Spring Break
NASA learns Columbia shuttle lessons
By: Kaushal Toprani
Issue date: 4/15/05 Section: Sci-Tech
Originally published: 4/15/05 at 1:36 AM EST
Last update: 4/15/05 at 1:41 AM EST
Originally published: 4/15/05 at 1:36 AM EST
Last update: 4/15/05 at 1:41 AM EST
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At 8:55 am the shuttle was above the Western United States, with no problems. However, by 9:05 am there was no contact between NASA mission control and the shuttle. At 2:00 pm, President Bush confirmed the worst. "The Columbia is lost. There are no survivors." The independent investigation team that was assembled, Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), concluded that the cause of the disaster was foam breaking off of the external fuel tank, and hitting the left wing of the space craft. Using high resolution video, scientists were able to see the foam hitting the space craft roughly 81.9 seconds after launch. On reentry the immense heat got inside the left wing, melting and destroying it, when the wing broke off, the shuttle spun out of control, leading to its destruction and immediately killing everyone aboard. On the second day of the mission, debris was seen floating away from Columbia. It is now believed that the piece of debris was a part of the heat shield.
CAIB issued 15 return-to-flight recommendations. These consist of issues such as creating a through inspection of the space craft after launch by using imaging, creating repair procedures for tiles damaged in space, and giving the crew onboard space craft imaging equipment. Many of the recommendations CAIB has made regard a "relaxed safety culture" that had developed in the years leading up to the Columbia disaster. CAIB was very critical of the management atmosphere, saying it was just as accountable for the disaster as the chunk of foam. The board even went on to write that, "NASA remained a politicized and vulnerable agency, dependent on key political players who accepted NASA's ambitious proposals and then imposed strict budget limits."
 Media Credit: http://www.nasa.gov The seven members of the Columbia shuttle crew, who died Feb. 1, 2003, when the shuttle was destroyed. The failure was attributed to a chunk of foam. |
Many lower engineers knew about the foam problem, but their concerns were dismissed and did not reach high level decision makers. For the moment, NASA is committed to doing daytime launches only to facilitate photography. However, this limits the windows in which NASA can launch. Right now, NASA plans on launching Space Shuttle Discovery between May 15 and June 3. If they were to miss that window, the next launch window would be from July 12 to the 31.
Discovery's main mission will be safety. NASA plans on testing different hardware to see how it will perform in an emergency. There are sensors that will detect if anything strikes the shuttle's wings. The space craft will even flip its belly to the International Space Station for further inspection. Another space crew will be on standby if Discovery is damaged to an extent where it cannot return to Earth. The foam that was used to prevent ice buildup on the external tanks has been replaced with heaters. Just last week, NASA moved the Space Shuttle Discovery to the launch pad. The target date for relaunch is May 15. However, work on the thermal shield may prevent NASA from launching on the target date. Either way, NASA believes that its space shuttles will be ready and safe to fly.
Kaushal Toprani is a sophomore majoring in information systems.
