STS-107 Space Shuttle Columbia Re-Entry Video Here is a quick timeline of what occurred around the time of the video: Date: February 1, 2003... At the time of descent the shuttle is moving at mach 25+ (19,000 mph+) at an altitude of 230,000 ft.+ The first indication that something is wrong occurs at 08:48:39 a.m when one of the Strain (correlates to force) gauge sensors on the left wing Fails (this is close to where a piece of foam had hit the space shuttle during launch) Followed by the first sign of unusual Heating occurring at 08:48:59 a.m when a Temperature sensor near one of the left wing panels that was hit by foam shows an abnormal increase. Between 08:48:59 a.m and 08:52:29 a.m. a number of the sensors on the left side of the shuttle are showing some unusual readings. 08:52:29 a.m. First signs of trouble begin to appear on right side of shuttle when approximately 10 percent of the strain gauges in the right wing show a small but unusual data trend. After this point, heating abnormalities become more and more of a problem causing some holes in the left wing to allow hot gasses to enter the internals of the wing and create imbalances in the flow over the wing. The shuttle is on auto-pilot and begins making small adjustments to compensate for the abnormal flows which are causing the shuttle to veer off its planned course. 08:53:45 a.m. First report of debris observed leaving the orbiter. For the next 5 minutes, multiple failures occur due to the excessive heat. Debris is seen leaving the orbiter from observers in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Mexico. At 08:58:04 a.m. Very large adjustments are calculated by the auto-pilot to correct major flight instability. 08:58:20 a.m Shuttle crosses Mexico border into Texas. 08:58:48 a.m. Shuttle Commander Rick Husband transmits a radio communication "And, uh, Hou(ston)..." 08:59:32 a.m. Rick Husband transmits his last radio communication "Roger, uh buh (CUTOFF)" (Editor's note: Phonetically, sounded like first syllable of "before" or possibly "both;" he may have been responding to the BFS fault messages for both left-side main landing gear tires) This coincides with the INITIAL LOSS OF SIGNAL (LOS) at which point no data is able to be streamed to mission control. Major Crash/Breakup occurs around 09:00:02 a.m. A final data burst is transmitted from the shuttle but reports mostly errors and garbled data, only a few of the measurements could be analysed. At the time of breakup the shuttle was travelling about 12,500 mph at an altitude of 207,000 feet Unfortunate as it was, at the very least, the crew was doing something they loved. God bless them: Commander: Rick D. Husband, a U.S. Air Force colonel and mechanical engineer, who piloted a previous shuttle during the first docking with the International Space Station (STS-96). Pilot: William C. McCool, a U.S. Navy commander Payload Commander: Michael P. Anderson, a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and physicist who was in charge of the science mission. Payload Specialist: Ilan Ramon, a colonel in the Israeli Air Force and the first Israeli astronaut. Mission Specialist: Kalpana Chawla, an Indian-born aerospace engineer who was on her second space mission. Mission Specialist: David M. Brown, a U.S. Navy captain trained as an aviator and flight surgeon. Brown worked on a number of scientific experiments. Mission Specialist: Laurel Blair Salton Clark, a U.S. Navy captain and flight surgeon. Clark worked on a number of biological experiments.

• published: 22 Mar 2015
• views: 2