable little glory-seeking creep.

10 posted on 02/02/2003 11:37 AM EST by Nick Danger (Heave la France)

[Luis Gonzalez]

You know, it's almost funny.

As a nation, we are so incredibly conceited that we can't accept failure, it has to be negligence.

There's a reason why they are called "accidents".

[TLBSHOW]

Either it broke apart or exploded from the heat. Mess is what is on the ground now.

[kjam22]

You know... the more I hear this story about foam damaging the wing tiles... the more I don't believe it.

[GOPyouth]

The article headline is saying something very different from the first sentence of the article. Headline states that they were doomed from the start. The first sentence of the article says they MAY have been doomed from the start.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

No one seems to be even entertaining the hypothesis that a piece of space junk (of thich there is a lot out there) could have struck and fatally damaged the left side of the shuttle while in orbit. I would consider that to be a VERY credible hypothesis, and the truth is, it is probably inevitable that a spacecraft the size of the shuttle would have a damaging collision with orbiting space junk AT LEAST once in every hundred flights or so.

[TLBSHOW]

Yeah! We all know Nick has opinions too! Cool!

[Willie Green]

The more explanations I hear on television, the more I wonder what are the chances that the first time NASA has lost astronauts on re-entry had to be when the israeli astronaut was on board!

One of the first things you need to learn is to ignore most of the explanations speculated on by the media. Heck, on this morning's news, the local bimbette reporter kept referring to the groundhog as "Pawnootusky" Phil.
As a native of Pennsylvania, and having lived/worked in a small town just north of Punxsutawney for over 5 years, I found the bimbette's mispronunciation absolutely hilarious.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

"we see your tyre pressure messages"

That's how those who use the Kings' English spell tire. Sensors monitor the condition of everything on the shuttle, including the pressure of the nitrogen in the landing gear tires; 340 PSI for the main gear and 300 PSI for the nose gear.

Michelin

[lawdude]

"All I'm saying is that many will accept no other explanation, even if the investigation proves that any such damage was minor and noncontributory to the root cause of the crash."

I agree 100%. Many Freepers have already declared that NASA knew about it and are hiding the facts. Impossible to get through to those who will not believe.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

You know... the more I hear this story about foam damaging the wing tiles... the more I don't believe it.

I agree. I am inclined to think that the foam incident was just a coincidence. I DO believe that something caused some tile damage on the left wing, but that it would be more likely to be an encounter with orbiting space junk (see my post above).

[fish70]

Here's a WAG. Maybe the left tire heated up and exploded. This blew the left gear door down, tore some tiles off and caused the roll. This is mearly a wild a** guess from someone not in the know.

[Howlin]

Nick knows what he's talking about.

[A Citizen Reporter]

"As a nation, we are so incredibly conceited that we can't accept failure, it has to be negligence"

Don't know that I'd call it conceit. But I have given this some thought today. It seems to be the rush to find the blame, to point fingers. Where did that come from? Did it come from a culture of lawyers looking for a lawsuit?

[Howlin]

This started at re-entry it was on fire from the start!

No, it wasn't.