posted 02-02-2003 04:37 AM               

Shuttle Program manager RON DITTEMORE was very emotional at the beginning of the Technical press-meeting ...
I don't want to speculate but I'm interested in Your opinion on the facts ...

Reflecting on the events, it looks like the incident during launch of Columbia may have played a major part in the accident ...
A piece of polyurethane foam insulation from the large External Tank might have hit the leading edge of the left wing of the orbiter Columbia. Ascent video shows part of the ET thermal foam hitting the shuttle and breaking apart ... It looks like this part came from the ET area near the forward attach point atop the liquid Hydrogen tank and Intertank ...
NASA engineers analysed the imagery and concluded damage to the orbiter couldn't be critical.
The crew was asked to make both video and still images of the External Tank when it separated from the orbiter 8 minutes in the flight ... this has been done on earlier missions ...
Following the Technical press-briefing I understood that these images didn't make it to engineers on Earth ( Am I correct on this ? ... as hours of onboard images were send down to Earth, it would astonish me that the ET video wasn't beamed down to NASA ) ...
The crew onboard the orbiter cannot see the complete wing-surface when looking out of the cockpit or cargo-bay windows ... From the cockpit the wings are too far in the back and from the aft viewing windows towards the cargo-bay the view is partly hidden by the open cargo-bay doors ...
If the CanadArm would have been onboard,a camera at its end could inspect the upper-side of the wings ... Checking underneath the wings would require another vehicle or space station to be in the vicinity or by conducting an EVA (spacewalk) ... On STS-107 the SpaceHab laboratory was carried in the orbiter's cargo-bay and I don't believe any EVA-suits were onboard and I don't know if the airlock with EVA adapter was positioned on the tunnel leading from the lower deck into the SpaceHab.
In the event of extensive damage to the orbiter thermal tiles, the crew couldn't repair this ... The only option would have been to send up a second orbiter and to bring the crew over from one shuttle to the other using the inflatable rescue balloon ( = Personal Rescue system, a 34-inch diameter sphere )which accomodates a single astronaut to be carried by a spacewalking crewmember from the rescuing vehicle ... With a crew of 7, at least 2 rescuing orbiters would have been send up to accomodate the minimum of 9 astronauts ( 2 on rescue-vehicle + 7 ).

The newly adapted telescopic arm which is connected onto the ceiling of the lower deck of the orbiter can only be used from an altitude of about 30 kilometers ... so the damage sustained during re-entry must allow a crew to sit and wait untill the orbiter reached that altitude in order to open the crew-hatch on the orbiter left-side, deploy the telescopic arm to which the parachute handle must be connected to bail out the crewmemeber clear of the orbiter's fuselage.

posted 02-03-2003 03:17 AM               

In 1981 NASA sent up the first space shuttle COLUMBIA, which used Intel 8086 processors for a host of diagnostic equipment. Almost quarter of a century later, these chips are still being used to make sure the shuttle's twin booster rockets are safe for blast-off, and NASA is finding it increasingly hard to replace any faulty chips.

In the future the space agency plans to create a new US$20 million dollar automated checking system, but in the meantime it has to rely on the old equipment--if something breaks it has to be replaced. Up until recently replacement chips have been found in old medical equipment that NASA buys in bulk, but even these reserves are running low now, and the Internet seems to be NASA's last resort.

posted 02-03-2003 01:01 PM               

Maybe I've just been watching CNN to much this weekend and need to turn off the TV and get out for a while. It just seems that suddenly the general public is all upset about this disaster, but as far as I know, the average person didn't even know the shuttle was flying this week. Most people don't even know there is a permanent crew up on the ISS. Maybe I've just seen too much video from the Houston area where obviously the people living there are well aware of the events since it's one of the largest employer's in that area. If something big happened to Microsoft or Boeing here in the Seattle area, it would affect a lot of people here more than in other parts of the country.
I know that when I talk to my co-workers or friends, they are totally clueless about what is going on with the space program or ISS. I've taken friends outside after sunset and pointed out the ISS/Shuttle flying over our heads. They usually respond with "no, that's just an airplane" or "you can't see the space shuttle it way out in space!"

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that it seems that nobody has any interest in the space program until something bad happens. Then everyone is suddenly a big space enthusiast and becomes an "expert" on the subject.

Just something I've had on my mind this weekend.....

Tom http://www.geocities.com/tegwilym2/collection

posted 02-04-2003 11:30 AM               

Over all I have been pleased at the news coverage and the positive light that has been given to the program. This crew and mission was a great representation of what space flight should be. It was an international crew of men and women of different color doing great research for the betterment of mankind. I can recall the slander of nasa after 51-L about letting civilians go into space and the questions of the importance of spaceflight when robots were cheaper and safer.

This tragedy has unfortunatly brought out the ignorance of our fellow neighbors about space. I spoke with one lady who did not realize that the shuttles were reused. Hopefully with more people aware of the program they will become more knowledgeable and more supportive of nasa's efforts.

posted 02-04-2003 12:29 PM               

I do like how NASA has been very open about everything they have found out so far about this one. I guess when Challenger blew up they had a lot more bad management to hide from the public. I think this accident was just an unfortunate occurance rather than something that will end up pointing blame on someone. Even if they did know about the damage, there wasn't much that could be done (at least from what I have heard). Maybe there was something, but I'm no expert and won't come up with silly ideas - to go the sci.space.shuttle newsgroup for that stuff!

Tom http://www.geocities.com/tegwilym2/collection

posted 02-04-2003 01:43 PM               

I was in Florida and attended the wonderful reception for Col. Worden this past Friday evening. I had never seen a shuttle landing before - or a launch, for that matter - and decided to drive over to the Cape. We were at KSC waiting for Columbia when it broke apart over Texas.

At any rate, my father and I were approached throughout the day by six news crews asking for an interview. I declined all of them, though my father spoke with one of the crews. They were all very polite and respected the fact that I did not want to speak with them.

Then, on Sunday morning we made our way back over to the Astronaut Memorial. I really do think that camera crews numbered 1:1 with those who were there to pay their respects or give prayers to the STS-107 crew. I saw that they had a book placed on a table where you could write out your thoughts or prayers for the families, and I went over to leave a message. Seconds after I picked up the pen and began writing a news crew (I later saw that it was CNN) went "live" right next to me. The reporter talked about the book and I could see that the camera was on me. The reporter even read a few lines from the book to the camera as I was writing in it.

I considered this to be in very bad taste and did not once look up or acknowledge the reporter. He was not in the least bit concerned for my privacy, the privacy of those who had just written in the book, or the privacy of the astronaut families who might one day read what others have written to them. And for all he knew I might have been someone close to one of the astronauts.

That episode left a bad taste in my mouth for CNN.

posted 02-05-2003 01:26 AM               

The heroes of COLUMBIA STS-107 are on the cover of BIS Spaceflight magazine;
http://www.bis-spaceflight.com/publicA.htm

posted 02-06-2003 05:33 AM               

So thank you Phillip for all your comments, you are helping keeping me up todate with what has happened.