Columbia

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 5:32 pm

Here is an article from space.com its regarding the release of the now infamous columbia emails.

NASA to Release 500 Columbia-Related E-Mails
By Brian Berger
Space News Staff Writer
posted: 04:05 pm ET
28 March 2003

WASHINGTON -- NASA plans to release 500 pages of e-mails relating to Columbia's final mission.

The e-mails, most of which were written by Johnson Space Center employees, capture a wide range of discussions about STS-107, from requests for spy satellite imagery and concerns about tank debris, to other technical issues -- such as a humidity problem inside the shuttle's research module -- that are not implicated in the accident.

The e-mails will be released March 31 on the space agency's website.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said there are no shocking new revelations in the e-mail traffic and many of the e-mails have already been released to the media.

He said NASA is releasing the e-mails in response to Freedom of Information Act requests the agency has received from numerous news organizations.

The e-mails have already been provided to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, O'Keefe said, and have prompted investigators to seek additional interviews with NASA and contractor personnel about the deliberations surrounding imagery requests that went unheeded.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 5:36 pm

Here is another article from space.com

NIMA and NASA to Coordinate Future Satellite Monitoring of Shuttle Missions
By Brian Berger
Space News Staff Writer
posted: 03:45 pm ET
28 March 2003

WASHINGTON -- A standing agreement to obtain imagery of space shuttles while in flight has been reached between NASA and the U.S. National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), one of the organizations responsible for assigning satellite missions.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe sent a March 25 letter to NIMA Director James R. Clapper thanking him for agreeing to collect imagery of all future shuttle flights as a matter of routine.

"[W]e deeply appreciate your intention to make available the products of NIMA assets on a routine basis, without specific tasking from NASA," O'Keefe wrote. "This will be very helpful as we continually assess the condition of the Shutlle during on-orbit operations. Siginficantly, your willingess to employ NIMA assets during targets of opportunity with specific tasking will be another useful source of information to help us assess the potential of on-orbit anomalies."

During Columbia's ill-fated 16-day research mission,a government agency -- pr esumably NIMA -- conveyed an offer to image the orbiter provided NASA submit a formal high priority request.

The offer came amid concerns that Columbia's left wing may have been damaged when it was struck during liftoff by insulating foam that broke away fromt the spacecraft's giant orange external fuel tank.

NASA rebuffed the initial offer, having already concluded that the debris strike did not constitute a so-called safety of flight risk. William Readdy, NASA's associate administrator for space flight, has since told reporters that he could not justify making an emergency or high priority support request given NASA's conclusion that Columbia was not in danger.

However, Readdy did agree to a subsequent offer to aquire imagery of Columbia in a way that would not interfere with the offering government agency's normal routines. By the time that would have been possible, Readdy said, Columbia's mission was over.

O'Keefe told reporters March 25 that he was not second-guessing Readdy's judgement. He also voiced doubt that anything the unidentied agency could have provided would have clearly shown problems with Columbia.

"The quality of what's out there and available isn't anything like what a Tom Clancy novel would have you believe," he said. "It's just not."

He said that while it will always remain a topic of debate whether the imagery --or "products" as he called them -- would have been of any use to NASA, the incident does illustrate that their was a fair amount of bureaucratic wrangling taking place.

He said by forging a standing agreement with NIMA, he hopes to prevent any future such wrangling and second guessing.

O'Keefe said the essence of the agreement is straight forward: "If you are in range,take it and send it and we will figure out if its useful or not."

Some of the details -- such as who at NASA will be cleared to view the imagery -- must still be worked out, he said.

O'Keefe indicated that NASA is pursuing a similar agreement with the Air Force for use of the service's ground-based imaging assets during shuttle missions.

"We're working our way through it," he said. "This [NIMA] was the big one."

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Tue Apr 01, 2003 6:28 pm

Here is a copy of a new PAO announcement it gives the official announcement of the Expedition 7 crew and some info on the crewmwmbers.

Debra Rahn/Allard Beutel
Headquarters, Washington April 1, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-1638/4769)

Rob Navias
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 281/483-8651)

RELEASE: 03-127

EXPEDITION 7 CREW SET TO LAUNCH

Veteran Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko (Col.,
Russian Air Force) and veteran NASA astronaut Ed Lu have
been named as the primary crew for the planned April 26,
2003, launch of a Russian Soyuz TMA-2 spacecraft to the
International Space Station.

Malenchenko and Lu will be called the Expedition 7 crew.
Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri and NASA astronaut
Michael Foale are the backup crewmembers to Malenchenko and
Lu.

Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai
Budarin and NASA Space Station Science Officer Don Pettit
will return to Earth aboard the Soyuz TMA-1 craft in May
2003. The three Expedition 6 crewmembers were launched on
November 23, 2002. They have been aboard the Station since
November 25. They were originally scheduled to return in
March aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis during the STS-114
mission.

Malenchenko commanded a four-month mission aboard the Mir
Space Station in 1994. He participated in the STS-106
mission aboard Atlantis in 2000 to prepare the International
Space Station for permanent human occupancy.

Lu is a veteran of two Shuttle flights. In 1997, he flew
aboard Atlantis to the Mir Space Station on the STS-84
mission to exchange U.S. residents on the Russian complex,
and he joined Malenchenko on STS-106. Malenchenko and Lu
were originally scheduled to fly with Kaleri on Expedition 7
to the Station, which had been scheduled to launch on the
STS-114/ULF-1 (Utilization and Logistics Flight-1) mission
in March. Malenchenko and Lu will continue to operate the
science payloads already on board, as well as maintaining
the Station.

-end-

Benji · Post by **Benji** » Mon Apr 07, 2003 5:25 pm

Researchers are preparaing for tests that the Columbia Investigation Board has asked for.

From Space.com: "For the monthlong series of tests scheduled to begin in mid-April, NASA will shoot foam at wing panels from the shuttle Discovery and the Enterprise, a prototype that never flew and is now housed at the Smithsonian Institution."

First, I must correct the error. Enterpise did fly. Maybe not in space, but it did fly.

"If we do test out here and there's like zilch-o damage, then they're going to have to go back and look at it and say, 'it was something else.' I don't think there's going to be zilch damage," says Scott Mullin of Southwest Research Institute.

Very tehnically worded.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Mon Apr 07, 2003 7:54 pm

well i assume they meant never flew in space and just a guess but i think most of the people who read articles at space.com probbably know that. I could be wrong but hust my thoughts on the subject, It suprises me though that Enterprise is being used. Most Of Enterprise's heat protection system is simulated so i had assumed the RCC wouldnt be real either but i guess it is.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 6:15 pm

Well even as we mourn the loss of Columbia we can remember its glory days. I was just thinking earlier today that tommorow is April 12th and the 22nd anniversary of the launch of STS-1 on the verry first shuttle flight. It carried Astronauts John Young a 4 time space veteran making his 5th flight and Robert Crippen a long time trained astronaut actually going back to the late years of Apollo making his first Flight. Hard to believe its been 22 years now and its still hard to believe that Columbia is gone.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 6:31 pm

Here is an intresting article on the debris search from space.comNext Shuttle Astronauts Search for Debris
By Juan A. Lozano
Associated Press
posted: 09:25 am ET
11 April 2003

NACOGDOCHES, Texas (AP) -- Astronaut Eileen Collins will always have a special bond with space shuttle Columbia. In 1999, it gave her the opportunity to become the first woman ever to command a shuttle flight.

On Thursday, more than two months after Columbia broke apart, Collins and two other astronauts came to East Texas to pay tribute to the spacecraft by helping volunteers search for debris.

About 32 percent of Columbia, or more than 50,000 pieces, has been recovered. They are being taken to a hangar at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"I have a special place in my heart for Columbia. When I walked into the hangar and saw the pieces, it was very sad and I still feel sad about it and I'll feel sad for a long time. But we need to overcome this and we need to get on with spaceflight,'' Collins told reporters.

Collins, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi and U.S. astronaut James Kelly -- all scheduled to go into orbit aboard the shuttle Atlantis when flights resume -- spent more than two hours scouring the leaf-littered ground of a wooded area near the Nacogdoches airport.

The work by the astronauts and about 40 other searchers paid off.

"We found a tile, yeah, yeah,'' Noguchi told Collins, his commander, as he handed her a sealed plastic bag with the piece of broken tile. ``I'm very happy.''

All three astronauts wore the same thick yellow shirts and yellow hard hats as the other searchers. The only way to distinguish them was by the NASA stickers and stickers of their mission patch pasted on their helmets.

"We wanted to come down and get an idea what they are doing, as well as to thank these guys and hop in there with them and let them know we're completely behind them on this,'' Kelly said. ``The bottom line is they're part of the team. If they don't do their job, then we're not going to get to do our job later.''

Shawn Martin, a U.S. Forest Service worker from Washington who was among the searchers, said he was grateful for the astronauts' assistance.

"They wanted to pound brush with us. They fell in line and stuck up with us and bled with us,'' Martin said.

Columbia broke apart over Texas on Feb. 1 as it aimed for a Florida landing. All seven astronauts aboard were killed. Shuttle debris was scattered across East Texas and Louisiana.

A board investigating the accident suspects a 2-pound chunk of insulating foam from the shuttle's external fuel tank ripped away during its Jan. 16 launch and caused a breach along the leading edge of the left wing that let in hot atmospheric gases as the spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere on its return home.

Efforts to improve shuttle safety could add tasks to the next mission, the astronauts said. That work could include taking photos in orbit of the shuttle's underside and leading edges of its wings.

"Anything we can do in orbit to check those things out and anything we come up with over the next few months is obviously going to make us feel more comfortable that we got a handle on the things that went wrong with Columbia,'' Kelly said.

ApolloXI · Post by **ApolloXI** » Tue Apr 15, 2003 6:33 pm

Here is a aduio link for Reagan's Challeneger. http://www.uttyler.edu/meidenmuller/mp3 ... ddress.mp3

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 12:21 pm

Well today would have been another Columbia astronauts birthday. Astronaut David brown would have been 47 today.

Benji · Post by **Benji** » Fri Apr 25, 2003 11:30 am

A worker for NASA is out on bond after being arrested for stealing Columbia debris (full Space.com story: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/st ... 30424.html). What a horrible thing to do. If the allegations are true, that this guy certainly shouldn't work for NASA.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Fri Apr 25, 2003 11:48 am

I read that article this morning and i agree he shouldnt be working for NASA. Also tonight at 11:54 est the expedition 7 crew will be launched from Baikonour Cosmodrome to take over operation of the ISS. Ofcourse this will be the first manned launch since the columbia accident.

Benji · Post by **Benji** » Fri Apr 25, 2003 4:03 pm

I'm glad we're launching people again. We won't really have "gotten back on the horse" until we launch another shuttle, but it's still a start. I hope that we can move away from the shuttle program, soon, though. NASA's workhorses are getting tired. They're outdated. We need something newer, better, cheaper...

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Fri Apr 25, 2003 6:05 pm

Well its true we do need something new to replace the shuttle but i think they will still be around for a while to come. I did read that the american onboard will be wearing an STS-107 patch on his suit tonight a fitting tribute to the lost crew.

Benji · Post by **Benji** » Mon May 05, 2003 10:54 am

All signs point to tile damage from that damned foam. This is according to a Florida Today article on Space.com (http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/st ... 30505.html).

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Mon May 05, 2003 11:49 am

Well its nice to have some confirmation of what happened. Lets hope they can fix the problem soon and return to flight as quickly as possible.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 2:23 am

Well we havent posted on this topic in a while and i thought i should post this good news on here tonight. Its a link to a story that NASA announced today that they are targeting a return to space by December 18th. It also spells out the changes being made to prevent another accident.
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/st ... 30611.html

spacecampaddict28 · Post by **spacecampaddict28** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 3:01 pm

We were talking before about removing the foam stuff altogether but you said they were only going to remove it around some part. I can't remember what you said, but um what happens if Ice formes there?

stargazer0105 · Post by **stargazer0105** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 3:03 pm

Glad to hear they're gettin back on track.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 3:11 pm

Theu plan to remove the foiam around the bipod that connects the orbiter to the fuel tank in the front. They plan to install heaters there instead to keep ice from forming.

spacecampaddict28 · Post by **spacecampaddict28** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 3:25 pm

Is that where the 1.7 pound piece of foam fell off from?

Columbia

AIB Tests

Regan's speech

Stealing debris

Tile damage