Jon Harpold was the Director of Mission Operations, my supreme boss as a Flight Director. He had spent his early career in shuttle entry analysis. He knew more about shuttle entry than anybody; the guidance, the navigation, the flight control, the thermal environments and how to control them. After one of the MMTs when possible damage to the orbiter was discussed, he gave me his opinion: “You know, there is nothing we can do about damage to the TPS. If it has been damaged it’s probably better not to know. I think the crew would rather not know. Don’t you think it would be better for them to have a happy successful flight and die unexpectedly during entry than to stay on orbit, knowing that there was nothing to be done, until the air ran out?”
I was hard pressed to disagree. That mindset was widespread. Astronauts agreed. So don’t blame an individual; looks for the organizational factors that lead to that kind of a mindset. Don’t let them in your organization.
After the accident, when we were reconstituting the Mission Management Team, my words to them were “We are never ever going to say that there is nothing we can do.” That is hindsight.
That is the lesson.
My hang up the whole time is why they didn't have repair products on board to do a space-walk and repair the craft....ESPECIALLY after all the "tile" crap.
Were they even in the right orbit to dock with the ISS? Let alone having enough fuel to get there...
From someone who was actually there and who had actually been responsible for the lives of shuttle crews:
http://waynehale.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/after-ten-years-working-on-the-wrong-problem/
My hang up the whole time is why they didn't have repair products on board to do a space-walk and repair the craft....ESPECIALLY after all the "tile" crap.
Give them means to fix the craft at any given time and forget satellite images, have them space walk that sucker and LOOK at the damage themselves.
Oh well.......water under the bridge now.
reminds me of the scene in apollo 13 where the guy (to Gene) says their track is a bit off after that manual burn and asks Gene if they should tell them and Gene says, " is there anything we can do about it?" "No" "then they don't need to know"
What I absolutely can't believe is that they were still launching 20 year old vehicles into space.
I dont understand if there was doubt as to the condition of the shuttle, why the astronauts couldnt have taken refuge inside the space station, and NASA would have scrambeld in emergency mode to get another shuttle to go up and bring them back? I'm sure the crew could be at the station for a few weeks at least? I read that they didnt have an emergency shuttle ready until after the disaster, but I'm sure if they busted their asses, they could have had a shuttle ready in fairly quick order?
Columbia didn't have the arm on board but an inspection and potential repair would have been possible though difficult. The effacy of a stopgap repair would have still been questionable. The best option on the table would have been to rush Atlantis to launch a rescue and deorbit Columbia remotely to crash into an ocean.
Carrying a large amount of material on each launch to repair the TPS is impractical.
After Columbia was built NASA installed new more powerful engines into the shuttle fleet (End., Atlantis, Discover) but the engines were never retrofitted in the Columbia. Because of that, Columbia only did low earth orbit missions, while the other Shuttle built the ISS.
So to answer your question. The SS Columbia did not have enough engine power to ever reach the ISS. They would have had to send a replacement shuttle to rendezvous with Columbia in order to bring them home, which they would not have been able to do in time.
Was Columbia even equipped for 'spacewalks,' then? If they're just in low orbit and not intending to dick around with satellites, ISS, or anything else, perhaps they only had the suits they launched in and none of the 'extra' stuff.
Difference in that case was the Apollo 13 crew already knew they were in mortal danger and that their craft likely had heat shield damage. Plus they had had time to talk to their families.
The entry angle was just another risk that didn't change anything for the crew.
your further analysis is correct, but the OP still reminds me of that scene :biggrin:.
:biggrin: