The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The first event was in 1958, the latest event was in 2010
No milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
2003 – FAILURE: STS-107 – OV Columbia lost on re-entry; loss of 7 person crew over Texas (see story below)
2010 – Constellation program canceled (Ares Launch Vehicle, LM Orion Crew Capsule)
Military and Classified Programs:
NONE
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
1958 – LAUNCH: Explorer 1 , Jupiter C, LC26A, CCAFS (First successful US Satellite – shared because it is a significant space milestone)
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
1996 – LAUNCH: Palapa C1, LM Atlas IIAS, LC36B, CCAFS
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1965 – Last MM Titan I taken off alert status, Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota
1982 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A3, UK S26, ETR
1983 – LAUNCH: MM Pershing 2, Fort Bliss, Texas
1985 – LAUNCH: MM Peacekeeper, TP-01, VAFB
Other:
NONE
The photos today are of the crew of STS-107 (may they rest in peace), a photo showing the breakup of Columbia upon re-entry, a photo showing where the debris originated on the External Tank that penetrated the left leading edge of the Orbiter Columbia though the Reinforced Carbon Carbon (RCC), and a photo showing the effects of a recreation of the debris incident as part of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) process.
Crew:
Rear (L-R): David Brown, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson, Ilan Ramon;
Front (L-R): Rick Husband, Kalpana Chawla, William McCool
The following is from Wikipedia describing the CAIB process:
Cause of the accident
After looking at sensor data, the CAIB considered damage to the left wing as a likely culprit for Columbia‘s destruction. It investigated that recovered debris and noted the difference in heat damage between the two wings. RCC panels from the left wing were found in the western portion of the debris field, indicating that it was shed first before the rest of the orbiter disintegrated. X-ray and chemical analysis was conducted on the RCC panels, revealing the highest levels of slag deposits to be in the left wing tiles. Impact testing was conducted at the Southwest Research Institute using a nitrogen-powered gun to fire a projectile made of the same material as the ET bipod foam. Panels taken from Enterprise, Discovery and Atlantis were used to determine the projectiles’ effect on RCC tiles. A test on RCC panel 8, taken from Atlantis, was the most consistent with the damage observed on Columbia, indicating it was the damaged panel that led to the in-flight breakup.
NASA culture
The CAIB was critical of NASA organizational culture, and compared its current state to that of NASA leading up to the Challenger disaster. It concluded that NASA was experiencing budget constraints while still expecting to keep a high level of launches and operations. Program operating costs were lowered by 21% from 1991 to 1994 despite a planned increase in the yearly flight rate for assembly of the International Space Station. Despite a history of foam strike events, NASA management did not consider the potential risk to the astronauts as a safety-of-flight issue. The CAIB found that a lack of a safety program led to the lack of concern over foam strikes. The board determined that NASA lacked the appropriate communication and integration channels to allow problems to be discussed and effectively routed and addressed. This risk was further compounded by pressure to adhere to a launch schedule to enable to the construction of the ISS.
