[ad_1]
International crews were lured into the cosmos aboard the Columbia
The Challenger spacecraft crash on January 28, 1986, the worst disaster in astronautics history to date, delayed the American space shuttle program for two years.
When the spacecraft missions were relaunched in 1988, everyone expected a tragedy like the Challenger disaster to no longer occur, but sadly it did not; On February 1, 2003, the United States space shuttle fleet also lost its second unit.
In January 2003, the Columbia spacecraft was built to complete its 28th mission. Columbia, branded OV-102, was the first unit in the US space shuttle fleet.
which, as the opening of the Space Shuttle program, launched into space on April 12, 1981 with a crew of two.
In January 2003, it had completed a number of major missions, including the launch of the Chandra X-ray binoculars by Columbia, and in 1983 on Mission STS-9, this space shuttle was the first to transport the Spacelab space laboratory into the cosmos. . .
Columbia is also associated with the longest-running space shuttle mission,
carried out between November and December 1996. In the early 2000s, the US space shuttle fleet was already more commonly used to build the International Space Station (ISS), but the STS-107 mission Columbia was designed for a traditional mission, called operational, which began on January 16, 2003.
On the 28th mission, scheduled for 15 days, during which the crew had to conduct various scientific experiments and observations, a crew on Monday prepared for the cosmos aboard the spacecraft, four of whom were the first astronaut of the flight. space.
Commander Rick Douglas Husband, colonel in the United States Air Force, was an experienced astronaut,
who has already traveled the cosmos as a Discovery pilot. The first Israeli astronaut, Ilián Ramón, also sat aboard the Columbia.
Barely a minute and a half after the start, the fate of the space shuttle was sealed.
Columbia rose from the LC-39-A launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 16, 2003, at 3:39 pm local time.
Columbia’s fate was truly sealed back then, in the 82nd second from the start.
Just a minute and a half after departure, a briefcase-sized piece of insulating material detached from the machine’s fuselage, hitting the leading edge of the left wing at a speed of about 800 km / h.
The impact damaged heat shield No. 8, which made a hole about 25 cm wide. The cameras also recorded the impact, but the management did not give it any special importance. The carefree confidence was due to the fact that similar cases had happened before, without serious consequences. But now the situation was different. Despite damage to the left wing deck, the launch of the Columbia into orbit was a smooth success, but the catastrophe could only have been avoided if the hole in the wing had been taken seriously.
The Department of Defense also offered NASA leadership to use a spy satellite to investigate the wing damage more thoroughly before the mission was completed, but NASA deemed this unnecessary.
The staff performed the tasks specified in the scientific program as planned;
Thus, among others, he conducted experiments in medicine and physiology as well as materials science, and the Israeli astronaut and Ilián Ramón conducted additional tests, including meteorological observations and measurements.
However, they weren’t just people aboard the Columbia.
The astronauts also took small worms, just 1 mm long, into space for physiological experiments. According to the flight plan, Columbia was due to return to Earth on February 1.
Sinister rays of light shine in the Texas sky
The ground administration granted permission to start the return at 8 a.m. local time on February 1, 2003. The intricate maneuver in which Columbia deviated from orbit and began to brake was performed by spacecraft commander Rick D. Husband and pilot William McCool. Shortly before nine o’clock, the control noticed that more and more automatic error messages were being received from the sensors on Columbia’s left wing, so they instructed the commander to detect and eliminate the errors.
When Columbia reached the lower layers of the mesosphere, the spacecraft began to shake violently,
and increasingly deviates from the calculated entry angle.
However, despite all their efforts, the crew could not control the accelerated spin of the space shuttle, which soon resulted in a 3g charge to the astronauts.
The connection between the Columbia platform and the control was cut off at 8:32 a.m. Eastern Time, 16 minutes before the space shuttle reached the planned ground.
Columbia then flew 38 miles over the state of Texas at a speed 18 times the speed of sound.
The fact that something very serious had happened was suggested by the radar image in addition to the disconnection; because the highlight of Columbia was divided into several pieces.
Witnesses in the disaster area noted more and more parallel streaks of light appearing in the early morning blue sky as an unmistakable sign of the Columbia disaster.
There were survivors of the terrible fall
The wreckage of a spacecraft that disintegrated in the lower layer of the mesosphere crashed to the ground in a large area. From the collected wreckage and audio from the onboard recorders, as well as recordings made at the start of the spacecraft, it was possible to reconstruct in a relatively short time what may have caused the destruction of Columbia. The investigation made it clear that the collision of the insulating material detached during the exit with the left hemisphere and the resulting hole caused the disaster.
When the spacecraft reached the lowest and densest layers of the atmosphere, gases heated by frictional heat penetrated the opening inside the left hemisphere and began to disintegrate the wing support structure, and the hot gas that entered also changed. the aerodynamics of the Columbia.
From this, the spacecraft began to vibrate and rotate faster and faster.
The crew was already aware by then that they were in big trouble, but the pilots could not overcome the insoluble situation. According to the available data, the truth is that the astronauts fought vigorously even in the last seconds to save Columbia.
First, the molten left wing detached from the aircraft, rendering the spacecraft permanently unstable; and increasing air resistance also ripped the cockpit out of the Columbia fuselage at 9:18 a.m. For astronauts thereafter
they had no chance of surviving,
the power and pressure in the cabin ceased, the air escaping in moments through the cracks in the command module. When the cockpit broke, the astronauts must be alive.
Their deaths were not caused by suffocation, but by a sudden drop in pressure and a terrible heat load. (Remains of the crew were found on the ground amid the rubble and the astronauts were identified by DNA analysis.)
Incredible as it may seem, the survivors of the terrible fall from a height of 61 kilometers were still survivors:
taken into space for experimental purposes Caenorhabditis elegans tiny worms with tree names.
The American space shuttle program officially ended eight years after the Columbia disaster on July 21, 2011, with the last landing of the Atlantis spacecraft.
[ad_2]
