Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight (2024) s01e01 Episode Script
PART ONE
1
- Oh, is that it?
- There it is!
-That's it right
there. There it is.
-Yeah, I see it. I saw it.
- There it is. Oh, it's cool.
- Yeah.
That is cool.
Oh, check that out, man.
-It's going really fast.
-Whoa.
- What the heck is that?
- I don't know.
-Wow.
-Look at the chunks
coming off of it!
- Yeah, I saw that.
- Yeah.
I see what you're saying.
That thing looks like it's
flipping all over the place.
-Oh, yeah.
-I can still see it,
but I'm losing it.
-It was a Saturday morning.
It was a beautiful day.
And as I turned
onto park street,
I heard a loud boom.
[ rumbling ]
-Our house just shook.
We looked at each other,
and we said, "what is that?"
-When I looked up, I
saw a bright white ball.
[ sirens wailing ]
-The phones were
ringing off the hook,
Much more than our
dispatch staff could handle.
-I didn't know if we
were being attacked.
-Search and rescue
teams are warning people
Not to touch any debris,
should they come across it.
-There are some
disturbing pictures
That are coming up
from the broadcasters.
-We're waiting for more
details as to how this happened,
Maybe the beginnings
of why it happened.
♪
-Nasa has declared a state
of emergency over texas.
-There is something amiss.
We are watching mission control.
Nasa has gone
through this before,
17 years ago with
space shuttle challenger.
You can see in their eyes.
-If you work in
human space flight,
This is the worst possible
thing that could ever happen.
-Lean in. Bunch up. Arms.
Bunch up. Bunch up.
- Whole nine yards.
-Lean in there, ilan.
Alright.
- Yeah.
-Here we go.
[ camera shutter clicks ]
Alright. Very good.
[ camera shutter clicking ]
-I was an astronaut
crew secretary.
-Grinning, grinning, grinning.
Smiles. Alright. [ laughter ]
- I would see the crew daily.
- Perfect.
-Let me take my glasses off.
-That'll be in here.
[ laughter ]
I'm not a star-struck
kind of person, right?
But you fly 12,500
miles an hour?
I was like, "yeah! I like you."
[ laughs ]
-Whoo-hoo, baby!
[ laughter ]
-When they got
selected as a crew,
I went and got
their astronaut bio
And I read what they
did, what they liked.
[ laughter ]
I went over and I'm
like, "ah, doctor. Ah.
"dr. Dave brown, surgeon.
Dr. Kalpana chawla, phd."
Laurel laurel was
a submarine doctor.
I thought that was so cool.
Mike he's air force pilot.
And then willie he
was like a test pilot.
Rick he'd already
been up to space.
And then there was ilan.
You know, he was already
a hero in his country.
So I was like, "wow!
We have the juice here!
This will work."
♪
And they came
together to start training.
-Welcome aboard.
-Four of us are
flying for the first time.
Roll camera.
And that could be
seen as a disadvantage.
In some ways, it's an
incredible advantage
Because we have a wealth
of enthusiasm and excitement
That other, more seasoned
crews may not have.
-I was married to laurel clark,
who was on the columbia mission.
We met in navy dive school.
She beat us in
swimming the guys
And that was kind of irritating.
She was just tenacious.
She always had a smile on her
face no matter what happened.
It was really beautiful.
[ both laugh ]
-I feel very fortunate to
be assigned to this mission.
I'm expecting it to be
The experience of
my lifetime so far.
Ready, ready, mark.
-We were so excited.
♪
-I remember going into nasa
Taking a series of photos
With my mom and
dad after school.
I was 7.
I was worried. I was,
like thinking, like,
"how is her hair
gonna fit in there?"
[ chuckles ]
She made everything
joyful all the time.
She was my whole world.
-I remember the columbia
mission being announced.
I mean, I knew them all.
In my class was laurel clark,
Dave brown, and willie mccool.
We were all there
at the same time.
You get your blue flight suit.
That's pretty
exciting. I mean, "yes!"
I've spent 54 days in space
Over four missions.
Most fun thing I've
ever done by far.
There's a lot of risk involved.
I really believe that
humans are explorers.
And in this country, we're
really good at this stuff.
I mean, think about
this for a second.
We sent people to
the moon in the 1960s.
Think about how hard that was.
♪
Americans like that we're a
country that does hard things.
[ applause ]
And nasa does some hard stuff.
-They got the flag up now.
-It's about what it
means for us as a nation
To lead in space.
You know, we have
a record of success.
♪
-Colombia will open
A new chapter in
american space travel.
-This is a once-in-a-lifetime
happening,
The maiden voyage
of the space shuttle.
-I had an emotional
feeling with columbia
Because she was the number one.
She was paving the way
to the utilization of space
In a more practical
way, cheaper, better.
♪
Previously, rockets
were expendable,
One-time use,
But the space shuttle
was reusable in its design
Up to 100 times.
It was a quantum leap
forward in space travel.
-T minus 10, 9, 8,
7, 6, 5, 4
We have main engine start.
♪
♪
-And it's up and away.
Go. Go, columbia, go.
[ all cheering ]
-People had seen apollo
launches exploring the moon.
The space shuttle
reignited that interest.
It was the pride of
the united states.
-Columbia, houston.
-I still think it's
one of the most
Complex machines ever
built by the human race.
♪
In the beginning, there
were four operating shuttles
Columbia, challenger,
atlantis, and discovery.
One of the goals was
to fly 20 missions a year.
Sometimes they
were sending satellites,
Quite a few classified missions
for the department of defense.
Eventually they were used
For assembling and building
the international space station.
But reusability puts
demands on the design
That it has to be
robust and resilient
And come back intact
and fully operational.
It's a huge demand.
And there were
numerous problems.
-The mission aboard
the orbiter columbia
Is a 24/7 science marathon.
In all, there are more
than 59 experiments.
♪
-My husband rick
was the commander
Of the space shuttle columbia.
-Howdy!
[ laughter ]
-Never in my wildest
dreams did I think I'd ever
Meet an astronaut,
much less marry one.
And so he told me. He
said that he wanted
Since he was 4 years old that
he wanted to be an astronaut.
-My name is rick husband.
I'm the commander of sts-107.
We're going to be flying
a 16-day science mission.
-I was, I think,
probably 10 or 11.
I knew it was a big,
in-charge position
And that he would be
the leader of the team.
You think of something like
buzz lightyear, star command.
You're like, "wow, dad's
the commander of a shuttle."
[ laughs ]
-Okay, let's do
like this, you know?
- Yeah.
- While they were in training,
Dave brown, one
of the astronauts,
Came to rick and
asked if it was okay
If he recorded footage of the
crew throughout the mission.
-We're trying to ignore
our best pal, dave,
Who's busy documenting
our journey toward space.
- Dr. Dave!
- Yeah.
- Man, this is above and beyond.
- I know.
6:30.
- Yeah.
-Dave, your camera
is affecting me.
- It is?
- [ laughing ] yeah.
-Kalpana was
definitely one of her kind.
And what everybody
knows about her
Is the first female
astronaut from india.
She was intelligent.
She was hardworking.
She was unstoppable.
♪
- Rolling.
- Take 3, dave and laurel.
-Action!
We're here in the
wind river mountains
With the crew of sts-107.
-Brought to you by the national
outdoor leadership school.
-Well, laurel, are you ready?
-Dave, my palms are
sweaty. My knees are weak.
I'm ready for an
outdoor adventure.
[ all cheering ]
♪
-The crew went on an outdoor
team-building trip in wyoming.
-Now, willie's not safe
until we're all safe, right?
-It was, I think, close
to two weeks long.
- And it comes around
- Right down in this valley.
-My dad had come up with
the idea to help them bond,
And dave filmed the crew
while they were doing that.
[ laughter ]
-This is such a nightmare.
I'm trying to make
these stupid brownies
Because everybody wanted
brownies for breakfast.
-You're not hungry?
- I'm not that hungry.
- No?
-But I would love to have
some breakfast brownies.
That would be delicious.
- Well, there's some right here.
-[ laughs ]
Wow!
Looks kind of like bear scat.
-[ laughs ]
-Well, you know
-On the trip in wyoming,
They had to work
together as a team.
-Mnh!
[ laughter ]
-When you're on
the space shuttle,
You really have
to have a high level
Of what they call
behavioral health
- And what do you think, willie?
- Mm-mmm!
-Where you're not just
technically competent,
But you're low-maintenance
'cause you are inherently
in a confined space.
You can't say, "I'm just gonna
take a time out and go outside
And not deal with your,
you know, b.S. Anymore."
♪
So, nasa had started to realize,
"we got to get a handle on this,
And it's really important."
♪
[ all cheering, whooping ]
-When they came back,
It was like their
bond was forever.
They walked in
sync with each other.
It was like left,
right, left, right.
They were the columbia crew.
They were sts-107.
They were a unit.
- One, two, three.
- One, two, three.
- Excellent.
- Whoo-hoo.
♪
-Michael anderson
was my husband.
We got to go watch
the underwater trainings
To simulate zero gravity.
He was excited, but
if you looked at him,
You would think
calm and collected,
But he was excited.
He would tease the kids
We were gonna go
to mars as a family.
Halfway, he was joking,
but halfway, he was thinking,
"hmm, this would
be kind of cool."
-Check o2 actuator is in eva.
-He loved it. It was his dream.
But he thought about it.
I mean, he thought
about the safety issues,
And he knew he was in
a dangerous career field.
-I'm probably different
than most astronauts.
I really don't enjoy
launches, you know?
I think a launch is a
terrible way to get to space.
When you launch in a rocket,
You're not really
flying that rocket.
You're just sort of hanging on.
Even though we've
gone to great pains
To to make it as safe as we can,
There's always the potential
for something going wrong.
You know, so we try not
to think about those things.
We train and try to prepare
for the things that may go wrong.
But there's always that unknown.
And I guess it's that
unknown that I don't like.
-I went with michael to
florida for the first time
And actually saw the shuttle.
And when I saw it, I was like,
"you really want
to get up in this?
You really, really,
really want to do this?"
[laughs] I remember
saying to him
Because somehow
It didn't look as glamorous
as it did on television.
I was like, "wow, that's,
"you know, the
oldest one in the fleet.
Mnh, I don't know about this."
It looked smaller
to me, you know?
It looked a little older.
I was like, "okay, this
is getting really real."
And then I remember
Thinking about what
happened to challenger.
[ cheers and applause ]
-Space shuttle challenger
is just a few seconds away
From blasting off from
the kennedy space center
Near cape canaveral, florida.
-T-minus 15 seconds.
T-minus 10, 9, 8
7, 6
- 6, 5, 4,
3, 2, 1!
[ cheers and applause ]
♪
- Liftoff confirmed.
- Liftoff.
-Engines throttling up,
three engines now at 104%.
-Challenger go at throttle up.
-Challenger go at throttle up.
♪
[ all gasping, screaming ]
-Vehicle has exploded.
-I hear from launch control
he vehicle has exploded.
That's the orbiter itself.
The shuttle challenger
has exploded.
We must assume that
the crew is not alive.
This is unheralded in the
history of the space program.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have
covered space shuttle launches
Since the very first launch,
Since before the first
launch itself, going way back,
And nothing like this
has ever happened.
[ woman screams ]
-It was a sad day
for all americans.
♪
This was our space program.
This was our national
space program.
And here they lost their
lives doing it for our country.
♪
-When I thought
about challenger,
I talked to michael.
I said, "you know what?
"you're doing what you're doing,
"and I'm glad you're
loving it and liking it,
"but you got a wife
and two little kids here
If something happens."
♪
-We prayed a lot about it.
He talked to us about his faith,
And he was like,
"hey, god has got me.
"like, if something
happens, like,
"god is gonna take care of me,
"he's gonna take
care of, you know,
"you guys as a family.
"you'll be okay.
There are risks to this.
"like, I chose a profession
That, you know, is
dangerous sometimes."
He was like, "but we don't
want to be fearful about it."
-How do you stop somebody
from doing something
That they've worked so
hard to do and achieved
And was so dedicated
and committed to?
I wouldn't have stopped him.
♪
-I was working at nasa then.
I had done this
threat assessment.
Any commercial airliner,
Your chances of a bad
outcome are one in a million,
Probably closer to
one in ten million.
Scuba diving and
flying in general aviation,
Military flying is 1 in 100,000.
The shuttle was 1 in 100.
Your chances of a bad
outcome are 1 in 100.
You know, if somebody told me,
"hey, you can go on
this roller coaster ride,
And there's 1 in 100
chance that you'll die,"
Well, there's no
chance in the world,
No chance in hell
I would do that.
Flying on the space shuttle?
The benefit we get for
our country is enormous.
♪
You know, I think
a lot of us feel
That this is a
tremendous amount of risk
And, you know, there will
be, you know, accidents
And people will
lose their lives,
But I also think that
people generally think
It's not gonna be them.
♪
-Nasa has grounded
its four shuttles
Until at least September
because of small cracks
That have been
found in the fuel lines.
The concern is the
cracks could grow
And splinter into
hazardous chunks of metal.
♪
-They got a bunch of us,
like a dozen engineers,
To go fly down to
kennedy space center
To go look at cracks.
There was copious amounts
of engineering discussion
And testing going on.
-Stop. Thank you.
-If a main engine
were to explode,
That would destroy the
vehicle, it'd be out of control,
We'd lose the
vehicle and the crew.
It's too dangerous
to fly any shuttle
Until we get a handle on this.
It grounded the entire
fleet, including columbia.
-It was, like, delayed
and delayed and delayed.
[ breathes deeply ]
You're kind of glad
that they're dealing
With whatever the issue is,
And you're hoping
that everything's okay.
And, you know, it makes it a
little bit more nerve-wracking.
♪
-Nasa management and
engineering came up with solutions.
Once these propulsion
cracks were fixed and repaired,
We can resume flight.
But I had oversight
into all the missions,
And there were
numerous problems.
Well, the other shuttle fleet
They were just
one after another.
It just wouldn't
end, the damages
And things that
were out of whack.
The tiles were being
damaged every flight.
One time, a large piece of
foam from the gigantic fuel tank
Dented the solid
rocket boosters on liftoff.
Another time, a
vulture hit the tank.
♪
If it hit the windows,
catastrophe.
This is a complex vehicle
That always needs
a lot of caretaking.
♪
♪
-Every single mission
that I was there for
Was scrubbed,
rescheduled, delayed
Because something
wasn't exactly right.
What did catch my
attention, in terms of trouble,
From the very first
time I saw them up close
Was this was 1970s technology.
This was a lot of moving parts,
A lot of mechanical,
moving parts.
And anytime you
have that happen,
It's challenging
to keep it flying.
♪
These weren't
ancient by any means,
But they were getting up there.
-We don't have too much
time 'cause launch is coming.
36 or 37 days to launch,
And it's starting
to get exciting.
-Why is it exciting?
-What do you mean,
why is it exciting?
We're going to space.
Well, for the first
time, at least, for us.
For me, it's exciting.
-This was an amazing,
amazing opportunity.
There were a lot of
israeli fighter pilots
That could have been
chosen to take this role.
But it was my father
that was chosen
To be the first
israeli astronaut.
♪
-I'm just really looking forward
To being able to spend
that much time up in space.
♪
But I tell my son all the time
That my most important
job is being his mother.
♪
Motherhood's been incredible.
-I relied on my mom for so much.
So much.
♪
-Three weeks from the launch,
We were flying from
houston to albuquerque
For christmas, iain
and laurel and I.
-It was my dad flying the plane
And me and our
dog in the back seat.
-And we start hitting
some of this turbulence,
And all of a sudden the plane
gets into this, like, downwash.
It's going down like this.
Well, I mean, we just crashed.
It was just, you know,
bam, slapped down.
And the fact that we survived
Is, to this day, something
I cannot explain.
♪
I think it messed iain up
Because the closer
we got to the flight itself,
He kept saying, "I don't
want you to leave, mom.
I want you to stay
here on earth."
Basically, he said, "I
don't want you to go."
-I, uh, begged her pretty
desperately not to go.
I was
I was very emotional,
and I was crying to stop
Try to stop her from leaving.
-These guys have
trained, you know,
Forever for this mission,
And the last thing they want
Is for them to catch
something and be sick.
That just would be
catastrophic for the mission.
So they put them in
quarantine a week prior.
The children weren't
allowed to be around them.
-I had to say goodbye to him
before he went to quarantine.
And I remember hugging his waist
'cause that's where I
came to him when I was 12.
That moment, actually,
right here in the kitchen,
Um, I remember crying
And just knowing how
much I would miss him.
♪
-I remember we
drove him to quarantine
And we all said goodbye
and, like, had hugs and kisses
And it was a really
sweet moment.
And it was just
us, and that was it.
He was off.
-[ chuckles ]
-This is gonna be good.
-Ilan just walks
into the kitchen,
Starts looking in cupboards,
starts grabbing stuff,
And it just
miraculously happened.
He transformed it.
- Cheers!
-We're almost there.
-The last time iain saw
his mom was in houston,
In the crew quarters at jsc.
And actually they're
supposed to not see their kids
For seven days.
And we snuck him
into crew quarters,
Unbeknownst to anybody else,
For him to get a
hug from his mom.
-She was just reassuring
me that it was gonna be okay
And, "I'll miss you, too,
but, you know, I'll be back."
-It was a very long
hug, you know?
Oh, maybe I don't
know if they knew
It was the last one or not.
Who could deprive a
child of that from his mom?
♪
[ cheers and applause ]
♪
-Absolutely thrilled to be here,
Thrilled to go do a lot of work,
see some incredible things,
And spend some more time
With this great group
of people I'm with today.
[ applause ]
-I left washington to
head down to florida
To witness the launch.
Had an opportunity
to visit with the crew.
The launch of
columbia had occurred
A year and a half after 9/11.
At that time, I was in briefings
To identify, "what are
the high-value targets?
"what are the things that would
be an attraction for terrorists
To just get the attention
of the american people?"
One of them was the shuttle.
♪
-The post 9/11 regiment
remains in place,
A huge no-fly zone
around the launch pad
Patrolled by fighters,
Enhanced radars,
surface-to-air missiles,
And the launch time kept
secret until the day before.
♪
-There were gunboats out there.
There is, uh, you know,
frogmen in the water.
-They had snipers
on the roof of the hotel,
As well as mounted police
all up and down the beach.
-You could easily hide a
sniper in a swamp out there
With a high-powered rifle,
And a couple of
hits in the wrong spot
On the shuttle, and bad day.
-This is shuttle launch control,
Everything is going
well and as planned,
With the countdown for
the launch of columbia
Scheduled for 10:39
a.M., eastern time, sts-107.
♪
-The first one. The
second one comes easy.
-Ooh, good morning.
[ indistinct conversations ]
-How are we doing?
-Alright.
So, we all ready this morning?
-I think we are.
[ chuckles ]
How about you? Are you ready?
- Oh, I'm ready.
I'm ready. I got the easy part.
♪
-Shalom.
-Ready for the big day?
[ chuckles ]
♪
-Plugs. Tethers.
- Hey, dave.
- Dreaming of sleeping in space.
-In 2003, I was responsible
for all the astronauts.
[ laughter ]
- but he's gonna lose.
-I was here supporting. I
was an astronaut myself.
-You're out.
-Every time you get suited up,
There is anticipation.
I don't know.
Anxiety, excitement.
Yeah, launch day
is pretty special.
♪
[ indistinct speaking ]
- Okay.
- Alright. Here we go.
[ hands tapping
rhythmically ] [ laughs ]
-Every launch, we do
this really strange thing
Where we play this card
game, this poker game,
Because it's been done
since neil armstrong.
-You win. You
win. No, that's good.
It's good. It's good to win.
- I get to go to space.
-One step closer to launch here.
-Everything is timed
very specifically.
And they actually
have a, you know
It was an old analog
clock with a marker on it.
Then you just got to
wait. You want to go.
-You know the risk,
And you know what
you're getting ready to do.
You know, if you don't,
You probably shouldn't
be in that business.
-Rick husband got the whole
crew together inside the suit room
Before they went out
the door into the hallway.
And they all got together,
arms around each other,
Head bowed, and said a prayer.
- Amen.
- Amen.
- Amen.
- Christian, hindu, jew,
All together as one
[ cheers and applause ]
As they walked
out of the suit room.
♪
-And our astronauts
are coming out now,
As they are making their
way to the astronaut van.
[ cheers and applause ]
- Morning, ronnie.
- Morning. How you doing?
- Doing great.
- Alright, we're gonna go today.
♪
♪
-There it is.
♪
Let's go.
[ indistinct speaking ]
♪
195, here we come.
- Okay, everybody, high five!
[ all chanting "hup" ]
- Hooray!
- Whoo-hoo!
-Alright.
♪
-Morning, gentlemen.
Welcome to the 195.
We're gonna have a
wonderful day today.
-When you're up
there at 195-foot level
And you're getting
ready to get in the vehicle,
It's pretty amazing.
I mean, you're all suited up,
And this is for real.
And the vehicle it's
venting, it's creaking.
It's like it's alive.
You just can't believe
in a couple hours
You're gonna be
inside this thing,
Blasting off into space.
For me, if there was any
apprehension, it was then,
I mean, but you can't say,
"no, I don't think
I want to do this."
[ chuckles ] you know?
You're pretty much
You're going.
♪
-How do you do? Good to see you.
- Thank you.
- Good to see you.
- Thank you.
- Doc.
-The astronaut
support personnel
The final folks to speak to them
And the crew that's strapping
them in to the vehicle.
-Here we go.
-And the nasa test
director, jeff spaulding,
Has given approval for the crew
To begin entry into the vehicle.
Once they're in their seats,
They will be basically
laying on their backs.
Husband climbing in.
Next to enter the
vehicle will be ilan ramon.
And he is currently taking
his seat on the mid-deck.
-Here at the kennedy
space center in florida,
A lot of concern about security
With the first israeli
astronaut on board columbia
For this 16-day science mission.
I'm there to cover that
launch, like we always were.
I'm three miles away, which
is as close as they let anybody.
-28th launch for columbia,
The 113th shuttle
mission launch.
I'm always thinking
about what I would say
If things go really
wrong, uh, and
Because that's my
responsibility to be that person.
One of the experiments on
board the shuttle columbia
So you sort of have to
go down the list of threats,
If you will, you know,
9/11, ilan ramon.
Did they really
fix those cracks?
And then it's up to, you
know, a million movable parts
All working in synchronicity,
which is kind of the fact
That it ever worked
at all is pretty amazing.
-Back here in the space
shuttle flight control room,
Monitoring columbia's systems
In preparation for the first
shuttle launch of the year.
- Thank you very much.
- The ascent team is led
By flight director leroy
cain for today's launch.
-Okay, folks.
One ops, one, count to 20.
-As a flight controller
in mission control,
Sts-107 was my second mission.
For me, it was always
When you got the
t-minus 10 minute hold
And you give the final
"go/no go" for launch.
That is kind of the
moment where you realize
That this is about to get real.
-Go/no go for launch, final.
Guidance? Gc?
Prop? Gnc? Max?
-For me personally, I could
feel my adrenaline gland just go
And then my heart
rate pick up a little bit.
-You ready for g1 launch target?
-There's a lot
of responsibility.
You're getting ready to
launch a space shuttle
With humans on board.
It is not an easy business.
-Houston, flight is go.
-You're committed at that point,
So now it's focus on
what's ahead of you.
-Countdown clock will
resume on my mark.
Three, two, one, mark.
-T-minus nine
minutes and counting.
[ indistinct conversations ]
-It's a weird feeling, you know?
Your loved one is
strapped into that vehicle,
And it's getting
ready to launch.
I just thought, "I have
absolutely no control
Over how this is gonna go."
-Gls is go for orbiter
access arm retract.
-I do remember
looking at the shuttle
Getting ready to take off.
-He was adamant, now to me,
that he didn't want his mom to go.
And then he started crying.
The whole the whole
launch was him crying.
It was awful.
♪
-I was 12 years old when
the launch date came.
I could see the shuttle
from afar and be like,
"wow, my father is on
that shuttle right now.
He's strapped in, about
to be launched into space."
♪
We were so excited.
It was hard to contain.
-For the first two-plus
minutes of the mission,
With the solid rocket
boosters attached,
There's no option for abort.
You have to wait
till they're done
And burned out and cut away.
That's a death zone.
No matter what
happens in that scenario,
You cannot do anything.
That was when the
challenger went down.
-11, 10
-9, 8, 7,
6, 5, 4,
3, 2, 1. [ cheers and applause ]
-The weird thing is
that you see that flash
And you see that smoke coming up
And it's like, "well
Well, that sucks.
There's no sound."
And then it's [ rumbling ]
"ba-boom."
[ crowd cheering ]
♪
-You don't quite expect
it to be as powerful.
- 107!
- Whoo!
- 107!
- You feel your insides
Shaking and vibrating
from this huge sound.
♪
It's hard not to cry.
-For me, it's like
"the star-spangled
banner" playing.
It's incredibly visceral
and inspirational.
-You sit there and you
look at that trail of fire
And you think, "god, there's
seven people on top of that."
Every time that kind of gets me.
-And you're watching
seven of your closest friends
On this ball of flame
going off into space
And my heart's going like this
And, you know, I got
tears running down my
I mean, it's very emotional.
-Columbia's three main engines
Draining a half a ton
of fuel per second,
Heading towards space
On the first shuttle
mission of the year.
-You know how
on tv it looks like
You're going up really smoothly?
No, not at all.
It's kind of a wild ride.
And there's a lot of vibration.
And on my first
flight, it was so much,
I thought to myself, "there's
something wrong here.
Cannot possibly feel like this."
♪
-Solid rocket booster
separation confirmed.
Guidance now converging.
Columbia's onboard computers
Commanding the main
engine nozzles to gently swivel,
Aiming the shuttle for a
precise target in space
For main engine cutoff.
-I was, like, more nervous.
You know, you see the
plumes of smoke and the fire,
And you kind of
know what's going on,
But you're just kind of like
in the back of your head,
"is I supposed to do
that? Is that correct?
Okay, like, there they
go. Wow, that's so high."
You know, just
all these thoughts,
And then all of a
sudden they're just gone
And you're just
still hearing it.
♪
-And a perfect
launch for columbia,
A perfect climb to orbit,
Seven astronauts now setting off
On a 16-day marathon
scientific mission.
♪
-The space shuttle
columbia is safe in orbit,
And here at the kennedy
space center in florida,
Nasa and the us air force.
Breathing a
collective sigh of relief.
♪
-They're in orbit, and
that's when you're
You know, you're home free.
-So it was like a sigh of relief
When they when
they were, you know,
Up in space, and it was
like, "whew, they made it."
-Let's take a look at
the view from orbit.
This is 225 kilometers above us.
♪
-Once they turn off those
main engines and they're in orbit,
You know, you're in a
relatively safe situation.
You can safely walk
away from the camera.
And they started quickly
playing the launch replays,
And and that
was when we saw it.
I was in our truck.
Producer called me in.
He said, "you
got to look at this."
It was kind of a grainy
image, but, you know,
You see this poof, like a
Like you dropped a
bag of flour on the ground
And it all floated into the air.
Didn't take much of a telephoto
to show this kind of explosion.
He played it over
and over again.
But it did not look good at all.
It looked bad.
- Oh, is that it?
- There it is!
-That's it right
there. There it is.
-Yeah, I see it. I saw it.
- There it is. Oh, it's cool.
- Yeah.
That is cool.
Oh, check that out, man.
-It's going really fast.
-Whoa.
- What the heck is that?
- I don't know.
-Wow.
-Look at the chunks
coming off of it!
- Yeah, I saw that.
- Yeah.
I see what you're saying.
That thing looks like it's
flipping all over the place.
-Oh, yeah.
-I can still see it,
but I'm losing it.
-It was a Saturday morning.
It was a beautiful day.
And as I turned
onto park street,
I heard a loud boom.
[ rumbling ]
-Our house just shook.
We looked at each other,
and we said, "what is that?"
-When I looked up, I
saw a bright white ball.
[ sirens wailing ]
-The phones were
ringing off the hook,
Much more than our
dispatch staff could handle.
-I didn't know if we
were being attacked.
-Search and rescue
teams are warning people
Not to touch any debris,
should they come across it.
-There are some
disturbing pictures
That are coming up
from the broadcasters.
-We're waiting for more
details as to how this happened,
Maybe the beginnings
of why it happened.
♪
-Nasa has declared a state
of emergency over texas.
-There is something amiss.
We are watching mission control.
Nasa has gone
through this before,
17 years ago with
space shuttle challenger.
You can see in their eyes.
-If you work in
human space flight,
This is the worst possible
thing that could ever happen.
-Lean in. Bunch up. Arms.
Bunch up. Bunch up.
- Whole nine yards.
-Lean in there, ilan.
Alright.
- Yeah.
-Here we go.
[ camera shutter clicks ]
Alright. Very good.
[ camera shutter clicking ]
-I was an astronaut
crew secretary.
-Grinning, grinning, grinning.
Smiles. Alright. [ laughter ]
- I would see the crew daily.
- Perfect.
-Let me take my glasses off.
-That'll be in here.
[ laughter ]
I'm not a star-struck
kind of person, right?
But you fly 12,500
miles an hour?
I was like, "yeah! I like you."
[ laughs ]
-Whoo-hoo, baby!
[ laughter ]
-When they got
selected as a crew,
I went and got
their astronaut bio
And I read what they
did, what they liked.
[ laughter ]
I went over and I'm
like, "ah, doctor. Ah.
"dr. Dave brown, surgeon.
Dr. Kalpana chawla, phd."
Laurel laurel was
a submarine doctor.
I thought that was so cool.
Mike he's air force pilot.
And then willie he
was like a test pilot.
Rick he'd already
been up to space.
And then there was ilan.
You know, he was already
a hero in his country.
So I was like, "wow!
We have the juice here!
This will work."
♪
And they came
together to start training.
-Welcome aboard.
-Four of us are
flying for the first time.
Roll camera.
And that could be
seen as a disadvantage.
In some ways, it's an
incredible advantage
Because we have a wealth
of enthusiasm and excitement
That other, more seasoned
crews may not have.
-I was married to laurel clark,
who was on the columbia mission.
We met in navy dive school.
She beat us in
swimming the guys
And that was kind of irritating.
She was just tenacious.
She always had a smile on her
face no matter what happened.
It was really beautiful.
[ both laugh ]
-I feel very fortunate to
be assigned to this mission.
I'm expecting it to be
The experience of
my lifetime so far.
Ready, ready, mark.
-We were so excited.
♪
-I remember going into nasa
Taking a series of photos
With my mom and
dad after school.
I was 7.
I was worried. I was,
like thinking, like,
"how is her hair
gonna fit in there?"
[ chuckles ]
She made everything
joyful all the time.
She was my whole world.
-I remember the columbia
mission being announced.
I mean, I knew them all.
In my class was laurel clark,
Dave brown, and willie mccool.
We were all there
at the same time.
You get your blue flight suit.
That's pretty
exciting. I mean, "yes!"
I've spent 54 days in space
Over four missions.
Most fun thing I've
ever done by far.
There's a lot of risk involved.
I really believe that
humans are explorers.
And in this country, we're
really good at this stuff.
I mean, think about
this for a second.
We sent people to
the moon in the 1960s.
Think about how hard that was.
♪
Americans like that we're a
country that does hard things.
[ applause ]
And nasa does some hard stuff.
-They got the flag up now.
-It's about what it
means for us as a nation
To lead in space.
You know, we have
a record of success.
♪
-Colombia will open
A new chapter in
american space travel.
-This is a once-in-a-lifetime
happening,
The maiden voyage
of the space shuttle.
-I had an emotional
feeling with columbia
Because she was the number one.
She was paving the way
to the utilization of space
In a more practical
way, cheaper, better.
♪
Previously, rockets
were expendable,
One-time use,
But the space shuttle
was reusable in its design
Up to 100 times.
It was a quantum leap
forward in space travel.
-T minus 10, 9, 8,
7, 6, 5, 4
We have main engine start.
♪
♪
-And it's up and away.
Go. Go, columbia, go.
[ all cheering ]
-People had seen apollo
launches exploring the moon.
The space shuttle
reignited that interest.
It was the pride of
the united states.
-Columbia, houston.
-I still think it's
one of the most
Complex machines ever
built by the human race.
♪
In the beginning, there
were four operating shuttles
Columbia, challenger,
atlantis, and discovery.
One of the goals was
to fly 20 missions a year.
Sometimes they
were sending satellites,
Quite a few classified missions
for the department of defense.
Eventually they were used
For assembling and building
the international space station.
But reusability puts
demands on the design
That it has to be
robust and resilient
And come back intact
and fully operational.
It's a huge demand.
And there were
numerous problems.
-The mission aboard
the orbiter columbia
Is a 24/7 science marathon.
In all, there are more
than 59 experiments.
♪
-My husband rick
was the commander
Of the space shuttle columbia.
-Howdy!
[ laughter ]
-Never in my wildest
dreams did I think I'd ever
Meet an astronaut,
much less marry one.
And so he told me. He
said that he wanted
Since he was 4 years old that
he wanted to be an astronaut.
-My name is rick husband.
I'm the commander of sts-107.
We're going to be flying
a 16-day science mission.
-I was, I think,
probably 10 or 11.
I knew it was a big,
in-charge position
And that he would be
the leader of the team.
You think of something like
buzz lightyear, star command.
You're like, "wow, dad's
the commander of a shuttle."
[ laughs ]
-Okay, let's do
like this, you know?
- Yeah.
- While they were in training,
Dave brown, one
of the astronauts,
Came to rick and
asked if it was okay
If he recorded footage of the
crew throughout the mission.
-We're trying to ignore
our best pal, dave,
Who's busy documenting
our journey toward space.
- Dr. Dave!
- Yeah.
- Man, this is above and beyond.
- I know.
6:30.
- Yeah.
-Dave, your camera
is affecting me.
- It is?
- [ laughing ] yeah.
-Kalpana was
definitely one of her kind.
And what everybody
knows about her
Is the first female
astronaut from india.
She was intelligent.
She was hardworking.
She was unstoppable.
♪
- Rolling.
- Take 3, dave and laurel.
-Action!
We're here in the
wind river mountains
With the crew of sts-107.
-Brought to you by the national
outdoor leadership school.
-Well, laurel, are you ready?
-Dave, my palms are
sweaty. My knees are weak.
I'm ready for an
outdoor adventure.
[ all cheering ]
♪
-The crew went on an outdoor
team-building trip in wyoming.
-Now, willie's not safe
until we're all safe, right?
-It was, I think, close
to two weeks long.
- And it comes around
- Right down in this valley.
-My dad had come up with
the idea to help them bond,
And dave filmed the crew
while they were doing that.
[ laughter ]
-This is such a nightmare.
I'm trying to make
these stupid brownies
Because everybody wanted
brownies for breakfast.
-You're not hungry?
- I'm not that hungry.
- No?
-But I would love to have
some breakfast brownies.
That would be delicious.
- Well, there's some right here.
-[ laughs ]
Wow!
Looks kind of like bear scat.
-[ laughs ]
-Well, you know
-On the trip in wyoming,
They had to work
together as a team.
-Mnh!
[ laughter ]
-When you're on
the space shuttle,
You really have
to have a high level
Of what they call
behavioral health
- And what do you think, willie?
- Mm-mmm!
-Where you're not just
technically competent,
But you're low-maintenance
'cause you are inherently
in a confined space.
You can't say, "I'm just gonna
take a time out and go outside
And not deal with your,
you know, b.S. Anymore."
♪
So, nasa had started to realize,
"we got to get a handle on this,
And it's really important."
♪
[ all cheering, whooping ]
-When they came back,
It was like their
bond was forever.
They walked in
sync with each other.
It was like left,
right, left, right.
They were the columbia crew.
They were sts-107.
They were a unit.
- One, two, three.
- One, two, three.
- Excellent.
- Whoo-hoo.
♪
-Michael anderson
was my husband.
We got to go watch
the underwater trainings
To simulate zero gravity.
He was excited, but
if you looked at him,
You would think
calm and collected,
But he was excited.
He would tease the kids
We were gonna go
to mars as a family.
Halfway, he was joking,
but halfway, he was thinking,
"hmm, this would
be kind of cool."
-Check o2 actuator is in eva.
-He loved it. It was his dream.
But he thought about it.
I mean, he thought
about the safety issues,
And he knew he was in
a dangerous career field.
-I'm probably different
than most astronauts.
I really don't enjoy
launches, you know?
I think a launch is a
terrible way to get to space.
When you launch in a rocket,
You're not really
flying that rocket.
You're just sort of hanging on.
Even though we've
gone to great pains
To to make it as safe as we can,
There's always the potential
for something going wrong.
You know, so we try not
to think about those things.
We train and try to prepare
for the things that may go wrong.
But there's always that unknown.
And I guess it's that
unknown that I don't like.
-I went with michael to
florida for the first time
And actually saw the shuttle.
And when I saw it, I was like,
"you really want
to get up in this?
You really, really,
really want to do this?"
[laughs] I remember
saying to him
Because somehow
It didn't look as glamorous
as it did on television.
I was like, "wow, that's,
"you know, the
oldest one in the fleet.
Mnh, I don't know about this."
It looked smaller
to me, you know?
It looked a little older.
I was like, "okay, this
is getting really real."
And then I remember
Thinking about what
happened to challenger.
[ cheers and applause ]
-Space shuttle challenger
is just a few seconds away
From blasting off from
the kennedy space center
Near cape canaveral, florida.
-T-minus 15 seconds.
T-minus 10, 9, 8
7, 6
- 6, 5, 4,
3, 2, 1!
[ cheers and applause ]
♪
- Liftoff confirmed.
- Liftoff.
-Engines throttling up,
three engines now at 104%.
-Challenger go at throttle up.
-Challenger go at throttle up.
♪
[ all gasping, screaming ]
-Vehicle has exploded.
-I hear from launch control
he vehicle has exploded.
That's the orbiter itself.
The shuttle challenger
has exploded.
We must assume that
the crew is not alive.
This is unheralded in the
history of the space program.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have
covered space shuttle launches
Since the very first launch,
Since before the first
launch itself, going way back,
And nothing like this
has ever happened.
[ woman screams ]
-It was a sad day
for all americans.
♪
This was our space program.
This was our national
space program.
And here they lost their
lives doing it for our country.
♪
-When I thought
about challenger,
I talked to michael.
I said, "you know what?
"you're doing what you're doing,
"and I'm glad you're
loving it and liking it,
"but you got a wife
and two little kids here
If something happens."
♪
-We prayed a lot about it.
He talked to us about his faith,
And he was like,
"hey, god has got me.
"like, if something
happens, like,
"god is gonna take care of me,
"he's gonna take
care of, you know,
"you guys as a family.
"you'll be okay.
There are risks to this.
"like, I chose a profession
That, you know, is
dangerous sometimes."
He was like, "but we don't
want to be fearful about it."
-How do you stop somebody
from doing something
That they've worked so
hard to do and achieved
And was so dedicated
and committed to?
I wouldn't have stopped him.
♪
-I was working at nasa then.
I had done this
threat assessment.
Any commercial airliner,
Your chances of a bad
outcome are one in a million,
Probably closer to
one in ten million.
Scuba diving and
flying in general aviation,
Military flying is 1 in 100,000.
The shuttle was 1 in 100.
Your chances of a bad
outcome are 1 in 100.
You know, if somebody told me,
"hey, you can go on
this roller coaster ride,
And there's 1 in 100
chance that you'll die,"
Well, there's no
chance in the world,
No chance in hell
I would do that.
Flying on the space shuttle?
The benefit we get for
our country is enormous.
♪
You know, I think
a lot of us feel
That this is a
tremendous amount of risk
And, you know, there will
be, you know, accidents
And people will
lose their lives,
But I also think that
people generally think
It's not gonna be them.
♪
-Nasa has grounded
its four shuttles
Until at least September
because of small cracks
That have been
found in the fuel lines.
The concern is the
cracks could grow
And splinter into
hazardous chunks of metal.
♪
-They got a bunch of us,
like a dozen engineers,
To go fly down to
kennedy space center
To go look at cracks.
There was copious amounts
of engineering discussion
And testing going on.
-Stop. Thank you.
-If a main engine
were to explode,
That would destroy the
vehicle, it'd be out of control,
We'd lose the
vehicle and the crew.
It's too dangerous
to fly any shuttle
Until we get a handle on this.
It grounded the entire
fleet, including columbia.
-It was, like, delayed
and delayed and delayed.
[ breathes deeply ]
You're kind of glad
that they're dealing
With whatever the issue is,
And you're hoping
that everything's okay.
And, you know, it makes it a
little bit more nerve-wracking.
♪
-Nasa management and
engineering came up with solutions.
Once these propulsion
cracks were fixed and repaired,
We can resume flight.
But I had oversight
into all the missions,
And there were
numerous problems.
Well, the other shuttle fleet
They were just
one after another.
It just wouldn't
end, the damages
And things that
were out of whack.
The tiles were being
damaged every flight.
One time, a large piece of
foam from the gigantic fuel tank
Dented the solid
rocket boosters on liftoff.
Another time, a
vulture hit the tank.
♪
If it hit the windows,
catastrophe.
This is a complex vehicle
That always needs
a lot of caretaking.
♪
♪
-Every single mission
that I was there for
Was scrubbed,
rescheduled, delayed
Because something
wasn't exactly right.
What did catch my
attention, in terms of trouble,
From the very first
time I saw them up close
Was this was 1970s technology.
This was a lot of moving parts,
A lot of mechanical,
moving parts.
And anytime you
have that happen,
It's challenging
to keep it flying.
♪
These weren't
ancient by any means,
But they were getting up there.
-We don't have too much
time 'cause launch is coming.
36 or 37 days to launch,
And it's starting
to get exciting.
-Why is it exciting?
-What do you mean,
why is it exciting?
We're going to space.
Well, for the first
time, at least, for us.
For me, it's exciting.
-This was an amazing,
amazing opportunity.
There were a lot of
israeli fighter pilots
That could have been
chosen to take this role.
But it was my father
that was chosen
To be the first
israeli astronaut.
♪
-I'm just really looking forward
To being able to spend
that much time up in space.
♪
But I tell my son all the time
That my most important
job is being his mother.
♪
Motherhood's been incredible.
-I relied on my mom for so much.
So much.
♪
-Three weeks from the launch,
We were flying from
houston to albuquerque
For christmas, iain
and laurel and I.
-It was my dad flying the plane
And me and our
dog in the back seat.
-And we start hitting
some of this turbulence,
And all of a sudden the plane
gets into this, like, downwash.
It's going down like this.
Well, I mean, we just crashed.
It was just, you know,
bam, slapped down.
And the fact that we survived
Is, to this day, something
I cannot explain.
♪
I think it messed iain up
Because the closer
we got to the flight itself,
He kept saying, "I don't
want you to leave, mom.
I want you to stay
here on earth."
Basically, he said, "I
don't want you to go."
-I, uh, begged her pretty
desperately not to go.
I was
I was very emotional,
and I was crying to stop
Try to stop her from leaving.
-These guys have
trained, you know,
Forever for this mission,
And the last thing they want
Is for them to catch
something and be sick.
That just would be
catastrophic for the mission.
So they put them in
quarantine a week prior.
The children weren't
allowed to be around them.
-I had to say goodbye to him
before he went to quarantine.
And I remember hugging his waist
'cause that's where I
came to him when I was 12.
That moment, actually,
right here in the kitchen,
Um, I remember crying
And just knowing how
much I would miss him.
♪
-I remember we
drove him to quarantine
And we all said goodbye
and, like, had hugs and kisses
And it was a really
sweet moment.
And it was just
us, and that was it.
He was off.
-[ chuckles ]
-This is gonna be good.
-Ilan just walks
into the kitchen,
Starts looking in cupboards,
starts grabbing stuff,
And it just
miraculously happened.
He transformed it.
- Cheers!
-We're almost there.
-The last time iain saw
his mom was in houston,
In the crew quarters at jsc.
And actually they're
supposed to not see their kids
For seven days.
And we snuck him
into crew quarters,
Unbeknownst to anybody else,
For him to get a
hug from his mom.
-She was just reassuring
me that it was gonna be okay
And, "I'll miss you, too,
but, you know, I'll be back."
-It was a very long
hug, you know?
Oh, maybe I don't
know if they knew
It was the last one or not.
Who could deprive a
child of that from his mom?
♪
[ cheers and applause ]
♪
-Absolutely thrilled to be here,
Thrilled to go do a lot of work,
see some incredible things,
And spend some more time
With this great group
of people I'm with today.
[ applause ]
-I left washington to
head down to florida
To witness the launch.
Had an opportunity
to visit with the crew.
The launch of
columbia had occurred
A year and a half after 9/11.
At that time, I was in briefings
To identify, "what are
the high-value targets?
"what are the things that would
be an attraction for terrorists
To just get the attention
of the american people?"
One of them was the shuttle.
♪
-The post 9/11 regiment
remains in place,
A huge no-fly zone
around the launch pad
Patrolled by fighters,
Enhanced radars,
surface-to-air missiles,
And the launch time kept
secret until the day before.
♪
-There were gunboats out there.
There is, uh, you know,
frogmen in the water.
-They had snipers
on the roof of the hotel,
As well as mounted police
all up and down the beach.
-You could easily hide a
sniper in a swamp out there
With a high-powered rifle,
And a couple of
hits in the wrong spot
On the shuttle, and bad day.
-This is shuttle launch control,
Everything is going
well and as planned,
With the countdown for
the launch of columbia
Scheduled for 10:39
a.M., eastern time, sts-107.
♪
-The first one. The
second one comes easy.
-Ooh, good morning.
[ indistinct conversations ]
-How are we doing?
-Alright.
So, we all ready this morning?
-I think we are.
[ chuckles ]
How about you? Are you ready?
- Oh, I'm ready.
I'm ready. I got the easy part.
♪
-Shalom.
-Ready for the big day?
[ chuckles ]
♪
-Plugs. Tethers.
- Hey, dave.
- Dreaming of sleeping in space.
-In 2003, I was responsible
for all the astronauts.
[ laughter ]
- but he's gonna lose.
-I was here supporting. I
was an astronaut myself.
-You're out.
-Every time you get suited up,
There is anticipation.
I don't know.
Anxiety, excitement.
Yeah, launch day
is pretty special.
♪
[ indistinct speaking ]
- Okay.
- Alright. Here we go.
[ hands tapping
rhythmically ] [ laughs ]
-Every launch, we do
this really strange thing
Where we play this card
game, this poker game,
Because it's been done
since neil armstrong.
-You win. You
win. No, that's good.
It's good. It's good to win.
- I get to go to space.
-One step closer to launch here.
-Everything is timed
very specifically.
And they actually
have a, you know
It was an old analog
clock with a marker on it.
Then you just got to
wait. You want to go.
-You know the risk,
And you know what
you're getting ready to do.
You know, if you don't,
You probably shouldn't
be in that business.
-Rick husband got the whole
crew together inside the suit room
Before they went out
the door into the hallway.
And they all got together,
arms around each other,
Head bowed, and said a prayer.
- Amen.
- Amen.
- Amen.
- Christian, hindu, jew,
All together as one
[ cheers and applause ]
As they walked
out of the suit room.
♪
-And our astronauts
are coming out now,
As they are making their
way to the astronaut van.
[ cheers and applause ]
- Morning, ronnie.
- Morning. How you doing?
- Doing great.
- Alright, we're gonna go today.
♪
♪
-There it is.
♪
Let's go.
[ indistinct speaking ]
♪
195, here we come.
- Okay, everybody, high five!
[ all chanting "hup" ]
- Hooray!
- Whoo-hoo!
-Alright.
♪
-Morning, gentlemen.
Welcome to the 195.
We're gonna have a
wonderful day today.
-When you're up
there at 195-foot level
And you're getting
ready to get in the vehicle,
It's pretty amazing.
I mean, you're all suited up,
And this is for real.
And the vehicle it's
venting, it's creaking.
It's like it's alive.
You just can't believe
in a couple hours
You're gonna be
inside this thing,
Blasting off into space.
For me, if there was any
apprehension, it was then,
I mean, but you can't say,
"no, I don't think
I want to do this."
[ chuckles ] you know?
You're pretty much
You're going.
♪
-How do you do? Good to see you.
- Thank you.
- Good to see you.
- Thank you.
- Doc.
-The astronaut
support personnel
The final folks to speak to them
And the crew that's strapping
them in to the vehicle.
-Here we go.
-And the nasa test
director, jeff spaulding,
Has given approval for the crew
To begin entry into the vehicle.
Once they're in their seats,
They will be basically
laying on their backs.
Husband climbing in.
Next to enter the
vehicle will be ilan ramon.
And he is currently taking
his seat on the mid-deck.
-Here at the kennedy
space center in florida,
A lot of concern about security
With the first israeli
astronaut on board columbia
For this 16-day science mission.
I'm there to cover that
launch, like we always were.
I'm three miles away, which
is as close as they let anybody.
-28th launch for columbia,
The 113th shuttle
mission launch.
I'm always thinking
about what I would say
If things go really
wrong, uh, and
Because that's my
responsibility to be that person.
One of the experiments on
board the shuttle columbia
So you sort of have to
go down the list of threats,
If you will, you know,
9/11, ilan ramon.
Did they really
fix those cracks?
And then it's up to, you
know, a million movable parts
All working in synchronicity,
which is kind of the fact
That it ever worked
at all is pretty amazing.
-Back here in the space
shuttle flight control room,
Monitoring columbia's systems
In preparation for the first
shuttle launch of the year.
- Thank you very much.
- The ascent team is led
By flight director leroy
cain for today's launch.
-Okay, folks.
One ops, one, count to 20.
-As a flight controller
in mission control,
Sts-107 was my second mission.
For me, it was always
When you got the
t-minus 10 minute hold
And you give the final
"go/no go" for launch.
That is kind of the
moment where you realize
That this is about to get real.
-Go/no go for launch, final.
Guidance? Gc?
Prop? Gnc? Max?
-For me personally, I could
feel my adrenaline gland just go
And then my heart
rate pick up a little bit.
-You ready for g1 launch target?
-There's a lot
of responsibility.
You're getting ready to
launch a space shuttle
With humans on board.
It is not an easy business.
-Houston, flight is go.
-You're committed at that point,
So now it's focus on
what's ahead of you.
-Countdown clock will
resume on my mark.
Three, two, one, mark.
-T-minus nine
minutes and counting.
[ indistinct conversations ]
-It's a weird feeling, you know?
Your loved one is
strapped into that vehicle,
And it's getting
ready to launch.
I just thought, "I have
absolutely no control
Over how this is gonna go."
-Gls is go for orbiter
access arm retract.
-I do remember
looking at the shuttle
Getting ready to take off.
-He was adamant, now to me,
that he didn't want his mom to go.
And then he started crying.
The whole the whole
launch was him crying.
It was awful.
♪
-I was 12 years old when
the launch date came.
I could see the shuttle
from afar and be like,
"wow, my father is on
that shuttle right now.
He's strapped in, about
to be launched into space."
♪
We were so excited.
It was hard to contain.
-For the first two-plus
minutes of the mission,
With the solid rocket
boosters attached,
There's no option for abort.
You have to wait
till they're done
And burned out and cut away.
That's a death zone.
No matter what
happens in that scenario,
You cannot do anything.
That was when the
challenger went down.
-11, 10
-9, 8, 7,
6, 5, 4,
3, 2, 1. [ cheers and applause ]
-The weird thing is
that you see that flash
And you see that smoke coming up
And it's like, "well
Well, that sucks.
There's no sound."
And then it's [ rumbling ]
"ba-boom."
[ crowd cheering ]
♪
-You don't quite expect
it to be as powerful.
- 107!
- Whoo!
- 107!
- You feel your insides
Shaking and vibrating
from this huge sound.
♪
It's hard not to cry.
-For me, it's like
"the star-spangled
banner" playing.
It's incredibly visceral
and inspirational.
-You sit there and you
look at that trail of fire
And you think, "god, there's
seven people on top of that."
Every time that kind of gets me.
-And you're watching
seven of your closest friends
On this ball of flame
going off into space
And my heart's going like this
And, you know, I got
tears running down my
I mean, it's very emotional.
-Columbia's three main engines
Draining a half a ton
of fuel per second,
Heading towards space
On the first shuttle
mission of the year.
-You know how
on tv it looks like
You're going up really smoothly?
No, not at all.
It's kind of a wild ride.
And there's a lot of vibration.
And on my first
flight, it was so much,
I thought to myself, "there's
something wrong here.
Cannot possibly feel like this."
♪
-Solid rocket booster
separation confirmed.
Guidance now converging.
Columbia's onboard computers
Commanding the main
engine nozzles to gently swivel,
Aiming the shuttle for a
precise target in space
For main engine cutoff.
-I was, like, more nervous.
You know, you see the
plumes of smoke and the fire,
And you kind of
know what's going on,
But you're just kind of like
in the back of your head,
"is I supposed to do
that? Is that correct?
Okay, like, there they
go. Wow, that's so high."
You know, just
all these thoughts,
And then all of a
sudden they're just gone
And you're just
still hearing it.
♪
-And a perfect
launch for columbia,
A perfect climb to orbit,
Seven astronauts now setting off
On a 16-day marathon
scientific mission.
♪
-The space shuttle
columbia is safe in orbit,
And here at the kennedy
space center in florida,
Nasa and the us air force.
Breathing a
collective sigh of relief.
♪
-They're in orbit, and
that's when you're
You know, you're home free.
-So it was like a sigh of relief
When they when
they were, you know,
Up in space, and it was
like, "whew, they made it."
-Let's take a look at
the view from orbit.
This is 225 kilometers above us.
♪
-Once they turn off those
main engines and they're in orbit,
You know, you're in a
relatively safe situation.
You can safely walk
away from the camera.
And they started quickly
playing the launch replays,
And and that
was when we saw it.
I was in our truck.
Producer called me in.
He said, "you
got to look at this."
It was kind of a grainy
image, but, you know,
You see this poof, like a
Like you dropped a
bag of flour on the ground
And it all floated into the air.
Didn't take much of a telephoto
to show this kind of explosion.
He played it over
and over again.
But it did not look good at all.
It looked bad.