Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight (2024) s01e02 Episode Script
PART TWO
1
♪
-This is mission
control houston.
You're looking at
live video coming
From space shuttle columbia
As columbia continues
to orbit the earth
At an altitude of about
150 statute miles.
Columbia, houston, laurel,
You're loud and clear
on air to ground one.
-The second day,
I drive in to work
Kind of euphoric
because another launch,
Another successful launch.
You know, the
flight director's office
And the mission
control center in houston
Is working with them.
They're everything's good.
I walked into the
analysis lab to
Start reviewing
film from the launch.
We started the film
at the beginning.
[ rockets roaring ]
We're watching this liftoff.
You see the roll maneuvers,
beautiful blue sky.
We do the normal review,
and we start pointing out
All the things that
we normally see.
And we got to 81 seconds,
And then we see this object
Come off of the
external tank area.
♪
It moved down, and
then striked the vehicle
And explode into a white cloud.
My reaction was, "oh, shit."
♪
♪
-you'll always find
me sunny side up ♪
you'll always find
me sunny side up ♪
[ music playing
indistinctly on radio ]
-Columbia, houston.
-Turned off?
-Hey, good morning to all,
And a special good
morning to my wife, rona,
The love of my life.
-I remember myself going
to sleep and imagining
Where he is right now.
"I wonder where he is right now.
He's somewhere over us,
Maybe going around in
the circles around the earth."
♪
[ laughter ]
It's surreal.
These seven people who are,
You know, living in space.
Eating and working and
Going to the bathroom and
♪
Seeing earth from space.
♪
-Well, actually, things
are going really well.
And, uh, things have
been working well.
Columbia is in great shape
And working
absolutely perfectly.
We had a great ride to orbit.
-After the launch, we came
home for the next 16 days.
We knew that the crew
was going to be in space.
By that point, I mean, I
turned on nasa tv here
And just started
watching the mission.
♪
-Next up for the blue shift
Was a blood draw
experiment here.
Here, laurel is telling mike
That this isn't going
to hurt her a bit.
-I was just thrilled for them.
They were they
were doing great.
There's pride, excitement.
But more than anything, I just
loved listening to rick's voice.
I loved listening to
him talk back and forth
With mission control.
♪
-As a kid, it
mostly just felt
Exciting and new and
just kind of made your world
Feel more magical and bigger.
I was just like, "yeah,
that's just awesome.
Space is so cool."
♪
-All of us as a group
Were extremely concerned
about what we had just seen.
Looking at that film,
we were all discussing
How big are we
talking about a problem?
How much damage
are we talking about?
Worst case would have been
Damage all the way down
to the skin of the vehicle.
♪
That would have given us
a problem during landing.
Well, that probably would
have been loss of vehicle
And loss of crew.
♪
So I went to see wayne, my boss.
♪
-Based on my 20-plus
years of experience,
I can tell you every shuttle
flight that flew had issues.
People came to me
as a flight director
Or as manager every day.
In this case, bob page
knocked on my door,
Came in my office, and said
- "we've got a problem.
This is the largest
strike of the vehicle
That we have ever seen."
-He's a little bit of
a high-energy guy,
So it wasn't
unusual, I didn't think.
But he had a little video
clip that he showed me.
It's really hard to tell if
anything bad had happened.
I mean, this is insulating
foam. It's lightweight.
-So the orange, um,
is the external tank
Which is covered in
foam on the outside.
-It's carrying cryogenically
cold liquid oxygen and hydrogen,
And it's going to sit
out on the launch pad
In the sunshine in florida.
You don't want that
to start boiling off,
So over the outside of the tank
There is this spray-on
insulating foam.
Cheap, very effective.
But it's got this property
That, as you go
through supersonic flight
In the atmosphere,
bits of it come.
-The question is how bad
of shape is the orbiter in?
-And bob said, "I really
wish there was some way
To get more information."
-I knew this mission
passed over places
Where there were some
high-altitude telescopes.
These are looking at stars.
So if you want to
look at the orbiter,
You could probably
get the entire orbiter
Fit in the field of view
And have extremely
good resolution.
-And I said, "well,
I don't really know
much about that, bob.
We'll have to check."
-And so I got the assurance
from wayne that, um,
He would make some calls
and he would see what
What could be done, and,
um, things were put into motion.
♪
No. You don't want to
alarm the crew that early.
They had just gotten onto
orbit. They have a job to do.
When we have the complete story,
Then that's when
we pass it on to them.
And we did not know
what the problem was.
♪
♪
[ radio crackling ]
-Mom? Mom?
I miss you.
-Hi.
-We talked using the early
Tele-video
conferencing capability
And super low-tech bandwidth.
It's ratty comm, but
it's a very special time.
-Mom?
-It was a huge
relief being able to
See her again.
[ giggles ]
[ laughs ]
I really couldn't comprehend
that she was in space.
Like, it didn't make
sense to me at all.
[ laughs ]
♪
It felt like
Counting down to christmas
waiting for her to get back.
♪
♪
♪
-The second day of the mission
was just an ordinary day for me.
I was ready to go home about
5:00 on a Friday evening
[ telephone ringing ]
And then I got a
call from my manager.
She said, "rodney,
Do you know that a large
piece of foam hit the left wing?"
And I think I gasp and
I said "ooh" or "ahh."
I made some exclamation.
"no, I did not hear that."
And she said, "they have
just released a video."
♪
Every time I watched the video,
I'm looking at portions of
the video or a sector of it,
Just to see if I can glean one
more piece of detail out of it.
And the question I had,
"what is that cloud of
expanding white stuff?"
One can't help but ask,
Is that part of the
wing coming apart?
♪
[ upbeat music
playing on radio ]
♪
♪
♪
I was thinking about this
foam strike all weekend.
And I thought, "can't
we get the astronauts
To look through this
side hatch window?"
There's a little
window right here.
This little dark circle.
Could they have looked
back to this area in here to see
If there's any damage
debris, residue, anything?
What I was expecting is
you first look with your eyes.
Just look.
♪
-So let's see. Rodney
sent me an e-mail.
"we know that the remote
manipulator system arm
And cameras are not available,
But what about the
left side hatch window?"
Uh, he's questioning whether
there's been any action,
Uh, to ask the crew
to look for damage.
Uh, no.
The area that was struck was
not visible from the orbiter cabin.
♪
-Okay, well, good morning or
good evening as the case goes
For all you guys
working around the clock
There in houston.
-You have to understand
nasa works on procedures.
We have a mission plan.
- Red shift is
Just finishing up their day.
-Any deviation needs to
be evaluated and assessed
On how it will
impact everything.
-Laurel, just to be advised,
You have about
two minutes of video.
-To deviate from the
processes and the procedures,
You need to have a reason,
And the reason needs data.
It's not just "I have a
bad feeling about this."
-And I got no
reply to my e-mail.
My request was never answered.
-Columbia, this is cnn.
How do you read me?
-Hey, cnn. We've
got you loud and clear.
-Stand by, and we'll have you
on the tele here very shortly.
Say hello to the crew of
the space shuttle columbia,
Now traveling above the
pacific at 17,300 miles an hour,
150 miles above
us, waving to us.
Let's give you an
idea of who's who.
I remember interviewing
the crew in space.
Rick husband, the
commander, second mission.
Laurel clark
Prepping for that
interview, I thought about
The foam strike
and how to handle it.
But on launch day, when
I saw that Footage,
I wasn't sure what
to think about it.
I'm not a rocket scientist,
so I called to somebody
Who I know knew
very well at nasa.
I said, "help me understand
how worried I should be for this."
And he said, "oh, it's
foam. It's very light material.
Probably doesn't
cause any damage."
But it nagged me
the whole mission.
Colonel ramon, um, I'm curious,
Was the launch
what you expected?
I was thinking about the foam.
I just didn't know how to,
in a five-minute interview,
Set that up.
Are all these
experiments working?
They couldn't all be
working as planned.
-Well, things are
going very smoothly.
As expected, there's
some minor glitches.
-I had gone through this
process of convincing myself
That it was going to be okay.
Alright. We're going to
have to leave it at that.
But I had this sinking feeling.
Didn't feel right.
♪
♪
-We spent the weekend
analyzing this film.
We estimated the size of
the foam 16 inches across,
18 inches long suitcase size.
So it's a big chunk of foam
moving at 750 miles an hour.
But in the end,
what we did not know
Was the condition of
the vehicle post-strike.
♪
-Returning from space,
A craft that is going
17,500 miles an hour
Heats up gases,
And very hot gases become
something we call plasma.
The shuttle is
enveloped in this inferno,
And it's kind of beautiful.
But obviously you want
to be protected from it.
-Well, they came
to the conclusion
That the best way
to deal with that
Was to arrange a system
of tiles to cover the shuttle.
-All of the black
here shown is all tiles.
-And these tiles are made
of a silica fiber material
Which is very heat-resistant.
-I can show you.
This is a test tile.
-There are about 31,000
of them all together,
And we hope those
tiles will stay on
When the orbiter comes
back into the atmosphere,
Because otherwise the
craft itself could be damaged.
-During the development of
the space shuttle in the 1970s,
There was quite an
effort to develop a way
To repair damaged
tiles on orbit.
It was a huge effort
And it was an utter failure.
They could not develop anything,
And that was one of
the "accepted risks"
Of flying in space.
♪
-Okay. Good morning.
We're ready for roll.
-In a meeting, there's
20, 30 people in the room.
There's people
joining from kennedy.
There's people from
huntington beach, california,
Representative from engineering,
a representative from the crew.
The chairman of the
meeting was linda ham.
-She basically ran this mission.
-If there were going
to be any changes,
She headed up this team
That would have to
approve any changes.
-She was effectively the
deputy to ron dittemore,
The program
manager in those days.
Linda has excellent judgment,
Can grasp complicated
problems very quickly.
She was the first woman to
be certified as a flight director.
Linda was recalling sts-112,
a flight two flights before.
-[ indistinct ]
-Main engine start.
Two One
We got booster
ignition and liftoff
Of the space shuttle atlantis.
-Sts-112 had a very similar
piece of foam come off
From almost the same location,
But in that case, the foam
hit solid rocket booster
And put a dent in it.
-The foam traveled
traveled down.
It struck right here,
these three lines.
-It didn't hit the orbiter,
so it was no effect
To the flight.
The management
team, they analyzed it
And came up with the conclusion
That no safety of
flight issue existed.
-We dodged a bullet on that one.
Here's your warning,
and you only get one.
♪
-A special team was forming,
And I was told
that I would be on it.
The mission management
wanted to know how bad is it
No damage, minimal
damage or grave damage.
In that room on
the first meeting,
There were probably
12 to 15 people.
They were the best
experts in different fields,
But all we knew
was this was foam
And it hit the left wing.
But where on the left wing
We did not know.
♪
This is why we naturally
came to the conclusion
We cannot initiate
a credible analysis
Until we know the damage
location and extent of damage.
We must have
another piece of data,
Another image.
I knew that the military
satellites at that time
Were extremely good.
There were stories like
They could read license
plates from space.
-We have quite a fleet
of spy satellites out there,
And mostly are
trying to, at that time,
Chase down
terrorists in afghanistan
And iraq or whatever.
Aiming it at the shuttle
was a possibility.
-That's why the whole group
thought it was a good idea.
Let's ask for military assets.
The meeting
participants all agreed.
"we will always
have big uncertainties
Until we get definitive, better,
Clearer photos of the
wing and body underside."
So, in boldface, I
put, "can we petition,
Beg for outside
agency assistance?"
♪
♪
-Good morning, blue.
-You know, as a kid,
Your imagination
just like, runs wild.
And I'm like, do they
just float and sleep
Or, you know, does he get
to go out in actual space?
Did he see aliens?
Mostly just thought,
like, he was an explorer.
Kind of like, I don't know,
like a space indiana jones.
-You know, we make it a point
to get out and go to schools
And talk to kids all the time.
And when I do that, I
really try to let them know
What it was like for me
when I was a kid growing up,
And how I had this
dream of one day
Becoming an
astronaut, and that really,
If you work hard and
you're always persistent,
You can really make
those dreams come true.
-He wanted to always
be involved in something
That was kind of
bigger than him,
That contributed to to
society, that had a purpose.
It was fun to watch him.
He looked like he
was enjoying himself.
The crew looked
like they were doing
What they needed to be doing,
And everything was
going off really well.
And I didn't know
at that time that
Anything concerning
had happened.
There were people
that did, though,
But I wasn't one of them.
♪
♪
-I was in my office in florida,
And I got a phone
call from the head
Of what we call
systems integrations.
He's an engineer who
I respect very highly,
But he said, "hey, we really
don't have all the information
We'd like to have
on this debris strike.
Do you know of
anybody that's got a way
To get better pictures?"
Now, I had this
engineer as well as bob,
Asking me to see if I could
find out some more information.
Nasa does not own
any military satellites,
But at that time we had a
close working relationship
With the patrick air force base,
so I put in a request with them.
-There's a lot of
work to get a photo.
One would have to
interrupt the mission
To get the right lighting,
to make sure you're over,
The right satellite
is in position.
And then now you have an
army of people on the ground.
We have to reorient the shuttle
For the proper exposure
angles and all that.
And to do that means
they may have to terminate
Their science experiments.
In a program manager's mind,
That's responsible for getting
shuttles up there on schedule,
If you interrupt the
science mission,
You have the ire
of all the people
And the science
objectives were now ruined.
And that looks badly on nasa.
-A little bit later in the day,
In the afternoon, I
got a call from linda,
And she said, "hey, I heard
That you were trying to
get some better pictures."
And she said that she had talked
to all the appropriate managers
And no one had a requirement
for any more information.
They had what they
needed to do the analysis.
She said, "I want
you to turn this off
Because we don't need to
bother those other people."
-How did you feel
when she said that?
-I was mad
Because I don't
like to be overruled.
I'd been, you know, trying
to act within my authority,
And I'd been
countermanded by my boss.
-Linda ham knew
that nasa's history
With the department of defense
And using spy satellites
was a little bit checkered.
-There had been
a previous mission
Where the landing parachute
door came off on launch,
So the orbiter was flying with
the parachute without its door.
Nasa made a request
to get some imagery.
However, the photos
didn't help much.
-So, even if you
can get photographs,
It doesn't mean they'll
necessarily show anything.
-I think they were a
little bit embarrassed
In the end about asking.
And nasa never
wants to look stupid.
Nasa wants to be the
agency with the answers.
-If you'd have said, "linda,
Two different people
need this information.
Their departments
are both asking.
Are you aware?"
That may have changed
the course of events.
-Could I have argued
with her? Maybe.
But did I get the impression
that her mind was made up
And, you know, that
was the end of that?
That's kind of where I was.
And you can say, "well, you
should have argued more."
Well, that would that's nice
of you to say that, but I didn't.
I was going to
be a good soldier.
So I called air
force base and said,
"I know I made this request.
Um, turns out we don't need it.
Forget I asked about it."
♪
-I was told that we would
not be getting images.
When I read it, I got
angry and confused.
What does this mean?
So, I e-mailed paul shack.
I e-mailed, "why? Did
you do anything about it?"
No reply, no reply,
no reply. Quiet.
So I called him, and I got him.
-He was shouting at me.
[ chuckles ]
Can't call it an argument
Because an argument
takes two people shouting,
And just one was
shouting in this case.
-I asked him, "why
are you ignoring?
You didn't reply to
my e-mail. Why?"
I was asking why
you didn't respond.
Now I have you.
-Well, I got sarcastic.
I said, "don't be
a chicken little."
-Paul shack treated me as
if I were the well-intentioned
But silly chicken.
And the lesson is chicken
little is not to be trusted.
Chicken little
always gets excited.
I was very upset and
angry and disappointed
With my engineering
organizations, top to bottom.
There's a ticking clock.
We were losing time.
This is an e-mail I drafted.
"in my humble technical opinion,
This is the wrong and bordering
on irresponsible answer,
Not to request
additional imaging help
From any outside source.
Remember this,
nasa safety posters
Everywhere around stating
'if it's not safe, say so.'
Yes, it's that serious."
I felt the need to
draft that e-mail
With that strong language.
And the strongest word in there
is accusatory, "irresponsible."
But I struggled on
sending it or not sending it.
I was afraid about
my future career.
I was married,
and we had a child,
Had a home, had a mortgage.
And I did not
send it in the end.
-I remember that Wednesday night
When I came home from work,
He showed me the
e-mail that he had not sent.
He was very agitated,
very frustrated
Because he wasn't
sure what to do.
The thrust was
finish the analysis,
Even though you
have no information
On which to base your analysis.
And if it's bad, then
we'll try to do something.
He said, "it's like being
asked to analyze a car accident
That has just happened outside,
But you're not allowed
to look out the window."
-But the total denial forced us
Into the rock and a hard place.
We have to produce an
analysis anyway, without a photo.
♪
-Alright. Now we
play volleyball.
[ laughs ]
Football.
Bicycle kick.
[ laughter ]
-Okay, so this is the e-mail
that was sent to the crew.
"you guys are doing a
fantastic job staying on timeline
And accomplishing great science.
There is one item that I would
like to make you aware of.
This item is not even
worth mentioning,
Other than wanting to make sure
That you are not surprised by it
In a question from a reporter.
During ascent, at
approximately 80 seconds,
Some debris came loose
And subsequently
impacted the orbiter left wing.
Experts have reviewed
the high-speed photography,
And there is no concern
for rcc or tile damage.
We have seen this
same phenomenon
On several other flights
And there's absolutely
no concern for entry.
That is all for now
It is a pleasure working
with you every day."
So, they saw something.
They're taking care of it.
This e-mail was too
short, too sweet, too easy.
-Okay. Good morning
and welcome to the mmt.
-Day nine. Rodney's team
presented their analysis.
-I wasn't presenting the
results of our analysis.
The protocol was
that a senior engineer
Would present on our behalf.
-We all knew that if
the engineers find out
That this is bad, there
is nothing we can do.
If your heat shield was lost,
that was just the end game.
-The presentation
showed five scenarios
That we were analyzing
over the past few days.
-Rodney's concern
was uncertainty
In where the damage was.
The way they
compensated for that
Was to analyze multiple
possible locations.
Instead of analyzing this area,
We're going to
analyze this area.
"it would cause
localized heating,
But no burn through,"
I believe were the
words that they used.
-When we completed the analysis,
None of the scenario
showed a fatal outcome.
-I felt some relief.
I thought we were in
good shape, I believed him.
-That's what you want to hear.
You don't want to hear,
"we're going to
lose the vehicle."
-What's missing in that
is we should have had
In boldface at the
very beginning,
"these are engineering
assumption cases.
We do not know
without extra data
Whether these are actual
representations of reality.
A turnaround issue, what they
meant was some level of repair.
-So when columbia comes back?
-When it comes back,
but nothing really bad.
That bad. Just local repair.
Patch it up and let's go again.
-And that's what was being
communicated to linda
- Yes. Yes, yes.
- Okay.
Even though you all sat there
- Yes.
- And thought it wasn't okay.
What? You
didn't you didn't
She was in the room with you.
- She was in the room with us.
- So what
What prevented you
from going to talk to her?
-The chain of command protocol.
You don't approach
managers directly.
-You're, you know,
you're a grown man
And you're in the
room of only 12
-I'm a grown man with grown
men telling me not to do that.
There are other grown men
with power and authority saying,
"don't do that."
-What would have been
the repercussions of talking
To her in that room?
-I don't know if, uh
I don't know.
♪
♪
-I really love seeing
a team come together,
And the bigger team who
makes this entire mission possible
Is the team on the ground,
And all the folks who
work in mission control,
And all the folks who work
at the different nasa centers.
It's just such a great
feeling for me to
To see everybody
working together as a team
Like that, and
even getting up here
And hearing their familiar
voices on the on the radio,
It's just a great feeling.
-We are supposed to do
everything we can for the crew.
They trust us, they have
their training and expertise,
But they want to
believe and pull full faith
That we're doing the
very best for them.
-In the nasa world,
People don't talk in
terms of "it's life or death."
You use the terms "threat
to the vehicle and crew,"
Or "risk to the
vehicle and crew."
It might have more
power or more punch
If we talk life and
death, but we don't.
♪
♪
-Okay, well, then,
we've got, uh,
An announcement
that we'd like to make
On behalf of the sts-107 crew.
It is today that we
remember and honor
The crews of apollo
1 and challenger.
They made the
ultimate sacrifice,
Giving their lives and
service to their country
And for all mankind.
Their dedication and devotion
To the exploration of
space was an inspiration
To each of us, and
still motivates people
Around the world to
achieve great things
In service to others.
As we orbit the earth,
We will join the
entire nasa family
For a moment of
silence in their memory.
Our thoughts and prayers
go to their families as well.
-Here we go.
-We went to nasa and did what
they called a teleconference.
Yeah, I remember being excited.
-He did all these
What he would call
stupid astronaut tricks.
I think he did different
flips and, like, would poke
His head out from different
angles to make us laugh.
And also just to play
around with weightlessness.
When else are you going to
be able to float on camera?
So [ chuckles ]
It was really cool to see.
-It was our dating anniversary.
It was also the
anniversary of challenger.
We had about 20 or 25 minutes
And he shared how
the mission was going.
-It was so nice to be able
to see him, talk to him.
And he was having a blast.
-I just kept telling him
how much I loved him
And he said, "I love
you guys so much."
He goes, "evelyn, I
love you so much."
And just kept saying that.
Those are our last words ever.
That was it.
-I got a really nice note
from evelyn husband
And she just said, "I
just want you to know
How much we at nasa
appreciate how you cover space."
I was worried about
her and her kids.
Anytime a shuttle is going to
come to earth, I'd be worried.
In this case, I had
a little more worry.
♪
-Columbia, houston,
good morning,
And we're looking forward to
Our last day on orbit with you.
♪
♪
-This is mission
control houston.
You're looking at
live video coming
From space shuttle columbia
As columbia continues
to orbit the earth
At an altitude of about
150 statute miles.
Columbia, houston, laurel,
You're loud and clear
on air to ground one.
-The second day,
I drive in to work
Kind of euphoric
because another launch,
Another successful launch.
You know, the
flight director's office
And the mission
control center in houston
Is working with them.
They're everything's good.
I walked into the
analysis lab to
Start reviewing
film from the launch.
We started the film
at the beginning.
[ rockets roaring ]
We're watching this liftoff.
You see the roll maneuvers,
beautiful blue sky.
We do the normal review,
and we start pointing out
All the things that
we normally see.
And we got to 81 seconds,
And then we see this object
Come off of the
external tank area.
♪
It moved down, and
then striked the vehicle
And explode into a white cloud.
My reaction was, "oh, shit."
♪
♪
-you'll always find
me sunny side up ♪
you'll always find
me sunny side up ♪
[ music playing
indistinctly on radio ]
-Columbia, houston.
-Turned off?
-Hey, good morning to all,
And a special good
morning to my wife, rona,
The love of my life.
-I remember myself going
to sleep and imagining
Where he is right now.
"I wonder where he is right now.
He's somewhere over us,
Maybe going around in
the circles around the earth."
♪
[ laughter ]
It's surreal.
These seven people who are,
You know, living in space.
Eating and working and
Going to the bathroom and
♪
Seeing earth from space.
♪
-Well, actually, things
are going really well.
And, uh, things have
been working well.
Columbia is in great shape
And working
absolutely perfectly.
We had a great ride to orbit.
-After the launch, we came
home for the next 16 days.
We knew that the crew
was going to be in space.
By that point, I mean, I
turned on nasa tv here
And just started
watching the mission.
♪
-Next up for the blue shift
Was a blood draw
experiment here.
Here, laurel is telling mike
That this isn't going
to hurt her a bit.
-I was just thrilled for them.
They were they
were doing great.
There's pride, excitement.
But more than anything, I just
loved listening to rick's voice.
I loved listening to
him talk back and forth
With mission control.
♪
-As a kid, it
mostly just felt
Exciting and new and
just kind of made your world
Feel more magical and bigger.
I was just like, "yeah,
that's just awesome.
Space is so cool."
♪
-All of us as a group
Were extremely concerned
about what we had just seen.
Looking at that film,
we were all discussing
How big are we
talking about a problem?
How much damage
are we talking about?
Worst case would have been
Damage all the way down
to the skin of the vehicle.
♪
That would have given us
a problem during landing.
Well, that probably would
have been loss of vehicle
And loss of crew.
♪
So I went to see wayne, my boss.
♪
-Based on my 20-plus
years of experience,
I can tell you every shuttle
flight that flew had issues.
People came to me
as a flight director
Or as manager every day.
In this case, bob page
knocked on my door,
Came in my office, and said
- "we've got a problem.
This is the largest
strike of the vehicle
That we have ever seen."
-He's a little bit of
a high-energy guy,
So it wasn't
unusual, I didn't think.
But he had a little video
clip that he showed me.
It's really hard to tell if
anything bad had happened.
I mean, this is insulating
foam. It's lightweight.
-So the orange, um,
is the external tank
Which is covered in
foam on the outside.
-It's carrying cryogenically
cold liquid oxygen and hydrogen,
And it's going to sit
out on the launch pad
In the sunshine in florida.
You don't want that
to start boiling off,
So over the outside of the tank
There is this spray-on
insulating foam.
Cheap, very effective.
But it's got this property
That, as you go
through supersonic flight
In the atmosphere,
bits of it come.
-The question is how bad
of shape is the orbiter in?
-And bob said, "I really
wish there was some way
To get more information."
-I knew this mission
passed over places
Where there were some
high-altitude telescopes.
These are looking at stars.
So if you want to
look at the orbiter,
You could probably
get the entire orbiter
Fit in the field of view
And have extremely
good resolution.
-And I said, "well,
I don't really know
much about that, bob.
We'll have to check."
-And so I got the assurance
from wayne that, um,
He would make some calls
and he would see what
What could be done, and,
um, things were put into motion.
♪
No. You don't want to
alarm the crew that early.
They had just gotten onto
orbit. They have a job to do.
When we have the complete story,
Then that's when
we pass it on to them.
And we did not know
what the problem was.
♪
♪
[ radio crackling ]
-Mom? Mom?
I miss you.
-Hi.
-We talked using the early
Tele-video
conferencing capability
And super low-tech bandwidth.
It's ratty comm, but
it's a very special time.
-Mom?
-It was a huge
relief being able to
See her again.
[ giggles ]
[ laughs ]
I really couldn't comprehend
that she was in space.
Like, it didn't make
sense to me at all.
[ laughs ]
♪
It felt like
Counting down to christmas
waiting for her to get back.
♪
♪
♪
-The second day of the mission
was just an ordinary day for me.
I was ready to go home about
5:00 on a Friday evening
[ telephone ringing ]
And then I got a
call from my manager.
She said, "rodney,
Do you know that a large
piece of foam hit the left wing?"
And I think I gasp and
I said "ooh" or "ahh."
I made some exclamation.
"no, I did not hear that."
And she said, "they have
just released a video."
♪
Every time I watched the video,
I'm looking at portions of
the video or a sector of it,
Just to see if I can glean one
more piece of detail out of it.
And the question I had,
"what is that cloud of
expanding white stuff?"
One can't help but ask,
Is that part of the
wing coming apart?
♪
[ upbeat music
playing on radio ]
♪
♪
♪
I was thinking about this
foam strike all weekend.
And I thought, "can't
we get the astronauts
To look through this
side hatch window?"
There's a little
window right here.
This little dark circle.
Could they have looked
back to this area in here to see
If there's any damage
debris, residue, anything?
What I was expecting is
you first look with your eyes.
Just look.
♪
-So let's see. Rodney
sent me an e-mail.
"we know that the remote
manipulator system arm
And cameras are not available,
But what about the
left side hatch window?"
Uh, he's questioning whether
there's been any action,
Uh, to ask the crew
to look for damage.
Uh, no.
The area that was struck was
not visible from the orbiter cabin.
♪
-Okay, well, good morning or
good evening as the case goes
For all you guys
working around the clock
There in houston.
-You have to understand
nasa works on procedures.
We have a mission plan.
- Red shift is
Just finishing up their day.
-Any deviation needs to
be evaluated and assessed
On how it will
impact everything.
-Laurel, just to be advised,
You have about
two minutes of video.
-To deviate from the
processes and the procedures,
You need to have a reason,
And the reason needs data.
It's not just "I have a
bad feeling about this."
-And I got no
reply to my e-mail.
My request was never answered.
-Columbia, this is cnn.
How do you read me?
-Hey, cnn. We've
got you loud and clear.
-Stand by, and we'll have you
on the tele here very shortly.
Say hello to the crew of
the space shuttle columbia,
Now traveling above the
pacific at 17,300 miles an hour,
150 miles above
us, waving to us.
Let's give you an
idea of who's who.
I remember interviewing
the crew in space.
Rick husband, the
commander, second mission.
Laurel clark
Prepping for that
interview, I thought about
The foam strike
and how to handle it.
But on launch day, when
I saw that Footage,
I wasn't sure what
to think about it.
I'm not a rocket scientist,
so I called to somebody
Who I know knew
very well at nasa.
I said, "help me understand
how worried I should be for this."
And he said, "oh, it's
foam. It's very light material.
Probably doesn't
cause any damage."
But it nagged me
the whole mission.
Colonel ramon, um, I'm curious,
Was the launch
what you expected?
I was thinking about the foam.
I just didn't know how to,
in a five-minute interview,
Set that up.
Are all these
experiments working?
They couldn't all be
working as planned.
-Well, things are
going very smoothly.
As expected, there's
some minor glitches.
-I had gone through this
process of convincing myself
That it was going to be okay.
Alright. We're going to
have to leave it at that.
But I had this sinking feeling.
Didn't feel right.
♪
♪
-We spent the weekend
analyzing this film.
We estimated the size of
the foam 16 inches across,
18 inches long suitcase size.
So it's a big chunk of foam
moving at 750 miles an hour.
But in the end,
what we did not know
Was the condition of
the vehicle post-strike.
♪
-Returning from space,
A craft that is going
17,500 miles an hour
Heats up gases,
And very hot gases become
something we call plasma.
The shuttle is
enveloped in this inferno,
And it's kind of beautiful.
But obviously you want
to be protected from it.
-Well, they came
to the conclusion
That the best way
to deal with that
Was to arrange a system
of tiles to cover the shuttle.
-All of the black
here shown is all tiles.
-And these tiles are made
of a silica fiber material
Which is very heat-resistant.
-I can show you.
This is a test tile.
-There are about 31,000
of them all together,
And we hope those
tiles will stay on
When the orbiter comes
back into the atmosphere,
Because otherwise the
craft itself could be damaged.
-During the development of
the space shuttle in the 1970s,
There was quite an
effort to develop a way
To repair damaged
tiles on orbit.
It was a huge effort
And it was an utter failure.
They could not develop anything,
And that was one of
the "accepted risks"
Of flying in space.
♪
-Okay. Good morning.
We're ready for roll.
-In a meeting, there's
20, 30 people in the room.
There's people
joining from kennedy.
There's people from
huntington beach, california,
Representative from engineering,
a representative from the crew.
The chairman of the
meeting was linda ham.
-She basically ran this mission.
-If there were going
to be any changes,
She headed up this team
That would have to
approve any changes.
-She was effectively the
deputy to ron dittemore,
The program
manager in those days.
Linda has excellent judgment,
Can grasp complicated
problems very quickly.
She was the first woman to
be certified as a flight director.
Linda was recalling sts-112,
a flight two flights before.
-[ indistinct ]
-Main engine start.
Two One
We got booster
ignition and liftoff
Of the space shuttle atlantis.
-Sts-112 had a very similar
piece of foam come off
From almost the same location,
But in that case, the foam
hit solid rocket booster
And put a dent in it.
-The foam traveled
traveled down.
It struck right here,
these three lines.
-It didn't hit the orbiter,
so it was no effect
To the flight.
The management
team, they analyzed it
And came up with the conclusion
That no safety of
flight issue existed.
-We dodged a bullet on that one.
Here's your warning,
and you only get one.
♪
-A special team was forming,
And I was told
that I would be on it.
The mission management
wanted to know how bad is it
No damage, minimal
damage or grave damage.
In that room on
the first meeting,
There were probably
12 to 15 people.
They were the best
experts in different fields,
But all we knew
was this was foam
And it hit the left wing.
But where on the left wing
We did not know.
♪
This is why we naturally
came to the conclusion
We cannot initiate
a credible analysis
Until we know the damage
location and extent of damage.
We must have
another piece of data,
Another image.
I knew that the military
satellites at that time
Were extremely good.
There were stories like
They could read license
plates from space.
-We have quite a fleet
of spy satellites out there,
And mostly are
trying to, at that time,
Chase down
terrorists in afghanistan
And iraq or whatever.
Aiming it at the shuttle
was a possibility.
-That's why the whole group
thought it was a good idea.
Let's ask for military assets.
The meeting
participants all agreed.
"we will always
have big uncertainties
Until we get definitive, better,
Clearer photos of the
wing and body underside."
So, in boldface, I
put, "can we petition,
Beg for outside
agency assistance?"
♪
♪
-Good morning, blue.
-You know, as a kid,
Your imagination
just like, runs wild.
And I'm like, do they
just float and sleep
Or, you know, does he get
to go out in actual space?
Did he see aliens?
Mostly just thought,
like, he was an explorer.
Kind of like, I don't know,
like a space indiana jones.
-You know, we make it a point
to get out and go to schools
And talk to kids all the time.
And when I do that, I
really try to let them know
What it was like for me
when I was a kid growing up,
And how I had this
dream of one day
Becoming an
astronaut, and that really,
If you work hard and
you're always persistent,
You can really make
those dreams come true.
-He wanted to always
be involved in something
That was kind of
bigger than him,
That contributed to to
society, that had a purpose.
It was fun to watch him.
He looked like he
was enjoying himself.
The crew looked
like they were doing
What they needed to be doing,
And everything was
going off really well.
And I didn't know
at that time that
Anything concerning
had happened.
There were people
that did, though,
But I wasn't one of them.
♪
♪
-I was in my office in florida,
And I got a phone
call from the head
Of what we call
systems integrations.
He's an engineer who
I respect very highly,
But he said, "hey, we really
don't have all the information
We'd like to have
on this debris strike.
Do you know of
anybody that's got a way
To get better pictures?"
Now, I had this
engineer as well as bob,
Asking me to see if I could
find out some more information.
Nasa does not own
any military satellites,
But at that time we had a
close working relationship
With the patrick air force base,
so I put in a request with them.
-There's a lot of
work to get a photo.
One would have to
interrupt the mission
To get the right lighting,
to make sure you're over,
The right satellite
is in position.
And then now you have an
army of people on the ground.
We have to reorient the shuttle
For the proper exposure
angles and all that.
And to do that means
they may have to terminate
Their science experiments.
In a program manager's mind,
That's responsible for getting
shuttles up there on schedule,
If you interrupt the
science mission,
You have the ire
of all the people
And the science
objectives were now ruined.
And that looks badly on nasa.
-A little bit later in the day,
In the afternoon, I
got a call from linda,
And she said, "hey, I heard
That you were trying to
get some better pictures."
And she said that she had talked
to all the appropriate managers
And no one had a requirement
for any more information.
They had what they
needed to do the analysis.
She said, "I want
you to turn this off
Because we don't need to
bother those other people."
-How did you feel
when she said that?
-I was mad
Because I don't
like to be overruled.
I'd been, you know, trying
to act within my authority,
And I'd been
countermanded by my boss.
-Linda ham knew
that nasa's history
With the department of defense
And using spy satellites
was a little bit checkered.
-There had been
a previous mission
Where the landing parachute
door came off on launch,
So the orbiter was flying with
the parachute without its door.
Nasa made a request
to get some imagery.
However, the photos
didn't help much.
-So, even if you
can get photographs,
It doesn't mean they'll
necessarily show anything.
-I think they were a
little bit embarrassed
In the end about asking.
And nasa never
wants to look stupid.
Nasa wants to be the
agency with the answers.
-If you'd have said, "linda,
Two different people
need this information.
Their departments
are both asking.
Are you aware?"
That may have changed
the course of events.
-Could I have argued
with her? Maybe.
But did I get the impression
that her mind was made up
And, you know, that
was the end of that?
That's kind of where I was.
And you can say, "well, you
should have argued more."
Well, that would that's nice
of you to say that, but I didn't.
I was going to
be a good soldier.
So I called air
force base and said,
"I know I made this request.
Um, turns out we don't need it.
Forget I asked about it."
♪
-I was told that we would
not be getting images.
When I read it, I got
angry and confused.
What does this mean?
So, I e-mailed paul shack.
I e-mailed, "why? Did
you do anything about it?"
No reply, no reply,
no reply. Quiet.
So I called him, and I got him.
-He was shouting at me.
[ chuckles ]
Can't call it an argument
Because an argument
takes two people shouting,
And just one was
shouting in this case.
-I asked him, "why
are you ignoring?
You didn't reply to
my e-mail. Why?"
I was asking why
you didn't respond.
Now I have you.
-Well, I got sarcastic.
I said, "don't be
a chicken little."
-Paul shack treated me as
if I were the well-intentioned
But silly chicken.
And the lesson is chicken
little is not to be trusted.
Chicken little
always gets excited.
I was very upset and
angry and disappointed
With my engineering
organizations, top to bottom.
There's a ticking clock.
We were losing time.
This is an e-mail I drafted.
"in my humble technical opinion,
This is the wrong and bordering
on irresponsible answer,
Not to request
additional imaging help
From any outside source.
Remember this,
nasa safety posters
Everywhere around stating
'if it's not safe, say so.'
Yes, it's that serious."
I felt the need to
draft that e-mail
With that strong language.
And the strongest word in there
is accusatory, "irresponsible."
But I struggled on
sending it or not sending it.
I was afraid about
my future career.
I was married,
and we had a child,
Had a home, had a mortgage.
And I did not
send it in the end.
-I remember that Wednesday night
When I came home from work,
He showed me the
e-mail that he had not sent.
He was very agitated,
very frustrated
Because he wasn't
sure what to do.
The thrust was
finish the analysis,
Even though you
have no information
On which to base your analysis.
And if it's bad, then
we'll try to do something.
He said, "it's like being
asked to analyze a car accident
That has just happened outside,
But you're not allowed
to look out the window."
-But the total denial forced us
Into the rock and a hard place.
We have to produce an
analysis anyway, without a photo.
♪
-Alright. Now we
play volleyball.
[ laughs ]
Football.
Bicycle kick.
[ laughter ]
-Okay, so this is the e-mail
that was sent to the crew.
"you guys are doing a
fantastic job staying on timeline
And accomplishing great science.
There is one item that I would
like to make you aware of.
This item is not even
worth mentioning,
Other than wanting to make sure
That you are not surprised by it
In a question from a reporter.
During ascent, at
approximately 80 seconds,
Some debris came loose
And subsequently
impacted the orbiter left wing.
Experts have reviewed
the high-speed photography,
And there is no concern
for rcc or tile damage.
We have seen this
same phenomenon
On several other flights
And there's absolutely
no concern for entry.
That is all for now
It is a pleasure working
with you every day."
So, they saw something.
They're taking care of it.
This e-mail was too
short, too sweet, too easy.
-Okay. Good morning
and welcome to the mmt.
-Day nine. Rodney's team
presented their analysis.
-I wasn't presenting the
results of our analysis.
The protocol was
that a senior engineer
Would present on our behalf.
-We all knew that if
the engineers find out
That this is bad, there
is nothing we can do.
If your heat shield was lost,
that was just the end game.
-The presentation
showed five scenarios
That we were analyzing
over the past few days.
-Rodney's concern
was uncertainty
In where the damage was.
The way they
compensated for that
Was to analyze multiple
possible locations.
Instead of analyzing this area,
We're going to
analyze this area.
"it would cause
localized heating,
But no burn through,"
I believe were the
words that they used.
-When we completed the analysis,
None of the scenario
showed a fatal outcome.
-I felt some relief.
I thought we were in
good shape, I believed him.
-That's what you want to hear.
You don't want to hear,
"we're going to
lose the vehicle."
-What's missing in that
is we should have had
In boldface at the
very beginning,
"these are engineering
assumption cases.
We do not know
without extra data
Whether these are actual
representations of reality.
A turnaround issue, what they
meant was some level of repair.
-So when columbia comes back?
-When it comes back,
but nothing really bad.
That bad. Just local repair.
Patch it up and let's go again.
-And that's what was being
communicated to linda
- Yes. Yes, yes.
- Okay.
Even though you all sat there
- Yes.
- And thought it wasn't okay.
What? You
didn't you didn't
She was in the room with you.
- She was in the room with us.
- So what
What prevented you
from going to talk to her?
-The chain of command protocol.
You don't approach
managers directly.
-You're, you know,
you're a grown man
And you're in the
room of only 12
-I'm a grown man with grown
men telling me not to do that.
There are other grown men
with power and authority saying,
"don't do that."
-What would have been
the repercussions of talking
To her in that room?
-I don't know if, uh
I don't know.
♪
♪
-I really love seeing
a team come together,
And the bigger team who
makes this entire mission possible
Is the team on the ground,
And all the folks who
work in mission control,
And all the folks who work
at the different nasa centers.
It's just such a great
feeling for me to
To see everybody
working together as a team
Like that, and
even getting up here
And hearing their familiar
voices on the on the radio,
It's just a great feeling.
-We are supposed to do
everything we can for the crew.
They trust us, they have
their training and expertise,
But they want to
believe and pull full faith
That we're doing the
very best for them.
-In the nasa world,
People don't talk in
terms of "it's life or death."
You use the terms "threat
to the vehicle and crew,"
Or "risk to the
vehicle and crew."
It might have more
power or more punch
If we talk life and
death, but we don't.
♪
♪
-Okay, well, then,
we've got, uh,
An announcement
that we'd like to make
On behalf of the sts-107 crew.
It is today that we
remember and honor
The crews of apollo
1 and challenger.
They made the
ultimate sacrifice,
Giving their lives and
service to their country
And for all mankind.
Their dedication and devotion
To the exploration of
space was an inspiration
To each of us, and
still motivates people
Around the world to
achieve great things
In service to others.
As we orbit the earth,
We will join the
entire nasa family
For a moment of
silence in their memory.
Our thoughts and prayers
go to their families as well.
-Here we go.
-We went to nasa and did what
they called a teleconference.
Yeah, I remember being excited.
-He did all these
What he would call
stupid astronaut tricks.
I think he did different
flips and, like, would poke
His head out from different
angles to make us laugh.
And also just to play
around with weightlessness.
When else are you going to
be able to float on camera?
So [ chuckles ]
It was really cool to see.
-It was our dating anniversary.
It was also the
anniversary of challenger.
We had about 20 or 25 minutes
And he shared how
the mission was going.
-It was so nice to be able
to see him, talk to him.
And he was having a blast.
-I just kept telling him
how much I loved him
And he said, "I love
you guys so much."
He goes, "evelyn, I
love you so much."
And just kept saying that.
Those are our last words ever.
That was it.
-I got a really nice note
from evelyn husband
And she just said, "I
just want you to know
How much we at nasa
appreciate how you cover space."
I was worried about
her and her kids.
Anytime a shuttle is going to
come to earth, I'd be worried.
In this case, I had
a little more worry.
♪
-Columbia, houston,
good morning,
And we're looking forward to
Our last day on orbit with you.
♪