February 1, 2003 - February 1, 2016
STS-107 The loss of OV-102 Columbia and her crew.
13 years ago today, February 1, 2003 Orbiter " OV-102 " Columbia which was the first Orbiter to fly in space on STS-1 was loss on re-entry due to something that happened 14 days earlier on January 16, 2003 upon lift-off. When a suitcase sized chunk of frozen External Tank Foam (ET) was shaken loose and struck the leading edge of the Orbiters left wing. The " RCC " Reinforced Carbon Carbon was severely damaged but to what extent was not known until the loss of Columbia. The RCC is where the highest temperatures that are exude on the Orbiter during re-entry, around 2,500° F or 1371° C. up to 3000° F or 1648° C.
A chunk of foam like the one pictured (above) is what slammed into the Orbiters left leading edge at around At the time of the foam debris strike Columbia was traveling at Mach 2.46 ( 1,870 mph or 840 mps ) at an altitude of 66,000 feet ( 20 km or 12.5 miles into the sky ).
The foam came from the Bipod Ramp (-Y, Left hand ) strut as seen in the illustration (below)
The Left Bipod Foam Ramp is an approximately three-foot (one-meter) aerodynamic component made entirely of foam. The foam, not normally considered to be a structural material, is required to bear some aerodynamic loads. Because of these special requirements, the casting-in-place and curing of the ramps may be performed only by a senior technician. The bipod ramp (having left and right sides) was originally designed to reduce aerodynamic stresses around the bipod attachment points at the external tank, but it was proven unnecessary in the wake of the accident and was removed from the external tank design for tanks flown after STS-107 (another foam ramp along the liquid oxygen line was also later removed from the tank design to eliminate it as a foam debris source, after analysis and tests proved this change safe).
As in the photo (below) taken of the RCC (Reinforced Carbon Carbon) leading edge of the wing segment used in the Columbia Accident Investigation Board ( CAIB ). A piece of frozen foam was fired at the RCC at around the same velocity as actually happened in the disaster and the NASA Engineer's were horrified to witness the result. Punching a bowling ball sized hole right through the wing. This is how the review board came to the conclusion, with all the telemetry data being received at the time of loss of signal everything coincided and they knew how she was lost.
Bipod Ramp insulation had been observed falling off, in whole or in part, on four previous flights:
STS-7 (1983), STS-32 (1990), STS-50 (1992) and most recently STS-112 (just two launches before STS-107). As well as (STS-52 and STS-62, which were determined after the loss of Columbia during the investigation). All affected shuttle missions were completed successfully. NASA management came to refer to this phenomenon as "foam shedding". As in the O-Ring erosion case that ultimately doomed the Orbiter Challenger (OV-99), NASA management became accustomed to these phenomena when no serious consequences resulted. This phenomenon was called "normalization of deviance" by sociologist Diane Vaughan in her book on the Challenger Disaster and the role Launch Team that had a hand in allowing her to launch even after being warned not to by Morton Thiokol Engineers.
As you can see in the photos (above) taken by the US Airforce AMOS project the first photo is visible and the 2nd is Infrared imaging of the Columbia in orbit and as you can see they couldn't not identify the damage either. The Photo (below) was taken by Columbia's crew and due to the Payload Bay Doors the actual damage was obscured from visual detection. So the Astronauts did not have a clew how bad the damage was. To ad insult to injury her apogee made it impossible for a rendezvous with the ISS and further more the Columbia was only doing experiments inside the SpaceHab. So no EVA suits were aboard for a possible visual inspection. So it was Columbia and Crew were doomed from the start of the mission.
This is the timeline (below) taken from the CAIB ( Columbia Accident Investigation Board)
- At about this time, the Orbiter shed a Thermal Protection System tile, the most westerly piece of debris that has been recovered. Searchers found the tile in a field in Littlefield, Texas, just northwest of Lubbock, Texas.
- 8:59:15 (EI+906): MMACS told the Flight Director that pressure readings had been lost on both left main landing-gear tires. The Flight Director then instructed the Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) to let the crew know that Mission Control saw the messages and was evaluating the indications, and added that the Flight Control Team did not understand the crew's last transmission.
- 8:59:32 (EI+923): A broken response from the mission commander was recorded: "Roger, uh, bu – [cut off in mid-word] ..." It was the last communication from the crew and the last telemetry signal received in Mission Control.
- 8:59:37 (EI+928): Hydraulic pressure, which is required to move the flight control surfaces, was lost at about 8:59:37. At that time, the Master Alarm would have sounded for the loss of hydraulics, and the shuttle would have begun to lose control, starting to roll and yaw uncontrollably, and the crew would have become aware of the serious problem.
- 9:00:18 (EI+969): Videos and eyewitness reports by observers on the ground in and near Dallas indicated that the Orbiter had disintegrated overhead, continued to break up into smaller pieces, and left multiple ion trails, as it continued eastward. In Mission Control, while the loss of signal was a cause for concern, there was no sign of any serious problem. Before the orbiter broke up at 9:00:18, the Columbia cabin pressure was nominal and the crew was capable of conscious actions. The crew module remained mostly intact through the breakup, though it was damaged enough that it lost pressure at a rate fast enough to incapacitate the crew within seconds, and was completely depressurized no later than 9:00:53.
- 9:00:57 (EI+1008): The crew module, intact to this point, was seen breaking into small sub-components. It disappeared from view at 9:01:10. The crew, if not already dead, were killed no later than this point.
- 9:05: Residents of north central Texas, particularly near Tyler, reported a loud boom, a small concussion wave, smoke trails and debris in the clear skies above the counties east of Dallas.
- 9:12:39 (EI+1710): After hearing of reports of the shuttle being seen to break apart, Entry Flight Director LeRoy Cain declared a contingency (events leading to loss of the vehicle) and alerted search-and-rescue teams in the debris area. He called on the Ground Controller to "lock the doors". Two minutes later, Mission Control put contingency procedures into effect. Nobody was permitted to enter or leave the room, and flight controllers had to preserve all the mission data for later investigation.
The photo (above) is of the entire debris field of the Columbia re-entry crossing 2 states and according to some reports some debris ended up in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana.
(Above) The Heroic Crew of STS-107 Columbia
R to L - Front Row: Commander Rick Husband, Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla,
Pilot William McCool
R to L - Back Row: David Brown, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson and Israeli Astronaut Ilan Ramon
Today we honor your heroic sacrifice to further America's and the worlds advancement in Human Space Flight. Even though it was a great loss to this country, it shakes the foundation for the people in the upper echelons to get their derrieres in gear to make it as safe as " Riding a Bullet " can be.
Thank You brave crew of STS-107 we will not forget you and may Angels carry you evermore into the here after.
Photos: NASA.gov
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