It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
The Columbia investigation board found that the crewmembers didn't have time to configure their suits to protect against depressurization, which occurred rapidly. In fact, some of the astronauts were not wearing their safety gloves, and one didn't even have a helmet on, because of how quickly the accident took place. [Columbia Shuttle Disaster Explained (Infographic)]
Columbia was lost when the air drag across its left wing, created by turbulence around a growing hole on the leading edge, jerked its nose to the left too strongly for steering rockets to overcome. It then turned end over end at least once before aerodynamic braking broke its back and tore it into pieces. The crew cabin was then crushed and torn apart by the severe deceleration.
Can you give us a run down of the backup plan that was in place for Apollo 13?
What redundancies were in place?
Originally posted by TrueAmerican " NASA WOULD NOT TELL US, if there were indeed a deadly asteroid inbound "
After one of the MMTs when possible damage to the orbiter was discussed, he gave me his opinion: “You know, there is nothing we can do about damage to the TPS. If it has been damaged it’s probably better not to know. I think the crew would rather not know. Don’t you think it would be better for them to have a happy successful flight and die unexpectedly during entry than to stay on orbit, knowing that there was nothing to be done, until the air ran out?”
I was hard pressed to disagree. That mindset was widespread. Astronauts agreed.
After the accident, when we were reconstituting the Mission Management Team, my words to them were “We are never ever going to say that there is nothing we can do.” That is hindsight.
Originally posted by RoScoLaz
Originally posted by TrueAmerican " NASA WOULD NOT TELL US, if there were indeed a deadly asteroid inbound "
they wouldn't. and they won't.
Originally posted by Zaphod58
Originally posted by TrueAmerican
My God. I mean you figure that something else might have been attempted, like a rescue of some sorts?
How? The only thing that could have brought them home was a shuttle, and there wasn't another shuttle even close to being ready to launch. By the time they could have gotten to them, they would have been dead from lack of oxygen. The ISS wasn't really a choice because then they would have been risking the ISS crew as well, because it wasn't designed to hold that many people, even with the extra O2 from the shuttle. And if they used the escape craft from the ISS to bring some of the shuttle crew home, what does the ISS have anymore if they needed it?
Personally, I wouldn't want to know. Let me die thinking everything was ok, and I had just had a successful mission in orbit, and go out on a good note, instead of being terrified the entire way down.