The 2003 Columbia Disaster

Columbia history
Milestones OV102
July 26, 1972

Contract Award

Nov. 21, 1975

Start structural assembly of crew module

June 14, 1976

Start structural assembly of aft-fuselage

March 16, 1977

Wings arrive at Palmdale from Grumman

Sept. 30, 1977

Start of Final Assembly

Feb. 10, 1978

Completed final assembly

Feb. 14, 1978

Rollout from Palmdale

April 12 1981

Launch

Jan 16, 2003

28th and Last Flight

Columbia: 2003 mission STS-107

The Columbia disaster occurred on February 1

It disintegrated over Texas during re-entry.

Loss of all seven crew, before concluding its 28th mission.

Caused by damage sustained during launch when a piece of foam
insulation the size of a small briefcase (loaf of bread) and known as the
Left Bipod Foam Ramp broke off the main propellant tank.

The damaged area allowed the hot gases to penetrate and

destroy the internal wing structure, causing the in-flight break-up.

Thermal Shield
Primary heat shield made from

reinforced carbon/carbon tiles.

Capable of withstanding 1700oC
Secondary shield Fibrous
refractory composite insulation
(FRCI) tiles, which are flexible
and very tough.
These combine with interior
insulation to protect the crew
and vehicle during the
atmospheric braking phase of
orbital re entry.

External Tank Foam Insulation

The liquid oxygen is cryogenically cooled to -300F (184C)
The liquid hydrogen is chilled to -423F (-253C).
These liquids must be kept at high pressure and very low
temperature
or they will boil back to a gaseous state.

Warnings Ignored
After Columbia safely reached orbit the

NASA engineering safety team made

three requests to the Department of
defence to provide high definition spy
satellite pictures of the orbiter.

The requests were refused as the DOD

was busy over the middle east.

The engineering team then proposed a
space walk to check the wing.
NASA management refused on the
grounds that the crew schedule was full.
Had the damage been discovered the
crew had no way of making repairs,.
However, Columbia did not have enough
fuel to dock with the ISS.
Despite rumours, Columbia was beyond
help of any kind.

Destruction

Engineering note that

pressure readings had been

lost on both left main landinggear tyres, they tell the crew.

A rapid cascade sensor

failure followed.

The crew response is garbled

and before they can repeat

the message ground
observers report that
Columbia has disintegrated.

Now

Foam strikes at launch are still a

problem for the STS.

Strikes occur because of the
nature of the lifter, and there is
no way to avoid the problem.
NASA has investigated many
DIY repair methods, but none
have a realistic chance of
working.
As of now, when a shuttle
launches there is another ready
on short standby.

The Next Step

The future appears to lie with

truly reusable space vehicle.

Research worldwide has been
leaning towards hybrid engine
space planes such as Skylon
and the X 34.
These overcome most of the
disadvantages inherent in the
design of the shuttle.
The technology is ready, all it
needs is the will and the
money.

Flight History

The first shuttle, Columbia flew on 12

April 1981.
Since then there have been 128
launches of which 2 ended
catastrophically.
This gives the shuttle a failure rate of
1.6%. Which makes it 300 times
more dangerous then crossing the
road.
Columbia and Challenger were both
destroyed in accidents, they were
also the oldest of the five shuttles on
the NASA fleet.

Columbia: 2003 mission STS-107

The investigation board recommended:

improving photography of launches, using telescop

photograph shuttles while they are in space

adding the ability to repair a shuttle while in orbit.