Columbia

Benji · Post by **Benji** » Wed Aug 27, 2003 9:27 pm

The cell phone thing is on page 44.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Wed Aug 27, 2003 10:42 pm

Ok i'm sure ill get to it eventually just seemed suprising to me the way it sounded.

ethlar04 · Post by **ethlar04** » Thu Aug 28, 2003 7:17 pm

A family friend graduated from the Naval Academy with Willie McCool, and they had been friends since. My friend emailed me Willie's last email to him from orbit and I know im a little late on this but i just found it again and thought of posting it:

Sat 1/25/2003 2:20 PM

Greetings from 150 miles above the Earth! My apologies up-front for not
writing each of you personally. The tempo is very high, and what few
precious free moments I do have, I try to use absorbing the overwhelming
smorgasbord of new experiences. There is so much to share with you! Too
much to write ... so hang tight until post-flight when I can bring photos
and videos to accompany the stories. This has been an unbelievable
adventure!

I hope you enjoyed watching the launch, and thanks for hanging tough
through the many delays. More later when we return ...

Willie

PS - As I write, we just experienced a sunset over the Pacific, just East
of Chile. I'm sitting on the flight deck in the CDR seat (front right)
with a view of the Earth moving gracefully by. Sunsets and sunrises from
space come every 45 minutes, and last only about 30 seconds, but the colors
are stunning. In a single view I see looking out at the edge of the Earth
- red at the horizon line, blending to orange, then yellow; followed by a
thin white line, then light blue, gradually turning to dark blue, then
various gradually darker shades of gray, then black with a million stars
above.

It's breath-taking!

Space Nerd · Post by **Space Nerd** » Fri Aug 29, 2003 8:03 pm

CDR front right? am i missing something?

stargazer0105 · Post by **stargazer0105** » Fri Aug 29, 2003 8:55 pm

I was just thinking the same thing.

Benji · Post by **Benji** » Fri Aug 29, 2003 10:15 pm

I didn't think to comment on it, but I thought it sounded funny.

ethlar04 · Post by **ethlar04** » Sat Aug 30, 2003 10:02 am

I have no clue regarding that mixup, I actually never even noticed it. Please keep in mind that this email was sent to someone who has nowhere near the ammount of knowledge regarding the space program and space shuttle that we have, so this mixup may have been to avoid unnecessary confusion because in military and general aviation the pilot usually flys from the left seat. Just a thought

Benji · Post by **Benji** » Sat Aug 30, 2003 8:25 pm

It was probably just a little mix-up, but why did it even matter to stick that in? Is anybody going to view it differently if they know exactly where he's sitting? The flight deck isn't that big to begin with,

stargazer0105 · Post by **stargazer0105** » Sat Aug 30, 2003 8:39 pm

Sorry, I didn't mean to make a big deal about it. It just kinda threw me was all.

ethlar04 · Post by **ethlar04** » Sat Aug 30, 2003 9:33 pm

Honestly, i cant speak for what McCool was thinking about when he included it, but if you had the opportunity to send people email from the shuttle in orbit, youd probably specify where you were sitting when you wrote it, just cause its cool to say you did it.

stargazer0105 · Post by **stargazer0105** » Sat Aug 30, 2003 9:42 pm

I had a thought....Maybe he was talking about when you're facing the orbitor. Then, the CDR seat would be the front right.

Space Nerd · Post by **Space Nerd** » Sat Aug 30, 2003 9:55 pm

Wow, I didnt mean to start uproar i was just curious. I though maybe i was incorrect in my thinking (heh like that ever happens

) So i thought i would ask. I ment no disrespect....

ethlar04 · Post by **ethlar04** » Sat Aug 30, 2003 10:07 pm

I dont mind, I just thought you all would like to get a chance to read the email if you wanted.

Benji · Post by **Benji** » Mon Sep 01, 2003 4:56 pm

stargazer0105 wrote:I had a thought....Maybe he was talking about when you're facing the orbitor. Then, the CDR seat would be the front right.

That's a pretty good explination. I'm sticking with it.

Space Nerd · Post by **Space Nerd** » Mon Sep 01, 2003 11:04 pm

Works for me!

hitchchik · Post by **hitchchik** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 4:42 pm

me too

Benji · Post by **Benji** » Sat Sep 06, 2003 3:09 pm

I don't know if any of you know this (I didn't until I read it in the report), but NASA had to complete the core of the ISS before a certain date or funding would be cut. This pressure from Congress forced them to rush launches to keep on schedule. Becuase of this, reports of foam separation problems were not addressed before continuing with other missions.

Also, on STS-27R, there was a similar occurance to what happened on the launch of 107. At the request of the Intercenter Photo Working Group (the same people who asked to have Columbia imaged), Hoot gibson used the Canada arm to image the (pretty severe) damage. Because of the area where the damage was, the shuttle was able to land safely. According to the CAIB Report, "the debris strike of STS-27R is a 'strong signal' of the threat debris posed that should have been considered by Shuttle management when STS-107 suffered a similar debris strike. The Board views the failure to do so as an illustration of the lack of institutional memory in the Space Shuttle Program that supports the Board's claim... that NASA is not functioning as a learning institution."

Gene Kranz should be mad. Apparently the word 'competent' got erased from the blackboards at somepoint or another.

Benji · Post by **Benji** » Mon Sep 08, 2003 9:50 am

spacecampaddict28 wrote:I read the first few pages and it wasn't anything I didn't expect. It happened with Challenger (though it technically was a successful launch) and now it happened again. I read a book about it and it was like 600 pages long....written before Columbia, yet ironically it says the same things about NASA Management....

The baord actually compared the findings of Roger's Commission report (about the Challenger accident) to their findings. The organizational culture of NASA hasn't changed much.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 5:56 pm

Well i finnaly finished reading the report yesterday. And after reading it i'm a bit disgusted. And though they only compared the columbia accident to the challenger accident it also has striking similarities to Apollo 1 in the respect that pressures to meet deadlines and to stay on schedule contributed to all 3 accidents. With apollo 1 it was pressure to get to the moon with only 2 years left. With Challenger it was the pressure to make the shuttle live up to what NASA promised when the shuttle was proposed. and with Columbia it was pressure to complete the US Core of the space station. Its eary how that one thing could be one of the leading contributor to 3 accidents.

Benji · Post by **Benji** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 6:20 pm

I haven't finished yet, but I'm getting close. I, too, am disgusted. Not only about pressure before the mission, but that people didn't speak up a but more when they thought there was a problem during it. There were 8 missed opportunities to get Columbia imaged, according to the report.

Columbia

,,

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