Disaster Overhead

Just four days following the 17th anniversary of the space shuttle Challenger explosion, tragedy struck NASA again.

At approximately 9 a.m. Saturday, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart in the air over Texas, showering debris across eastern parts of the state and into Louisiana.

The seven-person crew, including Kalpana Chawla, who immigrated to the United States from India in the 1980s, and Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli in space, perished.

“It is indeed a tragic day for the NASA family, for the families of the astronauts who flew on STS-107 (Columbia) and likewise is tragic for the nation,” said NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe in a televised news conference.

Fifteen minutes before the shuttle’s scheduled arrival at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., reports began streaming in of a loud rumble and balls of light streaking the Texas sky. Images of the disintegrating Columbia soon flooded news channels around the world, hauntingly reminiscent of the space shuttle Challenger explosion in 1986.

“As we seen (Columbia) coming over, we seen a lot of light and it looked like debris and stuff was coming off the shuttle,” Kemp, Texas resident Benjamin Laster told CNN.

Officials estimated early Saturday the debris field covers approximately 200-square miles. In Nacogdoches, Texas, pieces of the shuttle were found scattered across town in residents’ backyards, parking lots and on airport runways. In nearby Hemphill, investigators found human remains believed to be those of one of the seven crewmembers in a field along with a charred NASA patch and a flight helmet.

Members of the National Guard were dispatched to help local law enforcement secure and guard the debris and to deter any would-be collectors from handling the pieces.

Shuttles use a toxic chemical called hydrazine, which runs their auxiliary power units. NASA officials, members of the media and Texas police issued warnings urging residents to report debris to the authorities.

Searching for an answer

As NASA officials struggle to pinpoint a cause for the disintegration of the 22-year-old Columbia shortly after re-entry, investigators are looking into reports of a piece of insulating foam that came off the external fuel tank during takeoff Jan.16.

“It looks to us like it impacted the orbiter on the left wing,” said Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore in a televised news conference Saturday.

Though they do not know exactly where the piece struck the shuttle, Dittemore said through calculated analysis “it was judged that that event did not represent a safety concern.”

However, he added, NASA cannot discount that there might be a connection between the two incidents.

There has been speculation that the impact of the insulating foam may have caused the left wing to lose heat-resistant tiles, which protect the shuttle during re-entry from temperatures exceeding 3,000 degrees.

Tiles have fallen off during other launches, Dittemore said, and it is generally not cause for alarm.

“We don’t believe that the impact of the (external tank) debris on the tile is the cause of our problem,” he said.

When asked about crewmembers’ ability to repair tiles on the shuttle while in space in the event of a problem, Dittemore said they were not able to do so at this time.

“We do not have the capability to perform a spacewalk and do tile repair,” he said.

There also has been speculation that extreme aerodynamic stress on the shuttle could have caused it to break up, but Dittemore discouraged that theory.

“Everything from a flight-control perspective was perfect,” he said, adding that the shuttle had gone into its standard roll reversal, where the vehicle banks left and right to slow after re-entry.

Columbia, the oldest space shuttle in the NASA fleet, had just finished its 28th voyage. NASA officials said the shuttle was designed to withstand approximately 100 missions.

During the news conference, Chief Flight Director Milt Heflin described the sequence of events occurring between 8:53 a.m. and 9 a.m., when NASA lost contact with Columbia. During that time, mission control operating from the ground at Kennedy Space Center lost data from temperature sensors located on the inboard and outboard hydraulic systems on the left side of the craft, from three sensors located on the left wing and from temperature and pressure sensors in the left side wheel-well.

The craft was traveling at an altitude of 207,135 feet before NASA lost contact and at Mach 18.3, which is roughly 18 times the speed of sound.

“That’s when we clearly began to know we had a bad day,” Heflin said.

A day of mourning

A somber President George W. Bush addressed the nation and the families of those aboard the space shuttle Columbia Saturday with words of comfort and hope.

“These men and women assumed great risk in the name of humanity,” Bush said. “Because of their courage and daring and idealism, we will miss them all the more.”

The president, who was at Camp David earlier that morning, was immediately notified by O’Keefe that NASA had lost contact with the shuttle orbiter after the landing was due to occur at 9:16 a.m.

“This day has brought terrible news and great sadness to our country,” Bush said.

The president ordered all federal buildings to fly their flags at half-staff until Wednesday in honor of those who died and vowed the space program would continue.

“The cause in which they died will continue,” he said. “Our journey into space will go on.”

He ended his address with a passage from Isaiah and emphasized the importance of hope.

“The same creator who names the stars, also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today,” he said.

“The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth, yet we can pray that all are safely home.”

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