I made this to help me understand the sequence of events, I have a lot more in my main video about the Columbia disaster: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vmi_NeVRx1s.html
I remember when this happened, I was in college and several of us got ahold of the telemetry print out. We had figured it was the leading edge of the landing gear door had gotten damaged come to find out we were very close to where the damage was. My father worked at NOAA at the time. They didn't realize it at first but they were tracking the debris on the weather radar system all of their data was handed over so they could locate parts.
finally. after over 20 years of review-upon-review, someone has put together (for the public to see) the actual trajectories. outstanding overlays of events, as the seconds count down. the real-time drop-out of the sensors shown graphically, with audio matched-in, is stunning.
@@donaldhoot7741 thanks Don. it's so great to be counseled by a genius such as yourself. you owe it to the world to educate all untermenschen on what they don't know. oh wait, while you're at it educate all the mensas as well.
A couple things. All the controllers knew about and had studied the foam strike at launch. So they knew what anomalies to look for during re-entry, anything in the left wing. So as soon as the guy said that he had lost four temp sensors in the left inner and outer elevons, every controller thought, 'Oh shit!' They knew what that meant, there's a hole in the spacecraft. Also significant, when the same controller said, "No commonality" that confirmed that it was a *_big_* hole. No commonality means they are completely separate, redundant sensors, not connected in any way by wires or hydraulics. Meaning the only way they could fail together was from outside, physical forces being applied to them. At this point the controllers are basically just praying that the Shuttle will hold together for a few more minutes, as there is absolutely nothing they can do. Also note that even if it had stayed together a little longer, they were still looking at an aborted landing. The Shuttle cannot survive a landing with flat tires, the crew would have had to do an emergency bailout. Survivable, but still pretty dangerous..
@@undertakr I believe in a space shuttle it's more of a "blow us apart and fire a parachute" but it depends on the shuttle, altitude, and speed Unless it was noticed much earlier ( maybe 10 minutes warning + time to execute the plan, so maybe 8 minutes more than seen here) they really had no choice than crossing their fingers and hoping
@@undertakr - After Challenger they all wear pressure suits during launch and re-entry, and a parachute. If they are low enough, say below 100,000 feet (which Columbia was not), they can theoretically survive an emergency bailout from the Shuttle. The side hatch is blown with explosive bolts, a long pole is extended, and the astronauts clip onto it and bail out of the orbiter. The pole is to push them away from and below the Shuttle so they don't hit the left wing. Once below 40,000 feet they pull their parachutes. I say 'theoretically survive' because a lot of other factors are involved. This method isn't really practical if the Shuttle has already broken apart. Even if the crew cabin separates fairly cleanly, which it did in both Challenger and Colombia, if it's spinning out of control obviously this procedure isn't going to work. But in the Challenger's case, where the cabin quickly began to free fall in a stable position, it probably would have saved the crew. Even if Colombia had stayed intact, if the tires had gone flat they would have still had to do an emergency bailout before landing as landing on a runway with flat tires is not deemed survivable. The Shuttle lands extremely fast (225 mph) and it would tumble and crash on the runway. So the crew would escape, then if possible the orbiter would be remotely piloted to an uninhabited area, preferably ditching in the ocean..
"No commonality...not connected in any way by wires..." - In hindsight that controller's call wasn't quite accurate. If you follow the wires in pink on the diagram, those sensors' wires are physically together and routed across the path of the gases coming in (shown in lower-right around 3:15), thus why they were the first to fail. So there was in fact a commonality, though to your point, not one that should be much reassurance - more than enough physical damage was already happening.
Leroy Cain is famous for "Lock the doors". But he should be famous for "I consider it to be a dead issue". Ten days before Columbia reentered, he threw cold water on efforts inside NASA to evaluate the foam strike damage to Columbia's left wing. The head-in-the-sand crowd won, and the people trying to look out for the safety of the crew lost. Dead issue, indeed.
Right there with you. I always assumed when something went wrong during re-entry that was it, instant failure... seeing the data in a simulation and the shuttle rolling around breaking up is terrifying.
How calm the team stayed while reporting temp readings and in their minds hoping it was instrument problems astounds me. Although the flight Directors mannerisms and facial expressions told a different outcome was soon to be realized. It hurts as much now as it did live, with exception of how much faster the craft broke up. God bless the crew and families!!
Compare it to the Hudson landing, the co- pilot kept reporting altitude and airspeed, just anything that might help Sully land the plane with a chance of survival
I saw this happen. I was goose hunting in a winter-wheat field, SW of Ardmore, OK, looking SW and spotted the first tiny "glow" thinking it was a plane, then some space junk, to "what is that?". I watched from the SW all the way to the multiple contrails as it broke up then finally disappeared under the SE horizon. It appeared that large pieces began to break off the left side. More and more pieces broke off, following the main body of the craft but gradually the larger mass outpaced the debris. Every piece of debris was making it's own contrail. That early morning while going to hunt, I was listening to NPR report about the shuttle mission and it's return. I didn't know what happened until I got back home. I msg'd NASA and they asked for a written report about what I had seen. I went back to my hunting spot, shot several mag. compass azimuths, wrote everything I saw, and never heard from NASA.
I saw what I thought were several shooting stars, or possibly an early morning meteor shower while driving to work that Saturday morning. It was 2 or 3 hours later I heard the news, and reports of debris already being found in the vicinity of where I lived and where I worked.
These smaller reports really help add to the entirety even if they did not respond back, thank you for including it. You never know what small detail is entirely missed and sometimes these smaller reports help fill the picture
4:20 This diagram shows the life (temp) sensors of the components in the left wing, the large clump of green dots below the word 'Nominal' is the port side landing gear, the six green dots arranged with three above and three below are the two tires - each tire has three life sensors - the other nine green dots right of the tires are for various parts of the landing gear assembly. The four green dots closest to the outer tip of the wing are for the outer aileron, the six green dots above it are for the inner aileron and the hydraulic pump that controls both ailerons. The single green dot in the top right of the image next to the purple rectangle is for the OMSPod, the Orbital Maneuvering System Pod, which is a set of small thrusters only used to keep the shuttle correctly oriented when re-entering the atmosphere. The five green dots on the far left of the screen that are inside a blue square/window are the life sensors for the port side escape hatch door near the nose of the shuttle, you can see the port side shuttle windows in the blue square which gives you an indication of where that door is. All of these life sensors played a big part in helping investigators figure out the path of the hot gases that were entering the wing and what was damaged first. Sadly at the speed they were going it didn't matter what was damaged first as 3,000+ degree heat gases can melt just about anything once they get through the spacecraft's heat shield.
Was there any type of roll or heat load management they could’ve done? Or was it just robbing Peter to pay Paul if they put more stress on the right side it would’ve been over design?
@@Ryan-mq2mi Unfortunately no any kind of maneuver that would have would have 1. Put the heat where it could not handle it. 2. put a structural load that it wasn't designed for both ending badly. And all of that would depend on realizing the problem existed, where it existed and how bad it was. No body had realized exactly how bad it was until it was done. You can do more damage by over-reacting to a small problem than the problem itself. In this case the problem was catastrophic.
I gathered my young children around that Saturday morning and watched it live on NASA TV. Having watched many landings before, I knew something was wrong when they began mentioning sensors going off scale low. The call for UHF comm check was chilling, and when they had no radar track at Merritt Island I knew it was over. It was a hard day. The book "Comm Check" is an excellent read and quite condemning of the NASA culture which had normalized performance deviation from spec, simply because the flights turned out OK. Those who realized this attitude would lead to disaster were silenced. Both the Challenger and Columbia accidents were completely avoidable. They were not a failure of technology, but a failure of people.
For quite a while I have wondered if anything existed showing what the breakup looked like up close, synced up with location, time, and radio comms. Now that I know it exists, it's even more chilling. The absolute speed it was all over is what I can't get over. From the last transmission, "Roger, uh, but-" at 11:56 in the video, to 12:05 or so when the left wing finally stalls out and the roll alarm sounds, just under 9 seconds. I can only imagine how much nastier those last comms would have been if not for the TDRS blackout and assuming excessive G-loads wouldn't have knocked everyone out already. It all feels a lot more in perspective now. Boy, does it sting.
Based on what I’ve read from the full accident report, some of the crew were killed upon the first craft adverse rotation after LOC due to the shoulder straps not being retained properly once the G forces hit, breaking their spines and instantly killing them. Just on that first turn. Not all the crew died instantly but some seats were found with the shoulder harnesses not tightened down as intended by design. Tragic.
@@noblevengeance312 People like to pretend it was quick, but it very likely wasn't. Pretending people had quick, painless deaths when they very likely didn't is disrespectful to them.
@@korrdavl yeah not all of them died instantly. I’m aware of this. Buttons were being pressed in the cockpit for a full 30 seconds after loss of signal, which means someone was still alive in the cockpit, and conscious. I believe that once the cockpit fully depressurized, anyone who was conscious was taken out of consciousness by then, or, if supplemental oxygen had been applied, they would’ve been dead soon after the breakup. A few crewmembers did not have their gloves put on, therefore upon initial depressurization, they lost consciousness instantly. But again, someone was pressing buttons for 30 seconds.
@@noblevengeance312 Physiologically, losing consciousness "instantly" seems like a myth. I've read from a few sources that state in the vacuum of space consciousness lasts 5-15 seconds before deoxygenated blood reaches the brain. Time of Useful Consciousness varies with altitude though and they were at 200k ft but below the Karman line
Retired Aerospace Engineer here ... well done. So sad to see the temps sensors, and then tire pressures, start to fail. I have deorbited satellites (non-manned) and the eerie feeling as they re-enter and the attitude control tries so desperately to keep the vehicle within limits.
What are your main controls when re entering orbit? Is that something that has to happen with a perfect re-entry window? I also always wondered why things needed to reenter earth at such a high rate of speed. Is it impossible to preform that entry while slowing down?
@@50StichesSteel Objects orbit at a very high speed to start with, at a low 200mi altitude they need at least 17,000mph or they fall down to Earth. The second factor is that most satellites don't carry a huge amount of propellant, just enough to make minor adjustments. Technically if an object in orbit could lose all of its velocity instantly it would just "fall" back down to Earth and could parachute down once it's reached air that's dense enough (though by that point it would have been falling for a while). I find that the best way to think about it is this: if you accelerate in the direction of movement (of orbit), the _size_ of the orbit extends, but from the opposite side of the Earth, as if it this "circle" was pulled away to a larger orbit from the other side. If you "brake" or run the engine facing backwards, the same orbit path gets smaller and smaller (again, from the other side) until it creates a downwards trajectory that eventually intersects the ground. So the shuttle would do a burn facing backwards for 3-4 minutes, then turn around again as it "orbit" now led it back to the surface.
@@50StichesSteel Typically with the Shuttle it starts with the maneuvering thrusters. At the altitude they were at the flight controls had enough air to work. The flight data showed a gradual yaw increase of the flight controls followed by the maneuvering thrusters firing to try to keep the ship in line shortly before they lost control.
A key clue is found at the 9:40 mark, when the tire pressure began to rise at an unexpectedly high rate. This indicated that the plasma stream had entered the left side wheel well and was beginning to heat the tires. Each tire contains 300 psia of dry nitrogen. Nitrogen is an inert gas, but the expansion force was equal to 2.5 sticks of dynamite apiece.
I was in east Texas when this happened. 13 years old. I remember looking up into the sky wondering why a single space shuttle would have multiple contrails. They turned on the emergency alert system and every radio/TV was screeching to go back inside
We watched from our mountain home in Groveland CA. We saw several flashes and then trailing debris and a trail of heavy smoke. I remember telling my wife, " Oh wow, that dosen't look good at all, looks like it's breaking up." 10 minutes later it's all over the news.
I watched the reentry from the flight line in Mojave with a clear view to the north. I hadn't seen a twilight shuttle entry before and had no reference for how much plasma sheath should surround it, but it sure seemed big. Through binoculars I saw a spark falling behind and varying in brightness- at the time I thought it might be ice falling off a vent. Little did I know... it may have been debris #6.
it must be so cool to be an american. Wish we had these kind of things in my country, to look at the sky and see a rocket my countrymen developed. I'd be proud to be an american.
@@dj7oya I'm a particularly fortunate American, I designed the engines for two rocket planes, the Ez-Rocket and X-Racer, and flew aboard the second plane six times. With a retired space shuttle pilot, Rick Searfoss, flying it. When I put it that plainly, I find it hard to believe it myself.
@@r0cketplumber really? well, what an honor for you to even answer me, you must be so proud, I mean in a sense of being happy with your own life and achievements/experiences... Thank you. My best wishes for you!
Wow, thank you for putting that together. 11:57 that sequence was very informative. That is sad to see that there is at least a period of 30 to 40s minimum were they could see it coming... Once the cockpit fell apart I don't know how long it took before it was actually over but it must have been terrible...
For those that have commented that they never felt a thing once the craft broke up and there was instantaneous decompression... remember, before they got to that point they knew quite well they were in deep trouble. And once it got to the point of control issues, they struggled to attempt recovery of an out of control spacecraft as it yawed and tumbled for about 30 seconds. 30 seconds is a very long time at the realization that they were all going to die.... there was nothing quick about it. Yes, they never felt a thing physically when the craft broke up as they were already unconscious, but that 30 seconds before.... they had time to say their goodbyes, it must've felt like an eternity as time slowed down in their minds knowing what was going to happen. On the good side... they had a brilliant and wonderful full life, they excelled in their professions, they got do things few people in the world could ever imagine, and died doing what they loved. To think how many of us die from a health issue at a young age, or worse... have huge regrets in life about the paths we took, the mistakes we've made, and the dreams we never chased and realized, all to eventually die knowing we wasted much of our lives. These astronauts did it all, they lived the dream... and their lives although cut short, were never, ever, wasted. RIP Columbia crew, and all the others that had full, sucessfull, and fulfilling lives. And what a way to go....
Ay, they did more than most, and their loss will always be remembered. To think of how many humans exited in history that never got to see the earth from space. If I was to go out, perhaps this would be one way.
Thats exactly why plane crashes are terrifying. Screw people saying that "you're far more likely to die on your way to the airport" well maybe I am, so what. At least it won't be 20 minutes of terror
My father in law, Richard Triplett, was present during the 1986 Challenger disaster as a representative from NASA's Inspector General's office. When it was destroyed, he on the spot initiated the "Lock the doors, no outgoing calls, retrieve and save all data," procedure that they used on this day. The face of the Flight Director, Leroy Cain, says it all without saying anything. Even 20 years later, this is gut and heart wrenching to listen to and watch.
My stepfathers aunt was married to a Colonel from the air force who was attached to the Challenger project and he said it was the thing that made him hate Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party as a whole. Said they rushed the whole thing because the President wanted it
@LordGoomba Yes, everything has to go right from launch to recovery/landing. That is the inherent danger, but they make it happen regardless. Throughout history, explorers knew the risks and took them, rather than stay curled up safe in their beds. They dreamt of things, and made it happen. Often, it cost them their lives, but the thirst for knowledge has always driven human beings to ask, "What's over there?" Life can be fleeting, so you live it as best you can, maybe even chasing a dream or two you've had even if people tell you you're nuts. I've been told that a few times and even if I failed, at least I tried. Who's life is it? Theirs? No, it's yours. Live it. Okay, for a some levity that was a little intense of a promo this early in the morning, but I enjoyed the clip. He did it old school, which I immediately noticed. Gave it a like and saved it. Thank you.
This is probably the best job of 'tying together' this whole sequence of events I have seen. (If I may, in case anyone is interested, as the vehicle rolls/yaws back and forth during entry, the axis that the vehicle is rotating around is the instantaneous velocity vector).
From what I could collect from the info online and trying to understand something I definitely don't (please correct me if I'm wrong) instantaneous velocity is the sum of an equation that states a vehicles given speed in that exact second in time based on what direction it is moving in on both vertical and horizontal planes IE. Spiralling north towards the earth times the the nose being pitched south and the actual cabin rotating east at all the same time. (basically meaning they felt forces and the effects from being pushed from inside and outside their bodies at the same time?)
This video was brutal to sit through. I remember watching the inaugural flight of the Columbia live on TV in 1981. I actually skipped my art class in high school to watch it. It was incredible to see it going up for the first time, riding on top of that giant plume of smoke created by the external rockets. So sad to see it come down like this, two decades later, wiping out the crew. After the 1986 Challenger disaster, this would spell the end the Space Shuttle program.
I remember it as well, I happened to be with my mother at a department store in the tv section. Most people in the store were huddled there along with us.
As it turned out, Columbia launched for the first time on a Sunday - April 12, 1981. You most likely wouldn't have been in school anyway that morning, but you might be remembering the first attempt 2 days earlier on Friday, which got scrubbed due to a computer glitch with just 18 minutes to go.
@@bullseye144 - Because it was essentially what prompted the Bush administration to urge NASA to set a foreseeable endpoint to the program, once the shuttles had finished hauling up the remaining parts of the space station and wrapped up construction. Up until then, it was generally expected that the shuttles would continue to at least be part of a larger program for another decade or two. Bush & NASA then began developing the Constellation program, which evolved during the Obama and Trump administrations into what's now the similar Artemis program. Bush at first targeted 2009 for the shuttle to wind down, but delays and a few added missions under Obama pushed it back some. The shuttles probably could have successfully been maintained to still be operational even up to now, but you'd have to consider that if NASA's attention (and funding) had started to be split among other vehicles, it would probably be a matter of time before another accident would happen anyway.
@@bullseye144 I DOUBT anymore civilians flew on the CONTRACTED missions that remained in the program. At the end of the day the Shuttle program was military in objective and what scientific and other utilitarian purposes it fulfilled while in operation were coincidental. But Columbia was the nail in the coffin of the program.
I was sitting in my home office in Texas that morning, and heard the sonic boom from the Shuttle as it broke up entering the atmosphere. It was a warm(ish) morning and I had the balcony door open to let the cat out on the deck. When I heard, what I first thought was, a roller door on the back of a larger delivery truck. Confused as to why a delivery truck would be at my property, I went out on the balcony to see what it was. There was nobody around. But that sound was so strange and unrecognizable at the time I had no idea what had happened. Thinking nothing of it, I went back inside. I turned the News on, for background noise, and later found the Shuttle had broken up “above” me that morning.
I think the most eerie part is the tire pressure loss. I think at that moment they knew it wasn't going to hold and there was certainly a major structure failure he even breaks his speech when he communicates this event. They felt it when multiple sensors many un-related overheating and going offline, but the tire pressure loss was the nail in the coffin because it meant that there was a large breach, and it wasn't going to make it through.
The flight director's body language filled me with a deep sense of foreboding and sadness. I can't imagine how horrifying this was for everyone. Hoping the families have healed.
He apparently later said in an interview that the moment he heard about the temperature sensors going off sequentially, he knew there was a heat shield failure as theyd studied what that might look like, and heat shield failure was the only possibility. So he knew several minutes before breakup the crew probably wasnt going to make it.
That's your movie-programmed imagination talking. He didn't give off any body language that would give that idea. It's the body language of a professional, which gives nothing away. The reason people like him became flight director in this era was because they were unflappable. Today they're likely selected for sexual orientation or gender or other useless reasons, and future videos of this sort will provide you with all of the dramatic body language you crave.
I'm not big into this kind of stuff, but I can 100% appreciate the time and effort it took to put this together. Superbly done. Thank you for doing it so future generations can never forget and hopefully learn something from this
If you read other comments, you’ll see that this isn’t news, that the uploaded isn’t the person who created this, and a whole pile of other fact. Perhaps not “absurd”, but certainly misinformed.
@@andrewjkm1 What you're arguing is the video we watched is entirely incorrect and not a factual piece to educate others later in life maybe even generations later. Can you further explain why the original commenter is wrong, your reasoning does not yet compute for me.
I live in Portugal. Was born in dec73. The Columbia filled my child's imagination: my favourite spaceship in my whole infancy was named "Columbia". This ship meant so much to me. Still does. Having lived the Challenger trauma, I never understood why so little relative emphasis was put on the loss of the Columbia. Thank you for opening my soul to the Cosmos, talented Engineers, Scientists and Control and thank you brave Astronauts.
The sad truth is that the world had already lost interest in the Shuttle program, and space travel as a whole. The loss of Columbia, as tragic as it was, was seen by many as proof that the program was dated, irrelevant, a waste of resources and lives. You're right though, it's almost like its loss was just a footnote to the end of the shuttle program.
@@wysoftFor me, it wasn’t so much that I lost interest in the space shuttle program as I took it for granted. Just as so many people could tell you where they were when they heard that Kennedy was assassinated, I can tell you where I was when I heard about the Challenger explosion. The problem with the ‘O rings’ was widely covered in the news, as was NASA’s rush to launch the mission. I remember coverage from when shuttle flights resumed, but then…nothing. It’s sad, but once any type of technology is established, people tend to take it for granted until something happens. For many of us, a failure in technology we utilize daily is an inconvenience. When technology of the size, scale, and importance of a space shuttle (or an airplane, or a hospital’s computerized medical records system, etc.) happens, people die, and the ramifications are far-reaching and long-lasting.
As the cascade of sensor failures built up there must have been a point where controllers knew that loss of the craft was imminent, but there was nothing they could do but watch. Wonder how early that realization happened for them.
Amazing work Scott. Never seen the breakup pinpointed before with the ground view of re-entry. Always haunted me what they went through in those last moments. Death was inside a min, but what a min.
Hello Kim, I've got to say, I've seen you in over 10 comment sections this week. I used to watch your channel about 10 years ago when I was even younger than I am now. I grew up on you and your kids playing with the same things I played with. Thank you for the memories Kim, -Julian Watson
@@AtheistOrphan I'm not sure that's true. They would have experienced the loss of control. Once the cabin was breached oxygen pressure would be lost though, about 15 seconds later according to the official reports. It is not going to be a good way to go
If there can be anything good here. Some of their scientific work was able to be recovered and analyzed. Albeit, a bit damaged. Some biological samples survived and I believe some electronic data about experiments they had been doing.
@@YourMJK After all what happened, the cockpit of the re-entry filmed by astronaut Kalpana Chowla was found on a country road (hwy whatever). ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_rIHdk-_UoM.html
I grew up in our family TV/Electronics business, we also installed satellite dishes. NASA channel was always on when there was a mission. I watched the Challenger and the Columbia disasters, both were gut wrenching. To be honest it's amazing there was only two events with how hard they were pushing to keep missions going. After Challenger I cringed every time I heard "go at throttle up". This is hands down the best video on the Columbia event timeline I have seen. Thanks for sharing !
7:07 "anything in common in your MDM" , appears to be a multiplexer/demultiplexer module, a device for routing multiple connections (like sensors) together. If the MDM was failing, a bunch of sensors routed into it could appear to fail at the same time. Like a USB hub failing and your mouse/keyboard/etc all go off at once.
I think that was the moment they knew for certain something was up. "No Commonality" for failure of sensors on the left wing, meaning they all failed through different causes and not through a single MDM. They already knew the left wing had suffered an impact during launch, and were probably quickly piecing it together.
At 11:50 of the video, you can hear Commander Rick Husband's final interrupted words before you hear the sound of what is either static, or quite possibly the sounds of extremely high-speed "winds" residually being picked up through Husband's mic, as any such sudden exposure to massive aerodynamic forces that were previously external to the vehicle (but have now breached or "entered" the vehicle), would undoubtedly be deafening. At an altitude of 60 km, as was the case here, there is definitely enough atmosphere to create a lot of "wind-like" noise inside a vehicle that has been breached, and especially so if that vehicle happens to be traveling at a speed of 20,000 km per hour, as was also the case here. The small pieces of shuttle debris that were later recovered on the ground gives one a stark visual indication of just how much like a "cheese grater" the Earth's atmosphere acts against any compromised vehicle traveling through it at that speed. It would probably be not much different from dragging a cardboard box through the ocean with a high-speed jet boat. The box probably wouldn't last very long. While we should all sincerely hope those seven crew members lost consciousness as to what was happening sooner rather than later, NASA's subsequent analysis of the wreckage later revealed that the crew members had flipped cockpit switches in response to alarms that were sounding, and had also reset the shuttle’s autopilot system. This suggests some (or perhaps all) of the crew members were consciously aware of serious problems occurring and tried their best to troubleshoot those problems, for at least a few (or several) seconds. Below is a link to NASA's official report and technical findings: www.nasa.gov/pdf/298870main_SP-2008-565.pdf
@@jenniferwebb5954 Columbia was NOT in the vacuum of space when it broke up at 60km above sea level. The Karman Line is 100km above sea level, which is generally considered where the Earth's atmosphere ends and outer space begins. If Columbia were still in the "vacuum" of space, it wouldn't have broken up, because there is no atmospheric friction in the vacuum of space to cause a breakup. It's super-heated re-entry into our denser atmosphere caused its final breakup after its damaged wing kept disintegrating until it went into an out of control spin against massive aerodynamic forces. Read more science. Class dismissed.
@@jenniferwebb5954 I love how people like you, those who stopped their education at a few community college courses or didn't even graduate high school, think you have a leg to stand on when it comes to saying anything that's evidence-backed. What a useless comment. Maybe you should do a better job educating yourself, visit your local college, and drop the ego trip. Someone with the limited brain cells you have would do better listening than spouting ignorant nonsense as you seem to do.
How is everyone so wrong about this lol. The vehicle wasn’t “breached” right after the last transmission, and it wouldn’t have been audible through the intercom. They stayed in the vehicle for some time, then the cabin separated (still not a “breach”), then the cabin disintegrated, which you could call a breach. They had been radio silent for some time before the disintegration
I was blessed to work for the Shuttleworth program for over 20 years. This was one of the worst Saturdays I remember. I was half a sleep on my couch, waiting to hear the sonic booms over Orlando fl. While watching the NASA channel, I hear we have lost communications with Columbia. She was well past the point of the loss of communication. I knew then she was in real trouble. I had no idea how bad, though. The launch of Columbia and her return home will always be etched in my memories...RIP STS 107 CREW of Columbia....
@Prasanjeet Nayak I don't need to make up any stories. I don't need to impress anyone. I am a 20-year vet of the shuttle program. Again, I don't need to make up stories!!!
I was at Fort Polk at the time. It woke me up and I couldn’t figure out why they were firing a reveille cannon at 9am on a weekend. Thank you for putting this together. RIP.
Thank you to whomever spent the time & energy putting this together. Bless the crews of both the Columbia & Challenger, you will forever be missed. However, wherever your souls may be this day, perhaps traveling through dimensions of space, know that you are not forgotten. You stand as symbolic paladins, immortal icons of which you represent all the great men & women of the United States of America.
13:15 The abruptly change in the trajectory of the debris at re-entering stunned me. No matter how fast they had been, they fall perpendicular to the ground.
The shuttle weights several tons, a few kilos of debris here and there should decelerate exponentially faster at those speeds. They get to terminal velocity and fall straight down
When I was in grama school I remember my teacher telling us about the thing gravetee I think it was called where u heavy and can't go up just go down Time to smell my fingers Buy
There’s so much information in this to take in, I’ve watched it multiple times. So many people, the crew, the ground crews, camera operators, everyone realising something is wrong at different times. The crew seemed to be the last to know because the first true indication for them was spinning out of control
@@alastairward2774 unfortunately the communication to the crew is done thru a third person (CAPCOM) so sadly the crew didn't even hear the discussion. I think an open channel communication is better because it allows the crew to realise something is wrong and think ahead of the ground control support team.
@@xponen it was more that the ship seemed to be disintegrated while there was talk of sensors on the ground. Was that control room not able to see any footage of the craft?
The crew, at least the commander and pilot knew something was wrong when the censors started going offline, the off nominal flight characteristics, particularly the elevons at different angles. I remember Hoot Gibson talking about STS-27 which was a close call and he and the crew was aware of significant tile damage, he told the concerned crew upon re-entry "no reason to die all tensed up" and said years later "if I did see an elevon split of beyond a quarter of a degree, I had about 60 seconds of life remaining in which to tell Mission Control exactly what he thought of their heat shield “analysis".. Rick Husband and Willie McCool most certainly saw a significant elevon split and knew what that meant. Remember these guys were military test pilots...they knew the situation was going bad fast likely before loss of contact. They kept trying aviate until the end. Knowing about the close call with STS-27 makes this tragedy even more difficult to accept.
This was heartbreaking to watch. Seeing the spacecraft just slowly be torn apart. Hoping so much that it might just be okay, that the temperatures might go back to normal, and maybe they can just land anyway, while knowing that they're doomed from the beginning. I haven't seen a video that got to my heart like this in a long time, not even the voice recordings from pilots who died. You did a very good job with compiling the chart of the system status and real time explanations of what was occurring.
I can imagine when the roll reference alarm sounded on the shuttle (similar to the autopilot kicking off on an aircraft in a severe storm), the pilots knew the situation had suddenly become very dire. Seconds later with the craft now hitting the atmosphere broadside, the deceleration profile would have been very heavy with the structure deforming and soon to break apart. Just terrible.
Coming into the atmosphere at tens of kilometers per hour and hearing that you are rolling out of attitude is about as dire as it gets. At least when pilots hear that they usually have some reasonable chance recovering it. They have the ground to contend with, but on re entry the very air will tear your ship apart st the wrong angle.
Thank you for compiling this. Really helps to visualise the unfolding drama and tragedy that's easy to witness and judge with hindsight but must have been agonising in real time.
What’s sad is the engineers saying “no commonality” btw sensor failures - because they’re thinking in terms of system schematic type diagrams. All the while, the “commonality” was physical locations - just a few feet apart. A good lesson for control room operators.
It's possible the engineers might have been aware of the common location, but wanted to absolutely rule out that they could have been sensors of the same system or some such. When attempting to diagnose a problem based on what someone is telling you, it's hard to know for absolute sure that no important information has been omitted or influenced by that person's own prejudgments regarding the problem. They may have also considered it the only avenue worth exploring at that point, given the unsolvable nature of damages that could be affecting multiple unconnected systems in the same general area.
Seemed they all sensed what was happening and were professionally giving out the data they were reading. No commonality in this context is fucking chilling.
They are checking system commonality, as in if these sensors go to one multi-channel DAQ/computer or if there is anything connected between them (e.g. temperature goes up in one sensor leading to pressure increase in the other). They probably didn't even consider if the wires are next to each other...
Yeah, in the documentary the flight director says exactly that. The commonality of all the sensor failures ultimately was they were all in the left wing! To us now it looks so obvious. The super hot air was going through the hole damage which was close to the left-hand landing gear area. You can envision now the hot air flowing straight back into the rear part of the wing, as well as outward, heating up the landing gear area. And of course the moment which really makes my blood run cold - they lose nose gear talk back and right main gear talk back. That means the vehicle has been displaced, i.e. broken up or otherwise completely failed in some way. Those two talk-backs are nowhere near where the shuttle's damage was, so to have them fail at the same time everything else was happening, the odds of that happening randomly was pretty much zero.
I interpreted it differently - that “no commonality” is a _bad_ thing. If it was all related to the same system I’d think the system itself had an issue. But when it’s spread across multiple systems I’d hope it was just a failed computer or wiring harness (wouldn’t that be a commonality?), but I’d fear it was a far more serious systemic problem.
This is heartbreaking. You can hear the worry in ground control as they hope their worst fears don't come true as they push panic out of their minds and focus on their job. Unfortunately they did. My deepest condolences for everyone there for going through this hell.
Wow, I had watched the Mission Control video a few times. It was some of the most intense, gripping video I’ve ever seen, and to see it now, overlayed with multiple video footage, telemetry, and trajectories in real time was amazing. Kudos…
I was living in Jacksonville, TX at the time of the shuttle disaster. Hearing the multiple sonic booms from the breakup was awful. Being involved with ham radio emergency services, we helped NASA locate pieces of Columbia that fell nearby
I've been an avid space nut since I was a kid. Used to watch all the shuttle liftoffs and landings if I could live. I remember this one since as mentioned by the commentator, it passed directly over Sacramento where I lived. Got up early to go outside, to see if I could see it pass overhead but it was cloudy. Went back inside and turned on PBS, which would show the landings live. Knew something wasn't right when the talk of sensors going offline started. The sad part were the calls, "Columbia, UHF comm check" a few times and that moment when Cain turned around and was told of the debris raining down over Texas...I'll never forget that look on his face...
Just as sad and heartbreaking now as the day it happened. RIP Columbia crew and condolences to their families and the NASA staff who felt helpless as the tragedy unfolded. Too bad it takes tragedies like this to step up their safety game.
Ground Operations new there was very likely Wing damage from a large piece of Foam that broke off the External Tank, which was seen by millions on video, but downplayed it and didn’t even allow the crew to conduct a Space walk to inspect the wing for damage. After the breakup of the Shuttle on reentry and the deaths of everyone on board,an inquiry found NASA liable for gross misconduct and fired many. NASA canceled all future flights for several years while regrouping until continuing again. 2011 was the last Space Shuttle Flight and it finished its mission of building the International Space Station and helping with the Hubble Telescope. 😊😊
Definitely for the best. We just don't have the ingenuity and smarts it takes to run such a program. Better to leave it to other countries and private space programs. Definitely cheaper that way too.
You can read about it in the Columbia Accident Investigation Board but there were some at NASA and United Space Alliance that saw the possibility of a catastrophic foam strike early on in the mission. At some point later in the mission, it was briefly mentioned to flight control team leaders back at Johnson Space Center that there was a possible anomalous foam strike but JSC was told it was nothing. Among those present during that meeting was Flight Director LeRoy E. Cain, the FD on duty during Columbia's descent. There's a documentary somewhere in which Cain says as the situation progressed, he remembered the footage they'd been shown of the foam strike and began to put the pieces together.
I remember see the foam strike, and as a AE eng i knew she was not going to make it home. It rocked a mill plus pound object moving at 700mph 30deg. That is one hellave impact. How it did not tear the wing off there is a testament to how strong they are built.
@@ghinckley68 Hi Glen: The Orbiter Columbia (OV-102) was particularly so. Built heavily in order to survive the first 4 flights where aero stuff was uncertain.
@@JB-uj8mz There use to be layer of foam on the main tank between the lower hydrogen tank and the upper oxygen tank. A piece of it broke off on launch and impacted the left wing at about the point just slightly outboard of the sweep change. This was happening on a lot of launches but had never caused an issue. This piece of foam only weighed a few pounds but it decelerated almost instantly. The shuttle hit it at near 700mph. The impact tore the crap out the carbon panels on the leading edge of the wing. On reentry the panels that block the hot gases let the hot gases in to the wing and melted every thing in it.
You can read the 'Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report' they made about this. Of all the ways they could have died, they actually died the best way. They passed out so quickly from depressurization that they had no time to even lower their visors which they were trained to do. Then they died from the blunt force trauma from getting knocked around from the G forces. They found no burns in their airways. The G forces were also nowhere near as bad as what the crew of Challenger had.
@@brokolosbinala2970 well sorry but thats what happened. The accident report said the cockpit separated from the orbiter and fell back down on its own. When they found it they discovered that most of the emergency air supplies were activated and that those for the front row of crew members were activated which could only have happened if the rear row was alive because they had to be activated manually. So yes, they died on impact with the water and lived another minute or so falling to their death after the explosion
@@brokolosbinala2970 they discovered a few of the astronauts had activated their emergency oxygen supplies. Meaning they were alive and conscious during the break up.
This was so heartbreaking. This happened a few days after my grandfather passed away. That day we drove up to Georgia for his funeral. My dad(retired NASA Engineer/Manager) was watching it come in on NASA TV and woke me up saying they lost contact. I remember the calls "Columbia Houston Com check" then the "lock the doors" command and contingency procedures. When my dad heard contingency he knew the worst had happened. I switched channels from NASA TV to news stations that were broadcasting the video of Columbia obviously breaking apart that looked like a meteorite.
I also remember them asking KSC if they had radar contact, which was no and when they expected contact they something like 2minutes ago. (Edit, the words were 1 minute ago) Still brings tears when i watch this again.
I lived in Marshall Texas at the time this happened…I’ll never forget the loud roar, and the rumbling of it as it broke up in the sky above me. I just thought it was a B-52, since I lived within 30 minutes from Barksdale AFB, I wish that’s what it was 😢
This is tragic… The heartbreak is palpable, as you see these people lose their colleagues real time - and still have to hold it together. The Flight Director (Leroy Cain) was SO very professional… even as you could tell he was utterly crushed! Rest In Peace, brave souls…
Wow. Thank you. I have watched the footage and read the NASA documentation as well as the books. This was by far the best visual representation of what happened that day. Thank you.
I - for one - am still very much interested in this and the Challenger disasters, and often comb RU-vid for new perspectives on the same. Thank you. BTW: I was sitting in my car watching ice-fishing tip-ups with my father and listening to the radio when this occurred. I picked up the broadcast just as the media coverage of the disaster was unfolding. For many minutes, I thought they were re-visiting the Challenger disaster....I couldn't figure out why they kept referring to "Columbia" - I thought they were misspeaking. As the minutes went on....the truth slowly dawned upon me. I remember turning to my father and saying something like "This is happening now. This is a new one...."
COLUMBIA CREW SURVIVAL INVESTIGATION REPORT is a good read for detailed information. I was just south and west of Sacramento that day. Had planned to record the shuttle because I had seen other reentries and knew there would be a plasma trail as there is on any re entering spacecraft. Dang fog prevented observation.
since your really interested, they were sacrifices, columbus/columbine/columbia/concordia are all luciferian gods of sacrifice....dont try to make logical sence of it, you never will😳
Powerful work. So deeply sad to see & understand the inevitable catastrophe that was unfolding, sensor by sensor. A chilling perspective this work adds is the visual state of the orbiter through it all. Oh my gracious. The crew of Columbia are heroes to all on Earth; they risked-all to advance manned spaceflight. Lord Guard and Guide…
Was in 9th grade when we lost the challenger walked in to science class and everyone was saying the space shuttle exploded. Was watching the Columbia crew just the night before and heard on the news right after we lost her and her crew...was in total shock from both and still feel the sadness the nation felt those days
Great video. I was watching this happen in Mesquite, TX. I think I was 16. I knew exactly what I was witnessing. I don't think any of the debris was found in my area, but I remember the news/authorities were constantly having to tell people not to pick up anything they find. (As is common with any crash or other disaster.) Since it was such a wide area though, people were finding stuff everywhere. I made sure to get a picture of their mission plaque at JSC in Houston. Along with the crews of Apollo 1 and Challenger. Heroes. All of them.
@@jeffreyconstance6435 I can see where my wording might have been a little off. There most certainly was debris scattered all across North and East Texas, but what I was saying was that I don't think any was found within my city, to my knowledge.
It was the roll to the left that did the ship in. There was damage to the sensors from the rip, but the moment they rolled left, that put the hole on the extreme leading edge during the reentry, and all of those sensors begin to overheat.
Nicely done. Have seen lots of footage over the years, and 20 years on it doesn't really get any easier to watch. LeRoy Cain, you could see that as soon as the unrelated temp sensors started to give above normal, then failure, signals he knew what was about to transpire. Charlie Hobaugh had the unenviable task of calling out into the void. Despite all of this, the professionalism of the command team that day was astounding - it's a shame the organisation as a whole was failing so badly. As for the crew, they really stood little chance. The joke that was the pressure suits, unable to wear their gloves due to not then being able to operate switches - same with the issues of having visors down. Lessons were learned after Challenger, it's just a shame the fundamental flaws with the Shuttle could never have been addressed without a complete re-design. A safer crew compartment! Despite both disasters being mechanical failures, it's amazing how much human influence and decisions making had to play.
Listening to this again is very sad. I was living in Tampa when this happened and I had fallen asleep the night before on the couch in the living room. I woke up to a text message from my former college roommate about the crash. I sat up and turned the tv on and spent the rest of the day watching the coverage. Colombia and Challenger are two days I will never forget.
What professionali demeanor of this heroic captain. I am positive they cut the last bit of what the captain said. A salute to the brave men and women who put their lives on the line for us to have a better life. I just shed a tear while watching this. Thanks, Captain and Team.
11:59, upper left hand corner. As it starts to lose pieces and tumble. And the crew cabin still stays aloft while the rest of the ship is done for. Reminds me of Challenger. Chilling and haunting. Thank you for taking the time to create this so a non engineer like me could understand.
Truly a sphincter clenching moment of helplessness. Amazing to hear the slow realization that a very big problem is occuring. Almost as if all the different elements of ground control is akin to the blind men feeling an elephant. What a loss. It reminds me of a big of the issue with out of the loop, test controllers on the X-31 test flights in 1995. I tell you, I almost couldn't watch the video.
They already knew that reentry would most likely be fatal based on the analysis of the damage to the tiles. They were even trying to figure out how to retrieve the astronauts using another shuttle. So if the shuttle survived it would have been a MIRACLE. Unfortunately, we didn’t get one.
Wow, thank you oh so much for putting this very informative video which puts the sequence of events in perspective. Unfortunately this is the price that people pay when they pave the way to things that have never been done before. May the memory of these astronauts live on forever as pioneers in this chapter of human space exploration.
