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
Three 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) – MILESTONE: 15 years ago
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) – Considered part of the Vanguard program. The Jupiter C was used after the loss of the Vanguard test vehicle in December, 1957.
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 – MILESTONE: 60 years ago
1982 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A3, UK S26, ETR
1983 – LAUNCH: MM Pershing 2, Fort Bliss, Texas
1985 – LAUNCH: MM Peacekeeper, TP-01, VAFB – MILESTONE: 40 years ago
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, and 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). Another photo shows the damage to the leading edge of a simulated shuttle wing during the failure investigation. The crew photo, debris origin photo and investigation photo are credited to NASA.
Here is the caption for the photo showing the break-up of Columbia:
On Feb. 1, 2003, two Dutch pilots were training on an AH-64D Longbow Apache helicopter out of Fort Hood, Texas when they witnessed and recorded with the attack helicopter’s onboard camera the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrating on its way back to Kennedy Space Center at the end of the STS-107 mission. In the days after the disaster, one of the pilots took the original classified tape film to NASA employees staged at Barksdale AFB, where they were allowed to record segments of the film for their investigation.Video from NASA’s recording was later released to the public on February 12, 2003. This image is a screenshot from a re-uploaded version of that recording posted on YouTube in 2008. Photo Credit: No author identified, but released by a government agency (NASA).
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 NASA public sources and 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.
