A 68 TON rocket and its crew destroyed due... to a bit of foam. 

I was in Dallas the morning the Columbia broke up. I was in the parking lot of Flight Safety International at the DFW Airport. I was late to ground school class as I stood there watching this machine break apart. I will never forget that horrible day.

Idk how the algorithm gave me this weird french/english documentary but I'm here till the end now.

Rest in peace, brave crew, very sad for the families.🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹.

NASA was advised that it might be wise to divert to make a pass by a satellite to get some images of the impact area to see if there was damage and they opted not to do that. NASA was advised to postpone the launch of Challenger because the temperature had dropped to freezing and the o-rings would fail. They opted to pressure MortonThiokol to override their engineers who built the boosters and was pushing to postpone the launch because the cold would prevent the rubber o-rings from sealing the joints between the booster segments. Two Shuttles and two crews vanished for negligence

Whenever a government agency says"dont worry" then you know its time to worry

What on excellent documentary. Very impressed with all the details and the honesty of those people on the ground.

RIP Rick Husband (1957-2003) William C. McCool (1961-2003) Michael P. Anderson (1959-2003) Kalpana Chawla (1962-2003) David M. Brown (1956-2003) Laurel Clark (1961-2003) and Ilan Ramon (1954-2003)

Suits didn't listen to the engineers. That's why we lost Challenger and Columbia. Gross incompetent negligence from bureaucrats.

Astronaut Kalpana Chawla’s smile makes me sad every time I see her 😢 RIP

I watched the reentry live on a local TV station. When I saw the big piece fall away, my heart just sank, I knew then no one would survive such a break up on reentry. One subject not covered by the video is why the foam was coming unglued and falling off so often during ascent. Ten percent of total launched shuttles had foam come unglued and would strike the orbiter. Also on one of the many videos that was published over the years stated that the originally specified foam formula and glue was replaced with an environmentally friendly type of foam and glue that didn't work as well. I haven't seen that video sense. Very good program. Thanks.

"An accident some years previous..."??? What an odd way to describe the Challenger disaster.

No one really wants to talk about it, but the more I hear about the last moments of Columbia, the more I'm convinced that the crew knew they were doomed and were definitely conscious and felt physical pain at the end, if only for a couple of seconds.

300 million dollars to pick up debris but wouldn't spend a couple of million to take a photo from a military satellite that without NASA most likely wouldn't be up there.

I remember that morning. I’d had to leave my car in a public lot overnight due to mechanical trouble. I narrowly avoided having it towed. Once I finally had it at the garage, I checked it in and crashed in the waiting room. I rested my eyes for a few minutes, then opened them to see the television playing. Columbia’s crew picture covered the entire screen and in that moment, I knew something had happened. I later had to max out my credit card to pay for the repairs, but it didn’t matter. I was still here. Those astronauts were gone. It was a terrible day.

Speed and velocity have so much power. A little piece of foam travelling hundreds of miles and hour can do so much damage. Same as when people think planes can just ditch in the water and be fine, at the speed the plane is travelling, hitting the water is like slamming into concrete. When the plane landed on the Hudson, it was a miracle landing, due to the captain’s skills.

I bought my first semi 3 months before this happened. The night before this my engine threw 2 rods out of the block and I ended up in Columbia, Mo at a hotel. I remember waking up the next morning and turned on the TV to the news and thought "Why are they showing footage of the Challenger?" then seen that it was Columbia. I, like most people, was in shock that it happened again. R.I.P. to the crew and peace for their families.

Thank you for using the footage that I shot of Columbia in this documentary.

53:45 On that day in 2003, i was driving to work on FM 1960 in NW Houston. It was a beautiful bluebird day! At approximately 9am, something made me look off to my left... and I saw what appeared to be silver glitter falling from the sky.... a few minutes later, i walked into the workplace, and found everyone looking at a tv.... news flash about the shuttle! It was then that I knew what I had seen! OMG! tragic moments I will never forget!!! 😢

it's so stupid that something bad always has to happen before we can do something about it. I know that's how we learn, but when you think about it, it's sad to think this way

27:35 so basically, they were worried about spending money than these people lives that are on a perhaps, highly probable damaged rocket.

I remember this so well. Tragic.

For four years prior to that launch NASA had problems with trying to keep heat tiles from falling off and were doing space walk inspections to check and repair them with a special caulking gun and extra tiles. So my question is why they didn't hold to that protocol? Incompetence.

Toute personne qui a travaillé avec du carbone sait que si sa résistance à la température est grande, celui-ci peut se briser comme du verre face aux chocs. Cette configuration comportait indéniablement trop de risques en cas de collision contre ne serait-ce qu'un des nombreux déchets spatiaux largué lors de missions précédentes. Comment de tels ingénieurs ont ils pu ignorer ce fait et n'effectuer les tests de résistance qu'après le drame? Ca interpelle... Love-Love !

I saw live on challenger in 86 when I was 8.. than I saw live again on this . Wow

This video has left me with more questions than answers

The difference between the Challenger disaster and Columbia was significant. With the Challenger disaster lessons were learnt particularly as regards to the O rings and their susceptibility to weakness in very cold weather. The Columbia disaster on the other hand showed a fundamental flaw in the very design of the space shuttle , something which was overlooked right from the get go. Foam falling from the main booster rocket and striking the space shuttle was a common occurrence on lift off. It happened so often over the decades it became routine to the point that not much significance was paid to it. U can actually see tiles missing from various space shuttles on their return to Earth. The common perception amongst many was well.. it's only foam right? what possible danger can foam pose to the shuttle and the crew? How wrong they were. It was only after the Columbia accident that tests were performed which showed in fact foam falling and striking the space shuttle can indeed prove fatal. The foam which hit Columbia was larger than what was anticipated and hit a vulnerable part of the undercarriage of the left wing allowing plasma to penetrate it on reentry. It really was only luck a Columbia type disaster didn't happen decades earlier. What's particularly eerie was the video showing the crew preparing for reentry was not a live stream by NASA but a hand held recorder from a fellow astronaut which survived the reentry and was found in a paddock in working order.

What is shocking is how consistently NASA disregarded safety concerns.

It could be expected that a lump of foam would be so soft that it would not damage anything. But at an impact at several hundred MPH chunks of foam become very energetic and lethal. The prime job of the tiles that covered the wing surface,was to provide fantastic thermal insulation. As the ship reenters , their outer surface gets very hot ( a thousand degrees or more) due to the compression as the air hits the outside and the friction as that air rubs against the surface. Those tiles do a fantastic job of keeping the aluminum structure of the ship reasonably cool during the 20 minutes or so time of the reentry. The tiles thermal conductivity has to be very minimal. To make that low the tiles had to be made of a felt made of thin fibers of a low conducting materiel. A material of that nature would have very low strength and elasticity. With hindsight maybe the wing should have had an additional layer of thermal insulation or a heat resisting steel leading edge. These suggestions would have added weight.

Pour l´amour de la science, quel sacrifice!!!

I’ll never forget this; feb 1, 2003 was my 16th birthday. I remember how this made me sad. Feb 1 is a happy day for me, and for their families it’s a sad day

The most disgusting thing about all of this (outside of the obvious) is, in that letter from nasa to Columbia the person wrote, "Just one thing, it's not even worth mentioning, but, in case a reporter asks..". Like are you freaking serious. That is a someone trying to save face for nasa. Period. Disgusting.

Phenomenal job on video!! Thank you.. RIP cew ❤❤❤❤❤😢

So much damage control from NASA officials in this video. Phrases like “Oh we didn’t know how serious it was” and “No one could’ve imagined what was to happen” all rub me the wrong way. Why in the hell did they willingly refuse to take a photo from a satellite, even when granted permission from the military? Because ignorance is bliss. They knew.

What a shame. I still remember this as if it were yesterday. The people at NASA probably have never studied basic physics. Any 12 year old could have told them that F=M x A2. Any physics undergrad could have explained the effect of an accelerating object, that even a very light object can strike and destroy anything in its path. What really makes me mad is that this foam separation had happened on many occasions in the past. Reinforced carbon fractures with impact more readily than they thought. They had never tested this resistance, or lack thereof, of carbon fiber to impact involving a small object weighing essentially a ton, or two. What were they thinking, or not? Their mistake was to trust management. To trust the engineers that were oblivious to the Laws of basic, Newtonian physics. RIP heroes.

I often wonder why they didn't see, and recognize the problem and then proceeded to fixing it.. like Apollo13! They saw the problem, recognized the need for a solution and then went at it.. NASA should have told the crew and then got their collective asses together to solve the problem.. whether or not they sent a new shuttle or not they should have came together to solve it.. that crew deserved a team that was comparable to whom served Apollo.. they may have survived!

Thanks Dave again for great info video. Mikael from Finland 🇫🇮

Decide the language of the lecturer, the French gaps are so annoying

Challenger explosion did not kill the crew. Veteran astronauts have testified that the crew was alive all the way down to the ocean.

Just bumped into this amazing and sadful video on Sunday, April 28 2024. After watching a video on the Chinese President XI's last visit in the US, the RU-vid algorithm suggested me this video. It's pretty informative and emotional as well. My prayers touch the beloved ones of these astronauts who unfortunately lost their lives in this incident. Thank you for uploading!

Astonished and horrified that NASA went to such lengths as redeploying a military satellite and software analysis of ground-based video footage to avoid an EVA visual inspection of the wing in order to establish whether it had in fact been damaged by foam impact. Without any such capability, when damaged a safe return would not be possible. Unfortunately for the crew, NASA chose absence of evidence. The crew paid with their lives. Deeply saddening.

Correction, the challenger crew was alive after the shuttle exploded, the cockpit where the crew were is a protected environment and despite it being now known that they survived, it is likely the impact with the ground (ocean) that killed the crew, so they knew for several minutes that they were going to die.

Day 2 NASA knew everyone is going to die because of the hole in the wing. But they didn’t do anything to save them.

I just hope the families got welll compensated, and those involved held accountable....pride turned into grief and shame...

Awesome documentary 👍👍

This documentary was riveting, nailbiting cold sweat inducing , excellent work by these guys

The title made me immediately think of the Challenger, something so simple as a rubber ring that took so many intelligent lives including a school teacher. These are some of our lead scientists doing this work trying to prepare for the worst when theres still so much thats unknown about the environment they are planning for. Living my entire life in the "rocket city" surrounded by von Braun accomplishments, i really enjoyed this video.

Comme à chaque fois, argent, carrière, argent, contrat.... L'équipage était condamné, et le mensonge de la Nasa à son égard est intolérable. Aucune leçon n'avait était retenue suite à l'explosion de Challenger, qui était là un véritable crime, puisque en 1986, l'équipage n'avait aucune chance de survivre au décollage à cause du froid. A l'époque, Roger Boisjoly, ingénieur chez Morton Thiokol, qui fabriquait les booster à poudre, avait tout fait pour empêcher le décollage, car il savait que les joints des boosters ne rempliraient pas leur fonction vu les températures trop basses. Malgré l'aide d'Allan Mc Donald qui avait refusé de signer l'autorisation de décollage, Challenger avait bien sur explosé. Le mieux, c'est que les responsables se sont vus promus, alors que Boisjoly a été mis au placard comme Mc Donald dans une moindre mesure peut-être.

Since it's inception , Falling foam has always been something NASA engineers have contended with ..

Thank you to the families

Thanks for information...

The memorial at the Kennedy Space center was my favorite part of the whole museum. All astronauts lost in this and the Challenger each have a dedicated photo and personal belongings to celebrate/honor their sacrifice and at the end of the hallway, I felt something i never have seeing the 2 pieces of both orbiters on display. Truly well done, I highly suggest seeing it in person.

Nasa, Apollo era, "We're getting the home." NASA, shuttile era, "its probably too difficult to try, we don't want to risk 7 people to try to save 7." Men were different in the 60s. Failure wasn't an option.

NASA actually came across this scenario 15 years prior: STS-27, 1988, a chunk of foam from external tank impacted the shuttle, and the crew were informed that their chance to surviving reentry is low, but the foam impacted a point that was holding an antenna which blocks extreme heat from entering Atlantis wing and thus saving all 5 asttonauts onboard

Thanxxxx 4 explaining it so well + 4 sharing to us....!!!! Big thank you

A gamble to send them Could not rescue them it’s that simple Those astronauts are very intelligent people They risk their lives for space exploration Very courageous people They are even more intellectually aware of the dangers

Vraiment intéressant. Franchement, on voit bien que ça aurait pu ne pas finir si tragiquement, l'excuse avancée c'est "yavait jamais eu de problème avant "! Mais on voit bien ici que la Nasa savait que la navette était endommagée et ils n'ont rien fait pour tenter quelque chose, ils ont juste dit c'est un problème technique, pas de sécurité, c'est triste pour ceux qui y ont perdu la vie et leurs familles, on sait que de telles missions ne sont pas sans risques mais dans ce cas, l'erreur se paye cher car elle est due à une véritable nonchalance, comme quoi, il ne faut jamais être sûr de rien..😢

O-rings: "Nah, there's always some erosion, no biggie" Insulating foam: "Nah, chunks are always coming off, no biggie"

I remember seeing the craft coming apart during reentry feeling so sad about the end result, so sad indeed, the loss a a fine team and family members being able to see the end result must have been terrible. R.I.P. gallant crew.

That email sent to Rick and Willie is infuriating. So much dismissal of what was a major issue. NASA really dropped the ball.

Imma just stay on earth 🌎

Loved this video thank you

The Shuttle Orbiter itself has never failed. The SRB with Challenger destroyed the vehicle. The ET failed, destroying Columbia. The Orbiter was fragile, of course. But, without the other component failure, The Shuttle would still be flying.

Sorry to hear the loss of so many families. Being a astronaut is scary and risky. My condolences to the families. 😞

NASA knew they were going to die on reentry, but still told them to land it

AH la poisse quand elle sy met. Allez David courage. J'aime tes enquetes.Bisous .

Two crews of the nations best died for carelessness and negligence

This video has too many commercials.

Tous mes hommages à 7 astronautes 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Imagine if a rescue mission with a second shuttle had been launched and had been successful. Would have been one of the most epic achievements of mankind.

Incredible documentary. Sorry for the losses.

It wasn't the tiles that failed. It was the carbon carbon leading edge of the left wing that was breached by briefcase sized piece of foam that hit it at a relative speed of 550mph (850kph) carrying great kinetic energy.

I was almost 3 years old and was living in Nacogdoches when the shuttle exploded back in 2003. My dad and sister heard the explosion, and my grandfather actually saw in the sky the explosion. They also found a piece of debris from the shuttle that broke through the roof of the optometrists office where my grandmother worked. It’s been 21 years now, and it’s so sad to think that something like this could happen… my heart breaks for the families and friends of the astronauts who were killed that day 😢

I used to work in the thermal Protection Systems Department of Martin Marietta Michoud, and they always preached about the quality of the foam and the dangers of the foam coming off. I really saw why on that day! I am happy to say that it is unlikely that I worked on that foam of that tank since I was probably laid off long before that tank was ever manufactured.

May the crew of the Columbia tragedy RIP. ❤❤ I’ve been to both the Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Seeing those two incredible places was a dream come true for me. In addition, for extra icing on the cake, I saw Atlantis out on the launchpad.

15:57 Je tiens à apporter une précision: Challenger n'a pas explosé mais s'est désintégré. C'est bel et bien un nuage que l'on voit et non pas une explosion (hormis les boosters). Il a d'ailleurs été mentionné que l'équipage n'est donc pas mort à T+72 et que les airpacks ont été utilisé plus de 2min après l'incident. On peut considérer que l'équipage a perdu conscience suite à la dépressurisation et que cela leur a été fatal.

As much as I love the Shuttle it was basically a space 737 Max

Il est super ce reportage

Rest in Peace , Valiant Space Shuttle Crew , May God comfort Your Families , we recognize your Courage and dedication , Rest In Peace you Valiant Men and Women , May your Families be Comforted, God bless you Guys You will never be Forgotten.❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

À cause d'un peu de mousse.... Mouai... Ça annonce la suite XD

Dans un autre documentaire on voit l'étonnement des ingénieurs lors d'une reconstitution du choc de l'impact du bloc de mousse sur l'aile, lorsque effectivement ce choc produit un trou! Ils ne croyaient vraiment pas cela possible... Comme quoi il ne faut jamais penser tout savoir! Et quand on pense que chaque vol de cette navette, c'était jouer avec le feu...

Watched it live as it happened back in the day. Tragic.

Great documentary, but was spoiled by the French speaking, found that quite off putting, should have provided English audio translation

Je fus horrifié par cette catastrophe. Espérons que l'équipage n'eut pas le temps de souffrir. Paix à leurs âmes et pensées à leurs familles. De cette tragédie découle une pensée qui me turlupine depuis longtemps: et quid des milliers d'objets divers qui sont satellisés autour de notre planète? Ne sont-ce pas des projectiles en puissance? Sachant que le plus petit de ces objets peut provoquer des catastrophes similaires, voyant aujourd'hui des stations spatiales passer au dessus de nos têtes, autant de risques pour les populations, autant d'épée de Damoclès, autant de nouvelles catastrophes à venir et que fait à ce propos les pays sensés maîtriser la découverte spatiale? J'espère que la réponse n'est pas un silence assourdissant ! La récupération de ces débris n'est-elle pas devenue la priorité, le véritable challenge ultra-prioritaire? Notre proche domaine spatial n'est-il pas de notre responsabilité? N'y a t'il pas assez de gabegie sur Terre pour recommencer ailleurs ce que nous ne maîtrisons pas sur notre "belle bleue"? Je commence à comprendre les hésitations de nos voisins galactiques à officialiser leur présence dans une poubelle à ciel ouvert ! Ceci étant une pointe d'humour afin de dédramatiser une situation où nous risquons de prendre l'horizon sur la gueule. La puissance d'un pays se mesure t'elle au nombre de déchets parsemés ici et là ?

I wonder if the astronauts could have docked with the iss until help could arrive?

It’s probably better the crew didn’t know. Tragic

I remember. Seeing this On TV and watched in Horror my Hart sunk. Imagine begin burn alive and there's nothing they can do About. I know something was wrong With that space shuttle when started to pick up alot Òf speed. It look ĺike A mentor right falling From the sky. My sincere condolences too the families that lost there loved Ones on Columbia. I will never Forget that Day as long As I live.

and here i thought space was fake, i was so blind. Thank you for your service to humanity, seriously, thank you

Pour Challenger, les astronautes n’ont pas tous péri au moment de l’explosion mais lors du crash dans l’océan.

Literally gave me goosebumps reliving this horrible day

Paix à leurs âmes

Reste plus qu'à retrouver les plans de la fusée pour aller sur la lune avec une coque "anti mousse" et le tour est joué.

Thats a lot of risk and fuel energy to enter space and be back safe. Not worth it.

Merci

a 1'07 de la vidéo, la raison de la destruction semble déjà évidente. "à l'époque, on pense que c'est vraiment indestructible..." Cette phrase démontre le niveau.. On pense sans s'en être assuré. On connait la vitesse de la navette, on a des salles de test, or, pour "penser" que c'est indestructible, il faut préalablement faire des tests pour s'en assurer... Les résultats auraient invalidé ou pas les certitudes....

I’ve always said from the beginning (I’m 63yo) there should have been a redundancy for the heat shield, and I’m no engineer far from it, I remember watching the Apollo missions seeing ice and lots of it coming off the rocket.

C'est triste ( après coup ) de ne pas avoir pris vraiment au sérieux cette impacte de cette mousse .. Car 7 personnes était en jeux quand même ...! Donc tout le monde est responsable surtout ceux qui décide de ne pas faire cette photos ...!

Paul Wilde has some serious sunburn going on.

I remember that day. It was a Saturday morning and I was watching MSNBC. It was incomprehensible. 🥺

Aucune chance de survie pour quelques milliers de dollars en plus ! C'est beau l'Amérique !

Ils ont explosé et ils sont toujours vivants !😊