The Columbia Report, Part 2

December 30, 2008

Having survived the initial breakup of the space shuttle, astronauts aboard Columbia were doomed by failed shoulder harnesses and helmets that allowed too much movement for the head, a new report about the 2003 U.S. space disaster released Tuesday finds.

But even if the safety gear had worked, the seven astronauts would have died due to the wind shear and extreme conditions in the upper atmosphere, as well as a parachute landing system that needed the crew conscious for manual operation.

So concludes a 400-page Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report, commissioned by NASA in an attempt to boil down the lessons learned from the tragedy into new equipment, techniques and perceptions that can be incorporated into future programs.

“Clearly the accident was not survivable under any circumstances, but (the report) will probably help for designing things for future spacecraft -- and maybe even aircraft,” said David Mould, NASA’s assistant administrator for public affairs.

The analysis is NASA’s most complete telling to date of the final minutes of the shuttle mission known as STS-107, which lifted off on Jan. 16, 2003, for a 16-day microgravity research mission that included, for the first time, an Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon.

He and his six crewmates -- commander Rick Husband, pilot William McCool and astronauts Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark -- died aboard Columbia as the shuttle flew back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for landing after what had been widely regarded as a successful and fairly glitch-free mission.

Unbeknownst to the astronauts or NASA, the shuttle had been critically damaged by a piece of foam debris that fell off its fuel tank during liftoff. The breach allowed superheated atmospheric gases to blast inside one of the wings during the high-speed glide back to Earth, melting the structure from the inside.

Much of what is in the report was discovered by the Columbia accident investigation team, which released a series of findings, as well as highly respected recommendations to guide the U.S. manned space program in the future. The panel advised retiring the space shuttles as soon as NASA finishes using them to complete construction of the space station, a position that has since been challenged.

Since the accident, NASA has flown 11 shuttle missions and has nine left in its schedule.

Comments

[sollicita]

The sentence beginning, "Unbeknownst to the astronauts or NASA...," is misleading. Other reports I've read state that NASA was aware of the foam strike to the exterior of the shuttle, but decided it was not critical despite the warning of at least one engineer.

[birdwatch]

I think the point is that NASA didn't realize the impact was CRITICAL.
Thanks for the comment.

[sts]

Critical or not it should have been investigated be for re-entry.

[Tito]

If NASA saw the wing being hit, they should have told the crew so they would get out of the spacecraft and inspect the damage as soon as they reached space.

[RT]

The foam came off the tank and damaged the wing . . . and it couldn't have been repaired, anyway. The point of this story is that other safety equipment malfunctioned or wasn't as effective as it should have been, and those issues will affect safety in the future. Experts have said that we would never have got to the moon if the space program hadn't been redesigned after the fatal Gemini fire. Phoenix: Arise from the ashes.

[Ed]

Apollo fire. There were three not two men in the fire.

[RT]

Absolutely right, Ed. My brain must be frozen in all this snow. My point is the same, though: Some lessons come with a greater price than others.

[ed]

This and all other accidents are terrible, and in hind sight it is easy to criticize what has become obvious. Having said that, it must be remembered that the shuttles were all prototypes and have been museum relics for a long time already, which just proves the point that they were well built and able to be rebuilt many times over. In a way it is too bad that NASA is/has gotten out of the exploration business. My deepest sympathy goes out to all the space program victims and their families.

[gaetano marano - ghostNASA.com]

.

hi, Irene

today I've put a blogroll button/link to your blog on my space blog's home page: http://www.ghostnasa.com/

gaetano

.

[Irene]

Thanks Gaetano! Look forward to checking out your site.
Irene

[LaTone]

Just amazing. In what kind of safety culture did they come up with procedures and designs like this? An astronaut without a helmet? Three without gloves? One wasn't in his or her seat because they didn't have time to sit down before re-entry? Seat belt reels didn't lock? Also, the basic design could have employed a crew safety module along the lines of a B-58 - of course at a weight penalty but we might have saved two crews. Of course had they listened and taken a look at the wing they might have been able to come up with a fix or maybe a rentry profile that would have shielded the damaged area long enough for a very risky but possibly survivable bailout.

[Kate]

I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Kate

http://educationonline-101.com

[Kate]

I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Kate

http://educationonline-101.com

[iMac]

Thats a really sad story, but looks like it was unpreventable. There really is no way for them to check if all bits of the shuttle are intact at any one time, but im sure they will be investing in such tecnologies to futher improve space travel safety

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