15 years ago there was a catastrophe of the Columbia shuttle - it literally collapsed, and all the crew members were killed.
The causes of the disaster and its consequences are told by Gazeta.ru.
On February 1, 2003, the shuttle Columbia crashed. On board there were seven crew members, all of them were killed. The cause of the disaster was the destruction of the outer heat shield layer on the left wing plane of the shuttle.
In total, the shuttle traveled 28 times. He spent 300.74 days in space, made 4808 revolutions around the Earth during this time and flew a total of 201 454 702 km. On board the shuttle for experiments were conducted with X-ray and ultraviolet telescopes, studies of microgravity, the launch of a laser geodynamic satellite, medical research and many other experiments.
The shuttle suffered damage during the start. At 82nd second after the launch from the left fairing of the fastening of the shuttle, a piece of insulation came off, which struck with force on the panel of the left wing of "Columbia". Such incidents have already happened, and NASA specialists have recognized the impacts of fragments of thermal insulation material that do not pose a threat to exploitation.
On February 1, at 8:15 EST (North American Eastern Time), Columbia began descent to Earth. At 8:44 am, the shuttle entered the dense atmosphere. The edge of the damaged wing began to overheat. A few minutes later the shuttle entered the descent stage, during which the hull of the ship was to transfer the heaviest heat loads.
After a few seconds, the operator of mechanical systems and life support Jeff Kling identified a malfunction of the four sensors of the hydraulic system in the left wing plane. After a couple of minutes, the pressure sensors in the left-hand landing gear failed.
At 8:59, from the board of Columbia, the last message was sent, which was interrupted in a half-word: "Roger, uh, bu ...". On this connection with the shuttle was interrupted.
in the MCC, the communications officer assured the head of the flight that a communication failure was expected and is due to the fact that the tail of the shuttle obscured the communication satellite antenna. But at 9:00 am, "Columbia" was already falling apart into a lot of debris.
After the data on the explosion appeared, an alert was announced in the MCC. The attendants were forbidden to leave the places, and the operators had to keep all the information available for further investigation.
An analysis of the data of what happened to the shuttle showed: in the disaster it was the piece of insulation that damaged the flat panel that was to blame. Tests showed: the insulation material is capable of penetrating the panel. As a result, a large hole was formed, into which the gases heated up to superheated temperatures fell. This led to the destruction of the shuttle.
Initially, there were other versions - it was assumed that the shuttle could suffer already in space, from collision with a meteorite or lightning strike. However, the crew did not report such incidents.
Six of the members of the Columbia team had families, for the three of them it was the first flight into space.
In connection with the disaster in the United States, a four-day mourning was declared. Flights to space were suspended for the time of investigation of the causes of the crash. For this period, the responsibility for delivering cargo to the ISS was laid on Russia.
During the first days after the disaster, a large number of thermal protection tiles, a nasal part of the shuttle, one of the engines, as well as two sections of the left wing and emergency flight recorders were found.
In 38 districts of the state of Texas and 25 districts of Louisiana, rescuers found more than 12 thousand different fragments of the shuttle, while the shuttle itself consisted of 2 million different components. It was necessary to collect as many fragments as possible, in order to reconstruct the nature of the damage by reconstructing the picture of the destruction of the shuttle. A bit later, the airborne recorder and fragments of the wing were discovered, the damage of which led to the death of the shuttle.
According to the final report of the experts, NASA omissions played no less a role in the tragedy than technical problems. Experts also argued that if the shuttle's design did not meet the safety requirements, it was necessary to identify this before launching and take something to correct the deficiencies.
NASA was criticized for lack of vigilance and "lack of curiosity about what should not happen." Experts said that they would like the NASA management to listen to their advice, but do not count on it, because "they are always convinced of their rightness and do not want to listen to advice from outside."
"Organization of the work of NASA, from our point of view, can not ensure the safety of flights," said Dr. George Logsden, head of the George C. Washington University Institute for Space Policy
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