WASHINGTON, Feb 15: NASA video of the last minutes of shuttle Columbia’s fatal flight shows strain and concentration etched on almost every face at Mission Control in Houston, especially that of Flight Director Leroy Cain.
Cain is at the heart of the 20-minute video released on Friday, frequently rubbing his forehead, covering his mouth and at one point bowing his head into his hand and looking up a moment later to reveal a tear coursing down one cheek, apparently as he realized the spacecraft was lost.
Columbia, the US space agency’s oldest shuttle, disintegrated over Texas minutes after communications were cut on Feb. 1. All seven astronauts aboard were killed.
As an electronic map of the shuttle’s flight path tracked its progress on a screen above the control room, all seemed normal until Jeff Kling, in charge of shuttle maintenance and crew systems, said, “FYI, I’ve just lost four separate temperature transducers on the left side of the vehicle.”
At that point, Columbia was over the Pacific Ocean, heading toward California, according to the tracking map.
“Is there anything common to them (the sensors)?” Cain asked. “I mean, you’re telling me you lost them all at exactly the same time.”
“No, not exactly. They were within probably four or five seconds of each other,” Kling replied.
NASA released control-room audio from that period earlier this week, but the video gave a clear picture of the tension evident when data first became erratic and then communications with ground controllers were lost altogether.
At least five times, controllers tried to get a signal from the Columbia crew: “Columbia, Houston UHF comm check?”
There was no response. With the tracking map stopped with the shuttle apparently hanging over central Texas, the mood switched from anxiety to resignation, with Cain asking whether rescue personnel around Dallas were being mobilized to help find the remains of Columbia and its crew.
He then guided Mission Control staff to procedures in place in the event of catastrophe: “All flight controllers on the flight loop, we need to kick off the FCOH (Flight Control Operations Handbook) contingency plan procedure, FCOH checklist page 2.8-5. ... Make sure you step through the actions required.”
An independent board to investigate the tragedy was appointed within hours of the shuttle’s breakup. NASA chief Sean O’Keefe faced close questioning from members of Congress over whether the board was sufficiently independent from the US space agency, and O’Keefe changed the panel’s charter on Wednesday to address these concerns.
Board Chairman Harold Gehman, a retired US Navy admiral who also investigated the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, said on Friday he expected to expand the 11-member panel to get members with specific expertise as needed and to cope with an expected heavy workload.
Speaking to reporters at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, one of several stops the board is making in its investigation, Gehman said his panel had asked NASA for specific analysis, data and witnesses.
“We’re not going to double-check everything NASA does,” Gehman said, adding the board planned to get independent verification of key points from universities and US national laboratories.
He declined to comment on the significance of information released on Thursday indicating that shuttle Columbia’s protective skin had been penetrated during flight, allowing super-hot gas to get into the spacecraft.—Reuters