11:41 is the moment the first hand news of Columbia's breakup arrives at Mission Control. This man is Phil Engelhauf, a retired NASA flight director, acting as a mission operations official, and on his right, former astronaut Dr Ellen Ochoa. Engelhauf receives a call from Bryan Austin, an off duty flight director in West Texas who had just witnessed the breakup of Columbia. Engelhauf leans over to Dr Ochoa and by the look on her face, its not hard to tell what he said to her. He relays the same message to FD Cain, and the call "lock the doors" comes moments later.
@@rprince418I swear he says “the shuttle’s been lost” I imagine - based on his motions and where I think he says that - it does “that was Austin in Texas. The shuttle’s been lost. He saw it breaking apart across the sky”
It's very interesting that NASA not only recorded these dramas in real-time, but the cameramen do pay specific attention to actions going on (such as LeRoy's facial expressions, or leaving his console to talk to FOD). They did this during Apollo 13 as well during the most critical parts of the mission. Absolute professionalism.
They knew the shuttle had been impacted on the left wing by foam but didn’t know how bad the damage was. Not even the engineers knew how bad it was because their attempts to get more data was immediately shot down by NASA managers. These people were told there was nothing to worry about.
When Charlie fell back in his chair around 6:51, you knew. A hole in the left wing is eerily simular to American Airlines Flight 191 after it's number 1engine tore loose. It's a rare bird that can fly with only one wing. 😢❤
@Johnnyprc , Columbia had been automatically fighting anomalous yaw by this point in the descent trajectory...Even if the downlink had been able to inform the controllers of the exact situation occurring aboard the spacecraft, there was absolutely nothing that the controllers or crew could have done to change the final result. Control of the vehicle was already being lost and the trajectory was not in any way correctable or survivable by this point in time. 😢 It was just a ballistic object and subjected to forces well in excess of the limits of controllability.
The average person, let alone the average professional, cannot possibly comprehend the immense amount of emotions racing through everyone in that room. That flight director is made of steel. Total professionals. American tragedy yet they all kept their cool.
@@rabd3721 To protect evidence. Because everything inside that room is "evidence" after you realize that a major accident has probably happened, and the procedure is designed to keep it as it is and where it is for investigative purposes.
i dont get it, what was he supposed to do ? run around waving his arms ? He was a very highly trained leader and participated in many many stress test emergency rehearsals - he said this himself
For all the great things this country has accomplished and will accomplish suffering humbling pain like this is inevitable. Honor the sacrifices by continuing to achieve.
You could watch this video with the sound off and tell by their faces when things happen. The looks of helplessness as they realized what happened. Very sad day.
When they announced there was no radar tracking a minute after it should have been in range, he knew. The man was still fighting to hold onto hope, but that was when his logical mind knew no one was coming home.
Even the temperature sensors being lost 3 to 5 seconds each in the left wing. That would of literally indicated the shell of the spaceshuttle was burning up and being breached. That was the very first moment they'd of all known there was a serious problem happening onboard. Then following tire pressure sensors lost. Which the tires are inside the aircraft hidden. One by one they were all being lost. Tragic
@@alexanderbohlen5923 When a disaster occurs with a manned NASA mission (NASA calls this a "contingency"), the procedure is to isolate mission control so that no information leaves or comes in. The purpose is to preserve all data for later analysis. The Flight Director giving the order to "lock the doors" is so that no one leaves, takes anything with them, and no one comes in, bringing in anything that wasn't already there. It furthermore means that no phone calls or communications are made in or out. The phrase is well-known by all of the mission control specialists to mean that a contingency has occurred that resulted in loss of the crew and vehicle.
It's to collaborate and collate as much unaffected information and testimony as possible before the word gets out and everyone starts throwing around assumptions and guesswork. It's a forensic strategy. @@alexanderbohlen5923
@@alexanderbohlen5923Because accident happend, and from that moment ALL material, record, anything else in that control room is evidence. So lock the door and keep everything safe to investigate later
Something I never noticed before. At 13:13, after an off-mic conversation, Leroy Cain hangs his head and shakes it in grief/disbelief. GC Officer Bill Foster reaches out and reassuringly touches him on the elbow. In the context of the controlled professionalism of the moment, these are big gestures.
Just a point to give everyone their credit: GC Bill Foster was working his console for the entirety of this video. That was John Shannon touching Cain on the arm. Shannon was also a flight director who had moved up to the mission management team.
federal statutes and limitations have a 20 year limit on classified documents, hence the 20 year delay. government always trying to hide stuff from us.
When they pan up to the management mezzanine, the women with the long blonde hair is Linda Ham, who was called to task in the CAIB report as one of the deficiencies in management. She active tried to stop information on the wing being acquired and was reported to have told a colleague that, in a nutshell, there is no way to fix the TPS on orbit, so why bother. The official reason was that a request for use of DoD Imagery assets was made "outside the chain of command" and was stopped, she also apologized to the Air Force contact for the breach of protocol. We are going to renter with a gasping hole in the wing and people can die, but by God the chain of command is damn well going to be respected 🙄
i feel like the TPS could of been fixed idk enough about all this but i know its not simple patch work but like with Apollo 13 they had a fix for basically everything surely theres some panels or a way to fix them
@@douglasskaalrud6865Challenger: NASA was told by MT responsible engineer on site that they were flying the SRBs outside of the conditions they were qualified to fly in. NASA and MT saw on a flight a year prior that the field joint o-rings were sensitive to temperature. NASA decided to fly that day because if they didn’t, they would have to delay several more days to get McAullifes class on a weekday. Columbia: NASA knew there was the possibility of a hole in the wing and tried to reenter anyway. NASA knew that the ET shed foam on nearly every launch. NASA refused to use available assets to see what damage was done to the wing. NASA downplayed the possibility of damage to the crew. In other words, NASA management failed their astronauts. Just like with Apollo 1, they got “go fever” and got people killed. All 3 were avoidable.
According to the final (very very detailed) report on crew injuries and survivability recommendations, the crew module depressurized before it broke up and the crew went unconscious very quickly- so quickly that their visors were still up. One crew member hadn't even finished donning their helmet. Unlike Challenger, they likely felt nothing.
The man behind the director had just gotten a call from an off-duty colleague in Texas who saw the shuttle breaking up. He tells the woman next to him (and you can see her reaction), then the director, then “lock the doors” comes seconds later.
Had Linda Ham agreed to the satellite photos requested by the engineers to asses the damage there was a chance this could’ve been avoided, and you all can make the claim that they wouldn’t have been able to be rescued even if they confirmed the damage but that’s not the point something else definitely could’ve occurred to change this sad outcome
I have been watching this alongside some other reentry cab videos to see how long they were in peak heating.... if the shuttle stayed together for maybe a minute longer this might not had happen, but I don't know a lot about the shuttles etc... I know in a interview Leroy made the comment Columbia was the workhorse of the shuttle fleet, and I will bet the shuttle tried it's hardest to come home.
NASA later concluded that with a minor shuttle redesign the incident would have probably been survivable for most or all of the crew. More so than Challenger where even in the best case only the Pilot and Commander had a shot at survival without totally reworking the orbiter.
Both pilots flew that bitch all the way down, they didnt stop fighting it, and the shuttle did amazing staying in as few peaces as it did really, at the time of breakup wasnt it something like 60G of load, she was never designed for anything like that, but she stayed together untill then, and its my opinion the crew were alive all the way down to impact, and the fact they was tells me the shuttle kept them together and safe untill the very end
Everybody in the room looked grim from the beginning. They suspected this would happen. But they kept themselves together and did their jobs like professionals. You know every person in there was in pain.
The sad thing is, the NASA sponsored TV series "The Cape" had an episode where the TPS on a shuttle was damaged and they had to send another up to repair it. Six years prior to this incident. If NASA was providing technical support for a damned tv show that figured out debris could damage the orbiter, and that it would need to be fixed in orbit or rescued, then why didn't they have an IRL plan in place for such a problem?
A TV series can speculate about events believed to be highly unlikely or impossible. Then real life illustrates that the engineering analysis was wrong.
They could have stitched together a rescue mission since the shuttle for the next mission was basically standing by. The problem is: they would have been forced to rush that misson (which in space flight is a big no no) and thereby risk the lives of even more astronouts.
Because of cost. And politics. If I remember correctly. That's why this happened. They were in a hurry. The shuttle should have never gone up. They were warned pieces of it were being damaged on re entry each time. They even had a meeting about and a few warned them of it. Yet gambled it anyway. This is not a field where you gamble. Take chances. That's life or death.
I know Rick and Willie were busy, but doesn't it seem like they didn't respond to Capcom as much as usual. I do understand CapCom wants to interrupt pilots concentration as little as possible.
Spooky hearing FIDO (Flight Dynamics Officer) talking about the weather balloon at the Cape and predicted touchdown point etc for a landing at that point that was clearly not going happen.
They saw the foam strike on launch and simulated what it would look like if there was a catastrophic failure. They knew the second they lost the temperature sensors that the crew was likely lost.
It's GC, and it stands for Ground Controller. Flight is the Flight Director, the person speaking (LeRoy Cain). "GC Flight" means "Ground Controller, this is the Flight Director", and the GC responds with "Flight GC" which means "Flight Director, I acknowledge you're speaking to me, and am standing by to hear what you have to say". There are a lot of other examples in the video as well, the person speaking will start with who they need to speak to followed by their own positon/role. The Flight Director often says "Go" after being hailed, which confirms he's free to speak at that moment.
@@horncrownedproductions9675no, they didn’t. Only mission management knew and they were blocked by Linda Ham in pursuing it further. Nothing could be done anyway. No on orbit repairs, no going to the ISS, no rescue from another shuttle. They were doomed the second the foam hit the wing.
They knew this was the outcome and they couldn`t tell the astronauts. This is more dramatic that it even looks. I wonder if they were stil hoping for a miracle. What were the actual odds of they landing back alive?
The reason they filming this who knows what, but.. NASA and the crew knew the shuttle is damage but they didn’t think that it will damage the shuttle or even killed the crew
Its filmed because nasa is a public funded organisation, and all the data they collect belongs to the american people who are entitled to get a copy and analise it for free. Under its mandate i believe nasa has just 48 hours to make information available after the event, sure they hide some shit but thats why this is recorded, so the american people can feel involved and be involved.
Have you never watched a launch before? They always film and broadcast mission control. People love seeing celebration when everything goes smoothly. They're not expecting to capture people reacting to tragedy.
@@willardpatterson706 Watch video. In the overlook area, Ham is the blonde lady who is clearly shitting bricks. And as the follow up report revealed, she stonewalled, lied, distracted, and threatened technical staff. I am amazed how she was not tried for mass murder.
First of all it not explode, it broke up and disintegrated due to aerodynamic forces after attitude control was lost and it entered into a so called flat spin. This loss of control happened about 5 seconds after the final voice communication broke up in mid-sentence, Commander Rick Husband answering "Roger, uh" (5:10). The break-up started about 40 seconds later, but you can't correlate that directly to 40 seconds later in the video, as it is edited and not in real time.
The left wing came off first, then the OBS pod. Loss of Contact occurred about the same time the wing failed. Orbiter went out of control and the cabin separated next. Unlike the Challenger disaster, the wiring harness back to the cargo bay did not stream out and stabilize the cabin during breakup. Explosive decompression happened during that separation of the cabin from the main body. McCool was still conscious to that point and for perhaps a couple seconds after that but not much. Not like Challenger where Judy Reznik was alive and conscious and trying to save the crew right up until the moment of impact.
The truth is that they knew this was a real possibility based on the amount of the tiles that were lost during launch but they never told Columbia. There was no reason to worry them over somthing they couldn't do anything about.
From everything I understand, they would have know something was wrong for 15 seconds or so and something very wrong for 5 seconds as the shuttle started to tumble. 3-5 seconds knowing they were going to die before going unconscious as the shuttle broke up.
@@54spatulabefore the shuttle broke up they were conscious for 90 seconds before the severe G forces got to them after the orbiter broke up they died within 15 seconds due to hypoxia and data shows even after it broke up they weren’t even aware of the fact since erratic input controls were logged even after the orbiter broke up
I got a little woody when he said that. It's like the acknowledged that the astronauts have perished and as the survivors they must make sure they handle this right.
@@maryfreebed9886 You're thinking about The Challenger Tragedy. Columbia disintegrated upon reentry The Columbia Crew remains were found. But when the Crew Cabin became severed from the Cargo Bay, and exposed to the hot gases during reentry. I can't even imagine what the recovery teams witnessed what was left.😭🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
Largely fragmented remains of each crew member were recovered. The details have not been made public but what has been reported was individual bones, teeth and some organs. Given the extreme conditions, I’m astonished that anything whatsoever survived.
LeRoy Cain is deputy program manager of Starliner at Boeing, currently MMT lead of Starliner CFT. John Shannon is also a higher manager in the Boeing space division. FIDO Richard Jones also went to Boeing and is involved in Starliner as well. GNC Mike Sarafin is still at NASA, with Artemis, was MMT lead for Artemis I. GC Bill Foster is currently head of the Ground Control Team at JSC. Paul Hill, who was sitting next to LeRoy, lead the MOD until 2014, wrote a book about principles of Mission Control, and today works as a an advisor in different safety comittees and for private industry. Ellen Ochoa became JSC Center Director in 2013 until she retired in 2018. Milt Heflin, then Chief Flight Director, later became associate technical Director at JSC and retired in 2013, age 70. He is the Co-author of "Go, Flight", a great book about Mission Control by Rick Houston. These are the ones I know about...
The crew was told a week prior that a large chuck of protective foam fell off on an email sent to the pilot. So the crew knew and so did ground control but they brushed it off because it had happen before? Which is weird. I truly believe it was incompetence at ground control level. But also it was a rushed launch and I don't think they had the time and money to fix it, in my opinion. Ultimately, protective piece of foam to protect from heat fell off a week prior towards launch and in re-entry the heat got into the shuttles system, split and disintegrated.
@@melomars6690 Well there was nothing they could do about it though I suppose it would have been nice if they could say goodbye to their families. Shuttle was a flawed design from the start and never justified its cost versus the alternative.
@@melomars6690 The RCC protection isn't foam and was damaged during launch, not a week before. our assertion that they knew before launch and couldn't be bothered to fix it isn't true. RCC, a reinforced carbon composite, is used for the wing leading edges because they have so much heat load that the foam couldn't handle it. Tests showed the RCC shattering when hit by foam in the test rig. That would leave a large gap in the leading edge of the wing protection if it happened in the flight. The dent existed for a fraction of a second before the RCC shattered in the test.
To add on to the previous reply - it was expected that no communications would occur for a time during re-entry, due to (as they said) plasma interference. But it was not meant to go on as long as it did, hence the growing concern when the UHF comm checks went ignored.
The space shuttle program was a disaster, and an almost total failure. It was experimental, and a disaster waiting to happen, and tragically, it did on two occasions. We weren't much further on with space exploration in 2011 when the shuttle program finished, than we were in 1969, and the moon landing. The shuttle launched satellites that could have been launched by other means. Apart from that it just largely went to space and conducted a few experiments, something we could do since the early 1960s.
Look they knew nothing could be done as far chain of command down stairs well they should have had all this in place for any emergency which ever unfortunately NASA knew full well they were doomed or unenforceablely hope for the best unfortunately not ,RIP
Why do they act surprised that they shuttle broke apart on reentry? 82 seconds after Columbia took off, mission control knew the crew were doomed and would never make it back. NASA chose not to tell the crew that.
That’s not quite right. They knew foam strikes had the potential to be severe but the analysis available, as well as history, suggested they were nothing to be too concerned about. They even communicated the foam strike to Commander Rick Husbands whilst in orbit, and stressed it was probably nothing to worry about. There was nothing to suggest the foam strike was as bad as it was until it was too late.
1:50 the left wing compromised and heat entering through the 1 foot hole in the leading edge, 5:06 the tires in the left wing explode and take out the space craft, all are dead now
@@davidmcpa the static happened as the vehicle starting to lose control and spinning, it took some more seconds for the left wing to fail entirely and some more for the orbiter to fall apart entirely. tragic indeed :(
@@lorenzopappatico Absolutely!! Blown tires definitely weren't the reason for the loss of the integrity on the left wing. I pray that none of The Seven Brave Souls aboard The Columbia didn't suffer one single bit.😞🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽💞 Godspeed.
They didn’t know there was a gaping hole because management blocked surveillance videos from the DoD. They just ran on faith that it had never happened before. It’s not the Flight Director making that decision…it’s the whole chain of command that screwed up. This sort of thing happens in large organizations when the budget is continually cut while performance improvements are continually demanded. (Thanks, Congress.) There are organizational behavior textbooks based on NASA’s failures that describe how it happens.
After the shuttle reach the ISS they knew and the crew knew the shuttle is damage, they do not know from what but they think it would not do so much damage, NASA try to sent another shuttle for a rescue flight, but never happened..
@@Suzucka_ 1. Colombia was the only shuttle never designed to be able to dock and or made for the iss. it never went to the iss or docked with it. 2. The crew wasn't inform, panic wouldn't help. 3. Since it wasn't the first time isolating foam was seen impacting and or falling of the fuel tank onto the shuttles, it was thought it wouldn't damage it
*"Lock the doors." I can feel the pain in the flight director's voice.*
May everyone rest in peace. 😔🌹
12:16 for those wondering.
it happened in 2003, well past your ability to send wishes
11:41 is the moment the first hand news of Columbia's breakup arrives at Mission Control. This man is Phil Engelhauf, a retired NASA flight director, acting as a mission operations official, and on his right, former astronaut Dr Ellen Ochoa. Engelhauf receives a call from Bryan Austin, an off duty flight director in West Texas who had just witnessed the breakup of Columbia. Engelhauf leans over to Dr Ochoa and by the look on her face, its not hard to tell what he said to her. He relays the same message to FD Cain, and the call "lock the doors" comes moments later.
You can hear “loud” communications at 11:10 … so sad
Thanks for the info. This moment breaks my heart every time I watch it. May all crew rest in peace!
I was always wondering what he was saying. I wish I could read lips so I could know exactly what he said.
@@rprince418I swear he says “the shuttle’s been lost” I imagine - based on his motions and where I think he says that - it does “that was Austin in Texas. The shuttle’s been lost. He saw it breaking apart across the sky”
It is always somber in MCC
It's very interesting that NASA not only recorded these dramas in real-time, but the cameramen do pay specific attention to actions going on (such as LeRoy's facial expressions, or leaving his console to talk to FOD). They did this during Apollo 13 as well during the most critical parts of the mission. Absolute professionalism.
Agreed!!
Peace🌎
True. Precisely according to schedule, they brought Columbia back to earth.
What is FOD, please?
Flight Operations Director@@Dartman6
Thank you.
@@shankthebat8654
They all knew what was happening, but didn't want to say anything. They did not have to. Their faces showed it.
Yea if all flight controlers in regular fligth like from LA to NY were so nerves all the time i would newer gone up in a plane.
No
*@81hop* Are you a native English speaker? Can't make out a word you've written!
Actually they're not supposed to say anything. That's what they have been trained to do
They knew the shuttle had been impacted on the left wing by foam but didn’t know how bad the damage was. Not even the engineers knew how bad it was because their attempts to get more data was immediately shot down by NASA managers. These people were told there was nothing to worry about.
When Charlie fell back in his chair around 6:51, you knew. A hole in the left wing is eerily simular to American Airlines Flight 191 after it's number 1engine tore loose. It's a rare bird that can fly with only one wing. 😢❤
Even in the face of tragedy and the unknown, total professionalism.
@@Johnnyprc no its wing puncture
Nasa didn't learn from challenger & columbia it knew there was a problem yet it didnt tell the crew or try and find a solution. Both were avoidable
@@Johnnyprc lmao yeah all the brains at nasa def need YOUR input
@Johnnyprc , Columbia had been automatically fighting anomalous yaw by this point in the descent trajectory...Even if the downlink had been able to inform the controllers of the exact situation occurring aboard the spacecraft, there was absolutely nothing that the controllers or crew could have done to change the final result. Control of the vehicle was already being lost and the trajectory was not in any way correctable or survivable by this point in time. 😢 It was just a ballistic object and subjected to forces well in excess of the limits of controllability.
The average person, let alone the average professional, cannot possibly comprehend the immense amount of emotions racing through everyone in that room. That flight director is made of steel. Total professionals. American tragedy yet they all kept their cool.
"Lock the Doors"
NASA'S worst nightmare just realized..
I wonder why the procedure calls for locking doors after an accident likes this. To prevent press from wondering in?
@@rabd3721 Keep track of everything done, everything said, protect everything that transpired so nothing is forgotten / lost.
@@rabd3721 It's for the investigation and security of the investigation
@@rabd3721 To protect evidence. Because everything inside that room is "evidence" after you realize that a major accident has probably happened, and the procedure is designed to keep it as it is and where it is for investigative purposes.
Leroy Cain -- totally impressive professional. Wow.
i dont get it, what was he supposed to do ? run around waving his arms ? He was a very highly trained leader and participated in many many stress test emergency rehearsals - he said this himself
For all the great things this country has accomplished and will accomplish suffering humbling pain like this is inevitable. Honor the sacrifices by continuing to achieve.
This was not inevitable, this was negligence, just like with Challenger.
Sure...and it will happen again, thus, the humbling pain is inevitable.
That crackling was the craft breaking apart and they knew it.
You could watch this video with the sound off and tell by their faces when things happen. The looks of helplessness as they realized what happened. Very sad day.
Some of those engineers knew what was happening the moment that those four sensors were reported to be out.
"No commonality" in the sensors' demise spoke volumes to the engineers.
When they announced there was no radar tracking a minute after it should have been in range, he knew.
The man was still fighting to hold onto hope, but that was when his logical mind knew no one was coming home.
Even the temperature sensors being lost 3 to 5 seconds each in the left wing. That would of literally indicated the shell of the spaceshuttle was burning up and being breached. That was the very first moment they'd of all known there was a serious problem happening onboard. Then following tire pressure sensors lost. Which the tires are inside the aircraft hidden. One by one they were all being lost. Tragic
That gave me chills at 12:17 when the Flight Director says on his mic, "Lock the doors."
Whoa.
They all knew...
why lock doors?
@@alexanderbohlen5923 When a disaster occurs with a manned NASA mission (NASA calls this a "contingency"), the procedure is to isolate mission control so that no information leaves or comes in. The purpose is to preserve all data for later analysis. The Flight Director giving the order to "lock the doors" is so that no one leaves, takes anything with them, and no one comes in, bringing in anything that wasn't already there. It furthermore means that no phone calls or communications are made in or out. The phrase is well-known by all of the mission control specialists to mean that a contingency has occurred that resulted in loss of the crew and vehicle.
It's to collaborate and collate as much unaffected information and testimony as possible before the word gets out and everyone starts throwing around assumptions and guesswork. It's a forensic strategy. @@alexanderbohlen5923
@@alexanderbohlen5923Because accident happend, and from that moment ALL material, record, anything else in that control room is evidence. So lock the door and keep everything safe to investigate later
Something I never noticed before. At 13:13, after an off-mic conversation, Leroy Cain hangs his head and shakes it in grief/disbelief. GC Officer Bill Foster reaches out and reassuringly touches him on the elbow. In the context of the controlled professionalism of the moment, these are big gestures.
Just a point to give everyone their credit: GC Bill Foster was working his console for the entirety of this video. That was John Shannon touching Cain on the arm. Shannon was also a flight director who had moved up to the mission management team.
My mistake, apologies to Messrs. Shannon and Foster!
This was 20 years ago today. Just literally realised this.
federal statutes and limitations have a 20 year limit on classified documents, hence the 20 year delay. government always trying to hide stuff from us.
when "Lock The Doors" it gets Very Serious, the GRAVITY of those 3 words is just sooo sad
When they pan up to the management mezzanine, the women with the long blonde hair is Linda Ham, who was called to task in the CAIB report as one of the deficiencies in management. She active tried to stop information on the wing being acquired and was reported to have told a colleague that, in a nutshell, there is no way to fix the TPS on orbit, so why bother.
The official reason was that a request for use of DoD Imagery assets was made "outside the chain of command" and was stopped, she also apologized to the Air Force contact for the breach of protocol.
We are going to renter with a gasping hole in the wing and people can die, but by God the chain of command is damn well going to be respected 🙄
i feel like the TPS could of been fixed idk enough about all this but i know its not simple patch work
but like with Apollo 13 they had a fix for basically everything
surely theres some panels or a way to fix them
Both shuttle losses were caused by routing mismanagement on the part of NASA.
@@shitoryu8 Provide examples please.
She has blood on her hands.
@@douglasskaalrud6865Challenger: NASA was told by MT responsible engineer on site that they were flying the SRBs outside of the conditions they were qualified to fly in. NASA and MT saw on a flight a year prior that the field joint o-rings were sensitive to temperature. NASA decided to fly that day because if they didn’t, they would have to delay several more days to get McAullifes class on a weekday. Columbia: NASA knew there was the possibility of a hole in the wing and tried to reenter anyway. NASA knew that the ET shed foam on nearly every launch. NASA refused to use available assets to see what damage was done to the wing. NASA downplayed the possibility of damage to the crew. In other words, NASA management failed their astronauts. Just like with Apollo 1, they got “go fever” and got people killed. All 3 were avoidable.
I just hope they never felt anything when it came.
According to the final (very very detailed) report on crew injuries and survivability recommendations, the crew module depressurized before it broke up and the crew went unconscious very quickly- so quickly that their visors were still up. One crew member hadn't even finished donning their helmet. Unlike Challenger, they likely felt nothing.
they knew what was going to happen, were more than half expecting it
Don't you wonder what the dialog was at the back desk, behind the chief
The man behind the director had just gotten a call from an off-duty colleague in Texas who saw the shuttle breaking up. He tells the woman next to him (and you can see her reaction), then the director, then “lock the doors” comes seconds later.
lock the doors.. two controllers were also on duty during Challenger. They retired the next week.
Had Linda Ham agreed to the satellite photos requested by the engineers to asses the damage there was a chance this could’ve been avoided, and you all can make the claim that they wouldn’t have been able to be rescued even if they confirmed the damage but that’s not the point something else definitely could’ve occurred to change this sad outcome
I have been watching this alongside some other reentry cab videos to see how long they were in peak heating.... if the shuttle stayed together for maybe a minute longer this might not had happen, but I don't know a lot about the shuttles etc... I know in a interview Leroy made the comment Columbia was the workhorse of the shuttle fleet, and I will bet the shuttle tried it's hardest to come home.
NASA later concluded that with a minor shuttle redesign the incident would have probably been survivable for most or all of the crew. More so than Challenger where even in the best case only the Pilot and Commander had a shot at survival without totally reworking the orbiter.
Both pilots flew that bitch all the way down, they didnt stop fighting it, and the shuttle did amazing staying in as few peaces as it did really, at the time of breakup wasnt it something like 60G of load, she was never designed for anything like that, but she stayed together untill then, and its my opinion the crew were alive all the way down to impact, and the fact they was tells me the shuttle kept them together and safe untill the very end
@Mark S I don't remember the video name but the investigation did say the crew was alive when they hit the earth just unconscious.
@@AnIdiotAboard_ I don't think so, helmet were recovered showing signs of reentry burning basically
R.I.P. OV-102.
6:53 uhf check starts
Everybody in the room looked grim from the beginning. They suspected this would happen. But they kept themselves together and did their jobs like professionals. You know every person in there was in pain.
The sad thing is, the NASA sponsored TV series "The Cape" had an episode where the TPS on a shuttle was damaged and they had to send another up to repair it. Six years prior to this incident. If NASA was providing technical support for a damned tv show that figured out debris could damage the orbiter, and that it would need to be fixed in orbit or rescued, then why didn't they have an IRL plan in place for such a problem?
A TV series can speculate about events believed to be highly unlikely or impossible. Then real life illustrates that the engineering analysis was wrong.
They could have stitched together a rescue mission since the shuttle for the next mission was basically standing by. The problem is: they would have been forced to rush that misson (which in space flight is a big no no) and thereby risk the lives of even more astronouts.
Because of cost. And politics. If I remember correctly. That's why this happened. They were in a hurry. The shuttle should have never gone up. They were warned pieces of it were being damaged on re entry each time. They even had a meeting about and a few warned them of it. Yet gambled it anyway. This is not a field where you gamble. Take chances. That's life or death.
I know Rick and Willie were busy, but doesn't it seem like they didn't respond to Capcom as much as usual. I do understand CapCom wants to interrupt pilots concentration as little as possible.
Spooky hearing FIDO (Flight Dynamics Officer) talking about the weather balloon at the Cape and predicted touchdown point etc for a landing at that point that was clearly not going happen.
12:15 "Lock the doors..."
Couldn’t have ground control seen how much RCS was being used and thought “oh shit that’s not normal”
Even if they had, it wouldn't have changed the outcome.
They saw the foam strike on launch and simulated what it would look like if there was a catastrophic failure. They knew the second they lost the temperature sensors that the crew was likely lost.
What does "TC flight" mean? The head mission controller said it the last part.
It's GC, and it stands for Ground Controller. Flight is the Flight Director, the person speaking (LeRoy Cain). "GC Flight" means "Ground Controller, this is the Flight Director", and the GC responds with "Flight GC" which means "Flight Director, I acknowledge you're speaking to me, and am standing by to hear what you have to say". There are a lot of other examples in the video as well, the person speaking will start with who they need to speak to followed by their own positon/role. The Flight Director often says "Go" after being hailed, which confirms he's free to speak at that moment.
@@50GallonDrum I see, its GC... this is the 1st time I watched the mission control... thanks so much for replying. Apppreciate it.
You see how pensive they are. It's as though they knew what was coming. Sad day.
That's because they did know.
Strongly suspected.
@@horncrownedproductions9675no, they didn’t. Only mission management knew and they were blocked by Linda Ham in pursuing it further. Nothing could be done anyway. No on orbit repairs, no going to the ISS, no rescue from another shuttle. They were doomed the second the foam hit the wing.
13:08 Flight director being told that they are not picking up Colombia on radar, as they should be by now.
I take it these ops guys had a feeling somethin bad was about to happen when they started losing all their coms on that wing.
8:30 - This dialogue right here pretty much tells Leroy Cain that something bad had happened.
They knew this was the outcome and they couldn`t tell the astronauts. This is more dramatic that it even looks. I wonder if they were stil hoping for a miracle. What were the actual odds of they landing back alive?
... To anybody who thought their job was stressful.... LeRoy Cain earned every bit of his salary that day.
No one wish to be in the place of the Flight Director!
The reason they filming this who knows what, but.. NASA and the crew knew the shuttle is damage but they didn’t think that it will damage the shuttle or even killed the crew
Tht first "damage" shoukd be "damaged."
Its filmed because nasa is a public funded organisation, and all the data they collect belongs to the american people who are entitled to get a copy and analise it for free. Under its mandate i believe nasa has just 48 hours to make information available after the event, sure they hide some shit but thats why this is recorded, so the american people can feel involved and be involved.
Have you never watched a launch before? They always film and broadcast mission control. People love seeing celebration when everything goes smoothly. They're not expecting to capture people reacting to tragedy.
@@historyman4629 The first word should be "That" and "shoukd" should be "should".
It's interesting to see Linda Ham shitting bricks up in the observation deck. She was warned this would happen.
A timestamp if possible please?
@@willardpatterson706 nine fiver niner
@@willardpatterson706 Watch video. In the overlook area, Ham is the blonde lady who is clearly shitting bricks. And as the follow up report revealed, she stonewalled, lied, distracted, and threatened technical staff. I am amazed how she was not tried for mass murder.
I weep for Leroy
Can anyone tell me at which point in this film the shuttle exploded?
First of all it not explode, it broke up and disintegrated due to aerodynamic forces after attitude control was lost and it entered into a so called flat spin. This loss of control happened about 5 seconds after the final voice communication broke up in mid-sentence, Commander Rick Husband answering "Roger, uh" (5:10). The break-up started about 40 seconds later, but you can't correlate that directly to 40 seconds later in the video, as it is edited and not in real time.
The left wing came off first, then the OBS pod. Loss of Contact occurred about the same time the wing failed. Orbiter went out of control and the cabin separated next. Unlike the Challenger disaster, the wiring harness back to the cargo bay did not stream out and stabilize the cabin during breakup. Explosive decompression happened during that separation of the cabin from the main body. McCool was still conscious to that point and for perhaps a couple seconds after that but not much. Not like Challenger where Judy Reznik was alive and conscious and trying to save the crew right up until the moment of impact.
5:10 - 5:22 the static sound is..... that. About 15 seconds after "feeling the heat" from the crew
when they see the loss of tire pressure in the left wing, the tire exploded and took the craft out, all were dead then, 5:06
@@tracnunya7165 you got it all wrong, also no the tire didnt explode, it legit got cut open by... well... the equivalent of a giant blowtorch
The truth is that they knew this was a real possibility based on the amount of the tiles that were lost during launch but they never told Columbia. There was no reason to worry them over somthing they couldn't do anything about.
False. The crew was notified on flight day 7.
So would they have suffered? Did they burn up on re-entry or something? Someone correct me pls.
From everything I understand, they would have know something was wrong for 15 seconds or so and something very wrong for 5 seconds as the shuttle started to tumble. 3-5 seconds knowing they were going to die before going unconscious as the shuttle broke up.
@@willardpatterson706how terrifying is that?! Wow.
@@54spatulabefore the shuttle broke up they were conscious for 90 seconds before the severe G forces got to them after the orbiter broke up they died within 15 seconds due to hypoxia and data shows even after it broke up they weren’t even aware of the fact since erratic input controls were logged even after the orbiter broke up
@@juicygamer9724 Jesus. Thanks
11:45 "oh god" they knew then.
கல்பனா சாவ்லா !!!!!!!😭😭😭😭😭
May everyone there rest in peace, not just her.
You're looking for 12:15 - "TC-Flight. Lock the doors".
@@thekrunkymonkey yeaaaaah!😂
I got a little woody when he said that. It's like the acknowledged that the astronauts have perished and as the survivors they must make sure they handle this right.
That’s “GC” for Ground Control. The GC that day was Bill Foster, who is head of GC at Mission Control today. Excellent dude.
@@Jeremy_the_botdead people get you hard?
They knew that there was a problem, but they let this occur
11:44 Reports filtering through of break up from the public filming the shuttle...it over!!
Who was Capcom on this horrific day
Astronaut Charles Hobaugh.
Scorch was the CAPCOM. Chris Hobaugh..former Marine. I think he flew Harriers.
Does anyone know if any human remains were found? If so, what condition they were in? 😢
They were mostly in one piece, dead from drowning or impact, not sure which.
@@maryfreebed9886 You're thinking about The Challenger Tragedy. Columbia disintegrated upon reentry The Columbia Crew remains were found. But when the Crew Cabin became severed from the Cargo Bay, and exposed to the hot gases during reentry. I can't even imagine what the recovery teams witnessed what was left.😭🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
Largely fragmented remains of each crew member were recovered. The details have not been made public but what has been reported was individual bones, teeth and some organs. Given the extreme conditions, I’m astonished that anything whatsoever survived.
I wonder where these people in the room are today.
LeRoy Cain is deputy program manager of Starliner at Boeing, currently MMT lead of Starliner CFT. John Shannon is also a higher manager in the Boeing space division. FIDO Richard Jones also went to Boeing and is involved in Starliner as well. GNC Mike Sarafin is still at NASA, with Artemis, was MMT lead for Artemis I. GC Bill Foster is currently head of the Ground Control Team at JSC. Paul Hill, who was sitting next to LeRoy, lead the MOD until 2014, wrote a book about principles of Mission Control, and today works as a an advisor in different safety comittees and for private industry. Ellen Ochoa became JSC Center Director in 2013 until she retired in 2018. Milt Heflin, then Chief Flight Director, later became associate technical Director at JSC and retired in 2013, age 70. He is the Co-author of "Go, Flight", a great book about Mission Control by Rick Houston. These are the ones I know about...
Ever see the dent in the wing that piece of "foam" caused? No1 even told the crew that their shuttle was damaged during takeoff.
The crew was told a week prior that a large chuck of protective foam fell off on an email sent to the pilot. So the crew knew and so did ground control but they brushed it off because it had happen before? Which is weird.
I truly believe it was incompetence at ground control level. But also it was a rushed launch and I don't think they had the time and money to fix it, in my opinion.
Ultimately, protective piece of foam to protect from heat fell off a week prior towards launch and in re-entry the heat got into the shuttles system, split and disintegrated.
@@melomars6690 Well there was nothing they could do about it though I suppose it would have been nice if they could say goodbye to their families. Shuttle was a flawed design from the start and never justified its cost versus the alternative.
@@melomars6690 The RCC protection isn't foam and was damaged during launch, not a week before. our assertion that they knew before launch and couldn't be bothered to fix it isn't true. RCC, a reinforced carbon composite, is used for the wing leading edges because they have so much heat load that the foam couldn't handle it. Tests showed the RCC shattering when hit by foam in the test rig. That would leave a large gap in the leading edge of the wing protection if it happened in the flight. The dent existed for a fraction of a second before the RCC shattered in the test.
Anxiety makes your nose itch
Why did that guy at 7:31 say he believed it was just instrumentation?
Plasma interference
To add on to the previous reply - it was expected that no communications would occur for a time during re-entry, due to (as they said) plasma interference. But it was not meant to go on as long as it did, hence the growing concern when the UHF comm checks went ignored.
The space shuttle program was a disaster, and an almost total failure.
It was experimental, and a disaster waiting to happen, and tragically, it did on two occasions.
We weren't much further on with space exploration in 2011 when the shuttle program finished, than we were in 1969, and the moon landing.
The shuttle launched satellites that could have been launched by other means.
Apart from that it just largely went to space and conducted a few experiments, something we could do since the early 1960s.
What about SpaceX?
@@Frip36The egocentric endeavor of a buffoon.
Poor guy.
Look they knew nothing could be done as far chain of command down stairs well they should have had all this in place for any emergency which ever unfortunately NASA knew full well they were doomed or unenforceablely hope for the best unfortunately not ,RIP
I would not let the “Flight” use my bicycle !
They were dead a few seconds after lift-off. They just didn't know it
12:16
Why do they act surprised that they shuttle broke apart on reentry? 82 seconds after Columbia took off, mission control knew the crew were doomed and would never make it back. NASA chose not to tell the crew that.
That’s not quite right. They knew foam strikes had the potential to be severe but the analysis available, as well as history, suggested they were nothing to be too concerned about. They even communicated the foam strike to Commander Rick Husbands whilst in orbit, and stressed it was probably nothing to worry about. There was nothing to suggest the foam strike was as bad as it was until it was too late.
Alguém assistindo??.🌈🔮🧿🐟😎⛰
They killed them folks they knew about the damage
The Flight director after the accident!! LOCK THE DOORS nobody cant leave
Double negative. You mean nobody can leave.
💜🐬💜🐬💜
Terr people
1:50 the left wing compromised and heat entering through the 1 foot hole in the leading edge, 5:06 the tires in the left wing explode and take out the space craft, all are dead now
Yeah right, as if a couple of blown tyres could take apart a whole vehicle... If you don't know what you're talking about, don't do it...
Just at that point you can hear a bunch of static noise. Seems that was the end.
@@davidmcpa the static happened as the vehicle starting to lose control and spinning, it took some more seconds for the left wing to fail entirely and some more for the orbiter to fall apart entirely. tragic indeed :(
@@lorenzopappatico Absolutely!! Blown tires definitely weren't the reason for the loss of the integrity on the left wing. I pray that none of The Seven Brave Souls aboard The Columbia didn't suffer one single bit.😞🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽💞 Godspeed.
@@ellexking9136 Praying for them all to suffer is probably not what you intended to write.
What a joke, notice how concerned they looked, they knew & just like challenger, no1 said shit.
No
As if you can just eject the boosters and the massive filled fuel tank to bring back the shuttle few minutes after launch like in KSP lol
Either LeRoy is incompetent or he KNEW the Shuttle would likely breakup. They ALL knew this was likely to happen right after takeoff.
They didn’t know there was a gaping hole because management blocked surveillance videos from the DoD. They just ran on faith that it had never happened before. It’s not the Flight Director making that decision…it’s the whole chain of command that screwed up. This sort of thing happens in large organizations when the budget is continually cut while performance improvements are continually demanded. (Thanks, Congress.) There are organizational behavior textbooks based on NASA’s failures that describe how it happens.
After the shuttle reach the ISS they knew and the crew knew the shuttle is damage, they do not know from what but they think it would not do so much damage, NASA try to sent another shuttle for a rescue flight, but never happened..
@@Suzucka_
1. Colombia was the only shuttle never designed to be able to dock and or made for the iss. it never went to the iss or docked with it.
2. The crew wasn't inform, panic wouldn't help.
3. Since it wasn't the first time isolating foam was seen impacting and or falling of the fuel tank onto the shuttles, it was thought it wouldn't damage it
@@seagull4432
The crew was informed but told it wasn’t of any concern. I just read an article about it.
@@seagull4432 panic seemed to help the crew of Apollo 13 though.