Can’t believe it’s been 20 years already.

I was reading a little bit about that today, I didn’t realize that there were engineers at NASA that knew they were doomed pretty soon after they launched but were either told to shut up and be quiet, or were too afraid to speak up.

They even considered having a DOD spy satellite take pictures so they could ascertain the damages but the request was denied. Seems like the majority of NASA didn’t think the foam strike was a big deal because it had happened before but never on that wing leading edge.

RIP crew of STS-107

Challenger was Jan 86, I was a whole 26 days old.
Columbia was 2003, junior in HS.

But, yes, the sentiment is right.
RIP to the crew.

From my last trip to JSC Houston, in the module training center.

DOHHHH

I corrected my thread title

I've read a ton on both, so it jumped out at me quickly.

I remember going out for pizza with my wife and seeing Columbia on the news at the pizza place as it was happening.

Watched the Challenger explode on tv in the classroom as a child and remember seeing the news on tv as soon as it happened in the firehouse about Columbia. Still very interested and intrigued about both incidents and watch/read all I can on both.

I recall it well.

I was returning to Home Despot, having just gotten an Egg McMuffin at McDs. I was just biting into it when the Special Alert! on the radio sounded, and I stopped. After the announcement, I wasn't hungry.

Last time we visited family on the Space Coast, we went to KSC. There's a Columbia memorial section there. The recovered cockpit windshield casings are in a lit display that fades from dark to light and back again as you travel through the memorial. Didn't expect to see something like that, and looking through the darkness framed by what was surely the last thing some of them looked through, and from maybe about as far away kind of overcame me for a bit.

I don't remember the actual event. 2003 was not a good year for me.

Every once in a while I'll pull up the mission control video of the Columbia disaster. It's gut-wrenching to watch Flight Director Leroy Cain living out the worst day of his life culminating at around 12:25 when he has to make the call, "Lock the doors," i.e., we've officially entered worst case scenario.

For the Challenger, I was 13 and was watching it live due to being home sick. At first, I thought I had it on a movie station not live TV.

For the Columbia, I was an adult employed as an engineer and living in California. It was a Saturday and it occurred while I was asleep since it was 5:59 AM California time. Pretty eery to wake up to an engineering disaster of this magnitude, and seeing the debris field spread all over where I used to work in Texas.

Both are something I think about as an engineer.

The Challenger was discussed in my engineering courses. The previous coldest launch was 53F, and they launched at 26F despite recommendations against launching due to the o-ring temperature. The o-ring failed and lead to the Solid Rocket Booster killing the crew 73 seconds into flight.

The Columbia was something I looked into on my own. 81.7 seconds into launch a piece of foam breaks off and damages a panel/tile. Limited investigation occurred during the mission, but was ultimately insufficient. The crew was doomed the entire 2 weeks it was in orbit.

One of the Challenger phrases from the investigation that sticks with me is "the failure to imagine." My work involves high pressure flammable or explosive liquids and gases that are held in containment with gaskets, o-rings, and other seal types all of which have operating limits and norms.

One of the Columbia findings that sticks with me is that the foam breaking off had become routine. I think about becoming normalized to risks and demoting something serious to routine.

Both disasters had engineering teams looking at the issue ahead of time. When I prepare for a meeting with bad news for management, I do think about how neither one of those engineering teams ultimately persuaded management to alleviate risk sufficiently.

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Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

quote:

Originally posted by iron chef:
Every once in a while I'll pull up the mission control video of the Columbia disaster. It's gut-wrenching to watch Flight Director Leroy Cain living out the worst day of his life culminating at around 12:25 when he has to make the call, "Lock the doors," i.e., we've officially entered worst case scenario.

[FLASH_VIDEO]<iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cbnT8Sf_LRs" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>[/FLASH_VIDEO]

Local channel was playing the day over, full video with commentary, this scene came up, you could see how it really affected Cain, and everyone in that room as he realized the inevitability that Columbia was gone and that a serious error in estimating the problem had happened.... along with the final transmissions from Columbia crew.. Very sobering