5 years ago today, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart over Texas.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080201/ap_on_re_us/shuttle_disaster_anniversary;_ylt=AkaxY2KROUPuXBGw sDLlf7EDW7oF


I remember I had just gotten out of the shower, and was drying off, when my X-wife yelled upstairs to me that they thought the Shuttle had exploded on reentry.

I went downstairs and for the next few hours, watched as the recovery efforts started for the debris and the bodies.

I also remember the resistance to the idea that a piece of foam could damage the heat resistant tiles on the underside of the shuttle, and the eventual acceptance of the fact.

It was another example of Americans coming together, in a time of mourning. And 9-11 was still fresh in our memories. I think in this time of politics, it's good to remember the times that we come together as Americans.

wow its been 5 years? Scary to think about how fast time goes by before we remember something that felt like it just happened yesterday.

I'm still traumatized by Challenger. I'll get back to you about Columbia next century.

I'm still traumatized by Challenger. I'll get back to you about Columbia next century.

We watched the Challenger launch in my 3rd grade class. I still look back at this event and how it changed my outlook on life. The Challenger to me was my equivalent to Kennedy's assassination to my parents. The day the Challenger blew up, I lost some of my childhood dreams and some of my innocence of youth. It was that day that I truely understood what tragedy and death really meant.

As a kid I'd go to the beach down the street and watch across the cape as Deltas and Saturns (including the Apollo-Soyuz mission) rocketed into space. Space and astronomy were huge to me. I lived 45min from the space center when the Enterprise was being built. I saw it when it was still in the Vehicle Assembly Building, was on site when it first rolled out for the public, and watched with my telescope its first launch from the center's public viewing area. I was into it.

I was writing an essay in AP English on Dante's Inferno when the teacher came in with the news. I tossed my pencil to the aisle and told her, "I'm done."

I remember being too young to really understand Challenger. Space ships blew up in the movies sometimes. Wasn't that normal?

As I think I mentioned, I was in the Buster Brown (children's shoe store that I worked at at the time) with a small TV on in the stockroom, walking in to do a bit of inventory when I saw that white plume go up and up... and then gusher out sideways and explode. It seemed unreal, partially because of the fact that it was on television and partially because one didn't think it possible, despite the controversies over those solid rocket boosters. As Christa McAuliffe was a Texan, expressions of grief were especially strong here.

And yes Sixee, very tiny imperfections in the hull of a spacecraft, at re-entry speeds, can easily cause them to become cinders - it's why most meteorites never reach the earth before being consumed.

I think it's foolish for such tragedies to put a halt to the space program; space travel is certainly not without its incipient risks although one hopes that one has prepared for every contingency as much as possible. It's a shame that such events have ironically contributed to *reduced* funding for space exploration, when it is funding that obviously permits improved designs, etc, and manned missions are the least of what NASA does with regard to its space program.

Regards,
Nydia

We watched the Challenger launch in my 3rd grade class. I still look back at this event and how it changed my outlook on life. The Challenger to me was my equivalent to Kennedy's assassination to my parents. The day the Challenger blew up, I lost some of my childhood dreams and some of my innocence of youth. It was that day that I truely understood what tragedy and death really meant.

I was in 6th grade, same thing we used to watch every launch back then in grade school.

I'm still traumatized by Challenger.

Having a quick bite to eat before heading to the route, I was sitting in the cafe across the street from the Post Office and watching the broadcast of the launch, and the subsequent tragedy. I cannot put in words my reaction to that event. It still hurts.

For the challenger tragedy I was at my highschool (which was on spring break) playing around in the gym when someone came in and said the shuttle blew up. I headed to the media room and watched the launch sequence over and over. I headed home and continued to watch the coverage.

For Columbia I was planning on watching the re-entry online but I woke up late so as I sat down with my breakfast and turned the TV to CNN to see if they provided the measley 5 minutes of live space coverage they offer viewers to be shocked by the footage. I have watched enough footage of breakup reentries, most notably the de-orbit of Mir, to understand right away what had happened and the fate of those on board.

The challenger tragedy was mostly explained away by bad processes in the refurbishing of the solid rocket boosters, they fetch them from the ocean after launch and haul them back to land to be refitted and used again on future launches. The processes were cleared up and I think some of the materials used were subsituted, we havn't seen an issue with the solids since.

Unfortunately the Columbia tragedy was inevitable given the way the shuttle complex was originally designed and configured. The original designers of the shuttle doomed Columbia to its final fate.

You basically have what amounts to very fragile ceramic tiles that make up the majority of the shuttles heat sheild being placed under sections of the vehicle that can rip away during launch.

We all watch the launches and it seems like the shuttle with its solids and external tank lumber off the launch pad and gracefully ascend into space. O contrare, once those solids kick in the shuttle leaps off the launch pad and races for the boundry.

The shuttle hits Mach 1 in an event called MaxQ around 1:00 minute into the ascent. Atmospheric pressure on the leading edge of the vechicle can reach up to 700 pounds per square foot approximately. If you watch the ascent videos you will see mostly ice that has formed on the external tank and sometimes foam falling away from the vechicle for most of the ascent through the thicker lower atmosphere.

Imagine sticking your head out of the Shuttle as you hit MaxQ (Mach 1) and got a face full of ice or that foam. Needless to say you will lose your face. Those fragile ceramic tiles don't stand much more of a chance.

People question the foam, why wouldn't they remove the foam from the external tank? Well if engineers removed the foam from the external tanks the shuttle would never lift off in the first place. The external tank is basically a huge thermos containing two compartments, one for LoX (Liquid Oxygen), one for LH2 (Liquid Hyrdogen), a bunch of high speed pumps, loads of sensors, pyrotechnics(for seperations and fail safes), parachutes and electronic packages.

The LH2 and LOX need to be stored at −430F to stay in there liquid forms. If you remove the foam those containers holding the LH2 and LOX will heat up past -430, the liquids will turn into gas and will vent off quickly. You will never be able to keep your fuel on board before launch if the foam is removed.

By placing the orbiter (shuttle) half way down the external tank the fate of the Columbia was sealed. The engineers must have never thought that high velocity foam/ice impacts would happen or have an effect on the orbiters heat shield at launch. Now we know.

On re-entry Columbia hit the upper atmosphere at Mach 25 the heatsheild quickly came up to temperature, 4000F approximatly. At those temperatures plasma is created as the shuttle dives into the molecules that make up the atmosphere. That plasma is what crept into the tiny, possibly microscopic fractures created by the impact at launch and ate away at not only the tiles but the under pinnings of the wing structure. We all know the outcome, catostrophic failure of the orbiter on re-entry.

If the engineers had placed the shuttle on top of the external tank Columbia would not have met its fate the way it did. I am not saying that it would be practical to put the shuttle on top of the external tank, I am just saying future launch vehicles have to put the heat shield above ANYTHING on the stack that can peel away at lauch. An intact heat sheild = intact astronauts at the end of the day.

The new Orion vechicles now being designed have reverted back to a capsule sytle configuration, putting the crew + heatshield at the top of the stack. Not only should it be safer but I am thinking you will see a LOT more launches per year as the turn around times are going to be much quicker.

Funny enough as NASA returns to a capsule configuration Russia is considering putting together a newer shuttle type vehicle of their own. I am sure you will see the Soyuz remain as Russia's work horse for many years to come though, its an incredible lauch vehicle.


As a kid I'd go to the beach down the street and watch across the cape as Deltas and Saturns (including the Apollo-Soyuz mission) rocketed into space.


I envy you Thor ;).

Sorry for the big post and information you probably already know and understand, I just love talking about it ;)

Cheers,