@@allanfifield8256 ,?? Please understand we text with big fingers tapping small letter keys…typos in texts are common, it’s no big deal. We all know ValeryOp 5 meant “Houston”.
Incredibly I was just talking to my nephew about this terrible tragedy an hour ago. I Lived in Orange Co. California at that time in the front yard with my daughter. I looked up and saw a huge smoke trail. At the same time as I went inside I saw the news indicating Nasa had lost communications with the shuttle. The rest is history. The realization of knowing what I was looking at was mind blowing and I will forever hold those people in my prayers and my heart. I also lived in Tallahassee Fla when the shuttle blew up in 1986 on lift off. I was watching when it happened. I have never really talked about these 2 events before today first with my nephew and now with you. God bless all astronauts and their families.
The absolute criminal part of NASA's behavior during this flight was their refusal to perform high resolution imaging of the orbiter, which was possible, to determine if the fears of damage during liftoff were valid. The reason given was that they didn't want to set a precedent of doing this because then it meant they would have to do it on subsequent flights
@Miguel Servetus They had several opportunities to image the spacecraft. They actually almost had an image taken, but it was cut off at the last second when management found out. The managers claimed that no spacecraft actually had the capabilities to perform the task, so they didn't want to waste anyone's time, but they couldn't possibly know what the imaging capabilities of all satellites in orbit are. Finally, even if they couldn't rescue the crew, they could at least have given them a fighting chance to do something about the situation. Apollo-13 is the greatest space rescue in history and it's almost impossible what those people did; while we will never know what could have been, it's disingenuous to write them off without ever having given them a chance to save themselves.
@@miguelservetus9534 there have been several studies outlining how the crew of Columbia could have gone into extreme power saving mode to stretch their expendables until a second shuttle could have been prepped and launched under emergency procedures, skipping many of the usual safety checks in order to launch in time with the required docking attachment
@@jim2lane Those plans were theoretically shaky at best and also would have endangered a second crew. The sad reality is that even if the damage was known there was an overwhelming probability that the Columbia crew were doomed.
Such a tragedy. Especially when you consider someone had raised doubts about safety JUST LIKE WITH CHALLENGER and it was ignored AGAIN. brave astronauts all of em
This doesn't mean safety should be minimized... but there are always, always safety concerns. The safest place for the shuttle is on the ground, but that's not why you build the shuttle. I worked with a guy who would bring up insane concerns, mostly to hear himself talk. He was wrong the vast majority of the time - not that the probabilities didn't work out, but wrong about what could happen. He was right once and dined out on that for years. There are only so many things that can be considered, only so many probabilities that can be reviewed, and there are always concerns that could be addressed differently. Sometimes things aren't addressed correctly, but it is also really easy afterwards to say, "see? Just like I said!" when it may not have been even said in the first place. You aren't necessity wrong, this just clearly pushed on a button on me and it let me think these thoughts through, so thank you for saying your piece so I could consider mine.
And the most furious, NASA never admit this was their fault. First, they gaslight and run a campaign to boycot the investigators who concluded that the tragedy happened becaused the foam on the big tank brokened during takeoff and puncture a large hole on the ship, led plasma entered. They even mocked chieft investigator "foamotologist" and do their best to deny the real test. But then the real test confirmed the theory of the investigators, accodring to the diary of the chieft investigator all NASA personels at the lab cried like a bitch when the foam destroyed the heat shield and the hull. By then, NASA tried to accused the company that produced the foam intended to designed the foam to be broken and ruined the company reputation for many years until the microscopic investigation concluded that the foam broken was because of its structure and the company did not know about this. NASA never fixed this, instead they had to prepared 2 Shuttles and one was backup for the other, also Space Shuttle cannot go further than ISS so in case the puncture so large like Colombia the crew will abandoned the shuttle and take refuge on ISS. And thus many years later the program closed and immediately Russia increased the price to send US Astronaunts to ISS, forced NASA to paid nearly a hundred mil USD per seat if crew Dragon not appeared.
@@onothankyouWell in this case, like Columbia, concerns that were quite valid were raised by the engineers who were actually running the program only for management to shoot it down in favor of efficiency... in a federally funded agency. Do you make a habit of doing driveby engineering?
@@koc988efficiency? Missing the main problem here, a fundamentally flawed vehicle design: large wings on hypersonic envelope launch/re-entry, done to accommodate dual use military retrieval needs. It’s was never going to become safe by tweeks. If is wasn’t the wing strike at launch, it would have been a hopelessly unmaintaunable tile failure on a wing surface. Nobody else in space flight has ever done wings re-entry. Why do you think that is?
The professionalism of this crew fighting to the end to save their craft as they spun out of control probably even realizing they were doomed, but never gave up.
What other option did they have? They weren’t saving the craft for the sake of the vessel. They were attempting to save it to survive. It’s not like they could egress at 180k+ feet lol.
@@anthonyboni5884 I'll be clear of what I meant. They didn't freeze up, they didn't overly (if any) panic, they tried to work the problem as trained, and they worked together and stayed focus until the end. They didn't stop to pray, or scream, or call out for help or start working the problem irrationally. Or anything else that some people would do knowing they were doom. And yes of course they were desperately trying to save their lives. And maybe desperation was the reason the tried to the end. Or maybe they were Brave Professionals who were able to stay focus and work the problem when all hell was coming apart well falling from the heavens
I remember watching this and then lost. Heart breaking that transitioned to horror when we realized they had worked to save the shuttle and was conscious. 😢
It's actually quite remarkable how relatively few accidents there have been in manned space flight. In 60, 70 years we've had Apollo 1, Shuttle Challenger, and Shuttle Columbia. Seventeen lives lost, none of them forgotten, none of them in vain.
@@clayel1 The soviets had one decompression in space (3 crew, the only 3 people to have actually died in space), and one failed parachute (1 crew). Also two deaths during training exercises. Statistically at least their space program has been far safer than ours.
People have died in space and will die in space again; make no mistake. But people die in wars, climbing mountains and in plane crashes too. Personally, I can't think of a more noble death... trying to expand mankind's presence in space. RIP brave explorers.
Pretty much the only parts of the 400-page NASA survivability report that have been redacted before it reached the public are portions of the *crew injuries* section, especially around mentions of the autopsy. It doesn’t take too long to figure out what those redacted parts might have been…. Especially when some of them are outright stated to have been *images*.
@@scottmanley Interesting! I had not seen this document before. Thank you for sharing. I am glad that we learned so much from this incident, but the cost cannot be overstated. I hope, as it is believed, that they did not suffer in death, and I hope that they have found some peace now. Thank you so much for your dedication to educating the public.
@@scottmanley Not so long ago I saw a lecture during which there was a slide presentation depicting crew module with silhouettes of each crewmember in their seats colored adequately to represent heat impact visualization. Apparently from the thermal injuries alone, the source of breach was traced to the upper deck right side, where Laurel Clark seat was.
@@scottmanley Thanks for sharing the report, it is excellent. Question: The report refers several times to the future Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV). What was that? Did you ever cover that in one of your videos? Some sort of early post-shuttle concept?
I recently went to a space camp at the Kennedy space center and while there I would joke around with my friends but when we went into the memorial for Columbia and challenger, everyone got quiet. There was a real side panel and the real cockpit windows, one of them from each of the accidents but they we so somber, set in the separate room and it was truly humbling and a stark reminder of all the lives, few, but still live lost
I live in Cape Canaveral! Hope you enjoyed space camp, and I'm glad you and your friends got to experience that. It is definitely a sobering moment. Did you get to see any launches? I've lived here my whole life and will never get sick of them, especially night launches
One thing I keep coming back to about the Columbia disaster is I’m amazed how long the Orbiter kept together, even once it began oscillating wildly which was almost impossible to even fathom. From initiation of LOC to CE, that orbiter held together for almost 30 seconds. A testimony to the construction of those shuttles, and yet how I wish Columbia could’ve held together longer and gotten those heroes home…
@@the_darkgamerytthe left wing was destined to come off. The shuttle was called the "flying brick" even with both of them attached. Nevermind how the aerodynamics would have torn the shuttle apart the same way it. Maybe if NASA allowed them to easily take an image of the damage they could have possibly angled in such away that the wing stayed on. That would require a water landing, but better than what they had
If you think about it the orbiter flew with a perfect operational record. Challenger was caused by an SRB and Columbia was victim to foam that came off the ET.
I remember being at Ft Hood and driving in that day. We watched it break apart and leave a trail across the sky. We all immediately knew what happened. Tragic accident for sure
I was in Dallas-Ft. Worth when the shuttle passed by and created a significant sonic boom. Only minutes later, the news said that it broke up across Texas and Louisiana. So sad for the astronauts who lived and died, “living the dream.” RIP.
I was watching the shuttle pass over from my back yard in far north Dallas. I was using binoculars and I could see pieces breaking off but I didn’t realize I was actually watching it disintegrate. I had been in Cocoa Beach Florida several weeks before and the shuttle crew came into a local seafood place I was eating at. They had their flight suits on and I thought it was neat to have seen the shuttle crew that would go up in the next few days. Little did I know I would witness their demise from my back yard several weeks later.
Just heard former astronaut Mark Kelly on NPR radio this week speaking about going to recover his classmates - 3 of the astronauts. Kelly was a short helicopter ride away and went in and discovered the bodies. Must have been horrific for him.
My parents knew one of them. They knew him since he was a young boy. He was from Spokane, Washington. My dad has a picture of them two. When this tragic incident happened, CNN and 60 Minutes wanted an interview but my dad declined. He didn't want that attention on him. But they say he was the sweetest person and very caring and outgoing who loved helping others. I think he was a scientist. May you and your crew RIP
@@johnhenderson6053my condolences to your family knowing that they lost an old friend. Especially a person who was part of such an amazing mission. Nice of your dad to think about the family, and not wanting to distract from the shock they were in.
@@johnhenderson6053 Oh yeah, I definitely remember the name Michael Anderson. Wow I'm so sorry for you all, and what a small world it can be sometimes. I can't say the time is right, but nice to meet you. This says a lot about his circle of friends, which is very impressive. Again my condolences.
I remember hearing the explosion over my head. Initially I thought it was just a sonic boom from a nearby Airbase, then my daughter called me from Pennsylvania. She was asking if I was alright? I informed her that I was good and currently at work. I was placing my W2 statement in my car when I heard the boom. She said it was the shuttle that blew up over my head. It was actually a little east of me, with debris flung over a large area. When Challenger blew up in 86 over Florida, I was working at RCA. They were monitoring the lift off. Saw it blow up even before they notified the President. We were kept in a room and had to wait before Reagan was told.
Amazing story brother. What was the atmosphere in the room at RCA when you all saw the flight blow up? I can imagine it would be similar although less intense to the feeling people got seeing 9-11 happen. Shell shocked
2/1/03 & 1/28/86 are two dates I'll never forget. I recall exactly where I was and what I was doing when both tragedies happened. RIP to all the men and women who lost their lives in both events.
I was in JSC Bldg 1 headquarters and we paused our meeting to watch the launch on the 28th. I couldnt believe what I witnessed. They were my friends. I had never experienced clinical depression before that, but a month later, I realized I was in trouble. To this day, I cry when I think about it, so I avoid the memorials each year. I now live in the wilderness, and my singular purpose in life is serving and worshipping God. 😢
@RyanM.thegoat We used to keep the imbeciles locked away from society. It's amazing that the internet forces the rest of us to witness drivel like yours. Shameful. Truly shameful and embarassing to witness.
This would have been absolutely terrifying. A few years back, I was watching something about the Challenger explosion and apparently there was proof that the (or some of the) astronauts survived the initial explosion and were hurled further toward space and that at least two of them were alive when the fuselage came crashing back down. Apparently, they had initiated or activated a couple things manually at certain moments after the explosion and that's how it was determined they hadn't died instantly and had actually been totally aware/alert as they soared back down to Earth. That made me sick; I'd always assumed they'd died far more quickly and unfortunately they did not.
That's the difference between reentry and takeoff. The consensus is that all Challenger crew members survived the initial explosion. The crew cabin was intact, and detached immediately. Also a pressure breach at 192,000 feet is quite different from 47,000 feet. At 47,000 feet, you might lose consciousness for a few seconds.
I have stood infront of the debrie they recovered from the crash at the Kennedy space center in FL. It is truly one of the most emotional and haunting experiences ever. Much respect for the crew. R.I.P.
In 7/4/82, I saw Columbia land at Edwards AFB, STS-4. My thought was when it was closer "My God, it's a house!"That same day, I saw Challenger being airlifted on the back of a 747 to KSC. I thought both machines were incredible pieces of engineering, and felt ill seeing what happened to both crews and their ships.
My father was assigned to the submarine NR-1 as a civilian engineer, while it did the recovery of Challenger for NASA's investigation in '86. It was an emotional time for every professional involved.
My god that is so heartbreaking and scary! I know that we have to look at this incident with a sense of detachment so we can learn as much as possible to prevent things like this from happening again. Yet it is so hard to not think about how they were just 7 people,with lives and loved ones,people that cared about them so much,and they were gone just like that. I am grateful to Scott Manly bringing their story back up on the anniversary of their passing,its nice to inform the younger generation of what happened and why we remember these great people. RIP crew of the Columbia,you are truly of the stars now.
I believe the crew of this beautiful feat of engineering remained calm and professional during the entire event until going unconscious. I believe they went above their duty to try to recover the aircraft. These are true hero's of all humans. They knew the risks, and knew everything that could go wrong. They did good, and above anyone could ask for. Rest in piece Columbia.
@@axe4770 Thats not what he said, is it. Dont put words into his mouth. Their job and only job was to fly the vehicle, they like any pilot, would do this until they ran out of options. They would've been well aware that they were fighting a losing battle. Its tragic and at the end of the day they could've been saved another Sts was sitting on the pad. They could've been rescued but nasa are greedy. Both loses of challenger and Colombia crews could've been avoided.
Scott, on watching this my stomach was instantly churnming. That it took under one minute to breach the pressure vessel has so much meaning... their spirits are always with us as a lesson to the one fact that the explorations of space has Space is and will be dangerous to mankind's sense of being safe. The moment mankind considers itself safe, it absolutly is not.
Very necessary for education but seeing the animation is very very haunting. Thanks for putting this together though, can't imagine it's easy covering something as morbid as this.
I'm a huge NASA junkie who grew up in Central Florida, and I woke up early that morning to track the orbiter because they predicted a louder sonic boom than usual. When the Flight Director made the call to implement the FCOH contingency plan procedure, I knew the orbiter had been lost. I started to sob in that moment, while my family looked at me trying to understand what was happening. By the time I explained it to them, CNN broke into their broadcast with live video of the orbiter breaking up.
Breaks my heart anytime I see the video. I was probably like around 6/7 when this happened and I couldn't ask anything other than "what's wrong? And "are they going to be okay?" Instinct knew it was bad but I had in my heart that if they took a risk to go up there for all us, they should be saved but I definitely learned that day. God Bless everyone of them.
Was sitting with my back to the North at the dining room table with my then daughter in law. She was looking over my shoulder out the sliding glass door behind me with a puzzled look on her face not knowing what she was looking at. When I turned around I knew exactly what I was looking at. We were in Leander, tx ...North of Austin, tx.
A friend in Nacodoches, TX found a helmet. I'm in Austin. I watched a shuttle years before crossing over us on it's way to Florida. It left a vapor trail that was so bright. Never saw anything like it. These guys came so close to making it back. RIP
Hillbillies from all over East Texas were swarming the woods hoping to get a piece of the shuttle. I'm from Lufkin, my buddies all gave reports.......not of finding anything, but of the massive amount of people combing the woods. I'm sure some people found things, but none of my close friends did.
I always wondered what the astronauts of sts-107 had to endure in their final moments from a scientific approach. The empathetic side hurts for the fear, terror and agony these people suffered. Fought until the options faded. Thank you Mr Manley, for the tragic insight that I'm sure was difficult to assemble. Godspeed STS-107. This should have been prevented.
The crew report is available online. Pretty chilling. They even mentioned the failed belt mechanisms that likely allowed some of the crew to be dismembered. Apparently it was another known problem.
I was only 4 years old at the time and yet I vividly remember coming downstairs that morning and seeing the footage on TV of the shuttle broken up, it was one of those things that you just remember burned into your mind. Rest in peace STS-107 ad Astra
Wow. That's really a sad and terrifying commentary on the accident. I have no doubt that this crew was working to save the aircraft as long as consciousness aloud them to. The only silver lining on this storm cloud is that crew went out doing what they loved, and never giving up hope that she could be saved.
The retrospectoscope always has 20/20 vision. In efforts like this thousands of thousands of risk based decisions get made with incomplete data. Only in hindsight do we say ‘This was ignored.’ The reports show that NASA was aware of the risk but underestimated the probability. Decision makers have tough jobs. I only rose to that level of my profession in the last stages of my career and had many a sleepless night.
Maybe if those responsible for deciding risk and probability that took the lives of the seven crew members should be held responsible instead of protected only to do the same on the next launch. That’s one thing that’s always been hammered to me and I have been made to do just that. When your high up the totem pole or rich your excluded from responsibility unlike the rest of us who many times end up destroyed over something they were held responsible for.
Heartbreaking. And to know they were alive long enough to realize it and try regain control…agonizing to the think about. Simply can’t imagine that kind of horror.
I was in grade school-we watched this heartbreaking event live, on a tv set up at the front of our classroom. Seems like only yesterday…when our palpable excitement of the moment slowly evolved into utter disbelief and silence.
I remembered seeing the memorial in elementary school and looking at it with reverence. Space is unforgiving and when your life and the lives of your crew is determined by every little action that you do, you have to be able to live and die doing what what you can. They're not just scientists, they're space marines. They chose to train to work in the most hostile environment known to mankind and blow it off like it's nothing. Remember Columbia
I remember seeing the news, they were saying that “something happened” and that multiple sonicbooms were heard. I looked at the video, turned to my parents and said, “they’re dead.” Horrific tragedy, made worse by how preventable it was.
Sadly once Columbia launched there was very little that could be done, because it was a microgravity research mission and not a station mission. it never flew to ISS, it was in free flight the entire mission. It had no capability to do any orbital repairs, nor extend its stay to wait for rescue, nor reach the ISS.
@@tylisirn the original foam coating didn’t have this issue, it was changed in the 90’s by executive order to reduce “pollution”. Following this change the foam would regularly break away, as the change in process left larger air pockets that expanded at higher altitudes. The continued occurrence caused complacency. It was a 1:1M shot that it hit exactly like it did, but it did. I recognize that not MUCH could have been done after launch. But it was still completely preventable.
I witnessed this incident in person. I was in our backyard near Dallas, looked up to the south, and saw the shuttle engulfed in a fireball. I didn’t realize what it was until later when I went inside and saw it on the news.
I was at the cape on the Roof of the building we were constructing having seen the shuttle before from the same roof and finding out that we were directly in the path for landing but being a little short to see the runway but could see the smoke twirls when they did land. I waited 30 minutes past the arrival time and when starting my car and hearing on the radio on what had happened, it broke my heart and the families were close by doing the same thing i was, Waiting.
We live in East Texas. I'm never forget the ship disintegration and knowing it was going to land in bits near where we lived. The horror was just too real
I was in pascagoula, mississippi that day, working as an ironworker in the cheveron refinery. We were excited because we were supposed to hear the sonic boom as it passed. We never heard it and forgot. When i got in my truck that evening, i heard on the radio. What a tragedy.
At that time, I was a furnace tapper and knew of refractory paste applications and always wondered if they at least could've did a space walk and tried to repair the damaged tiles with some type of high temperature refractory paste buying them some time. It just seemed a poor design in those critical areas of the shield that ultimately sealed their fate. We'll never know. R.I.P.
It would have at least been one of several measures that might have made a survivable reentry possible. I've wondered if coming down with a bit of a commanded yaw in order to give the damaged area some protection might have also bought them more time...buy enough and you've survived reentry. Past that, if you've still got control you can then turn your attention to where to land. It's just so frustrating that 1) nothing was done to determine the spacecraft's condition 2) nothing was done to increase survivability. Instead it was just, y'all go run your experiments or whatever - at least some folks down here will get some resume food from your last days alive...
They had such a system on the later flights. I heard an engineer say that had they known exactly where that hole was, they could have yawed the craft left a few degrees to protect that wing, if only a manager's ego hadn't canceled the photos they requested from a military satellite.
@@hopelessnerd6677 So it wasn’t just me who had the thought. So frustrating. If Apollo 13 taught us anything it’s that you fight all the way down. ALL the way down. You give yourself every possible opportunity to survive. With this mission, no opportunity was taken to even understand status, much less survive. I remember Gene Kranz’ words after the 13 explosion (this is from memory; don’t @ me): “What do we know in terms of status? What do we have on the spacecraft that’s good?”
I remember learning about how the aux oxygen was located on the suits, and they had all been activated meaning they were alive after the initial break up and the fact they lived that long really blew my mind ( this was before we knew exactly what happened)
According to other astronauts, the moment Hudson and McCool saw that the RCS was firing continuously and was saturated, they would have known instantly they were dead.
I had always wondered exactly how the events of the breakup matched up with what we saw on camera that day. How heartbreaking… thank you for the video Scott.
I was at work Saturday morning when my mom called and told me to turn on the news. I grew up going to many shuttle launches here in Florida since my friend’s Dad worked at NASA. It’s something I wish my kids could experience.
On April 1982 I watched the Colombia shuttle take off from the Cape and we were about 2 miles from the launch pad and I'll never forget how my body shook as her engines roared to life. 🇺🇸👍
Both Shuttles were destroyed by NASA and the contractors arrogance, ignorance and criminal actions. NASA knew of critical problems before they launched and afterwards, but rather than stop to assess the issues, they murdered the crews.
I was just north of the debris field in East Texas. The sound of her breaking a part, I can only describe as a super sonic train wreck. It's a sound I will never forget.
They did everything that their training taught them to do in an emergency. I doubt that they had much time to be scared, knowing that they were taught to work the problem, number one priority. True professionals to the end.
They were at 275,000 feet. Parachutes are no use whatever at that altitude. The air is very thin at that height. Apollo deployed its parachutes at about 10,000 feet when it had slowed to around 100mph.
I pray that they lost consciousness as soon as possible. Those astronauts were heroes in my book and I can’t even begin to imagine the terror they must have gone through as the shuttle broke apart. May they rest in peace and may we remember them as pioneers that sacrificed their lives in the name of space exploration. God Speed to those 7 brave souls.
Especially the part where they were fighting even when the cockpit detached. That was fucking chilling bruh. Imagine the sheer desperation these people had goin thru their minds tryna fix that.
I remember after the Challenger disaster there was talk about making the command section sealed and able to break away from the shuttle with parachutes to protect the astronauts. If that had been done it sounds like these astronauts would have been saved.
@@crogeny On which one. I seem to recall that the Challenger command section was estimated to be together all the way down to the ocean floor. As far as Columbia, if they had made the required changes to allow the ejection of the command section from the rest of the craft, it might have survived. There's no way to tell for certain. However I do know a bit about ejection technology and part of it is to get the components carrying people away from the rest of the craft as quickly as possible.
@@equesdeventusoccasus You're right about Challenger but the post-accident report that Scott posted in another thread states clearly that the command section of Columbia shattered into so many pieces that the debris field of this section extended over 50 miles! We know with absolute certainty that the command section shattered because of this debris field and also because the autopsies of the astronauts showed that their bodies had all been fully exposed to the surrounding atmosphere at >100,000 feet (i.e., they were in freefall with no surrounding structure to protect them). The heat and forces at that altitude were so severe that the space suits of the astronauts were stripped from their bodies. The report explains in detail why the command section shattered.
@@equesdeventusoccasus Do you also understand the aerodynamically around each shuttle mishaps is different? Columbia coming down super hot as the module would shear apart from the difference in pressure upon exit its mothership failing body.
@@JoshSimpson I not only understand the aerodynamics and the differences between the two accidents, I also realize that even from this video's description, the people inside the shuttle were still attempting to fix things long after it was impossible to fix anything. If we get another shuttle-like space craft, it should probably be equipped with a detachable command section that will detach manually, but would also have failsafes that would automatically detach the command section, when systems determine it is necessary.
Unfortunately I think most of the crew knew they were in deep trouble as soon as the problems started. Though thankfully it was probably only 20-30 seconds, but still that must had seemed an entirety to them.
I always wonder...right before the break up, there was a tight shot of the spacecraft which pulled back to the view you see here. If only he had stayed tight on that shot, we might have understood even more. So terrible that day. Can't believe it was 20 years ago.
Having worked at KSC on the Space Shuttle Program, I had worked the Launch book on STS-107. Columbia could have been saved up until the deorbit burn. That doomed it and the crew. Linda Hamm single-handedly changed NASA's motto from "Failure is NOT an option" to "Nothing we're going to do different" when engineers petitioned her to have photos taken either by a spy satellite or a ground-based telescope of the left wing. There was a previous mission where the right wing was similarly damaged during launch and during re-entry. Instead of the steep descent during re-entry, it re-entered at a swallower angle with the damaged wing 'shaded' by the Orbiter. It safely landed with significant damage to the wing.
I understand. In that case I would hit the like button for all the work that went into this explanation/demonstration. I think it helps to know what really happened and mistakes made. We are starting a new space age again.
I blame NASA for this disaster, they were aware that the wing had been damaged during takeoff and there were people making plans to send another shuttle for a rescue mission, but that plan got blocked by one of the head people at NASA. Also what they don’t tell you is that this disaster also caused East Texas to skyrocket into the top five areas for cancer cases because of the radiation that had contaminated the pieces of the shuttle . It also contaminated parts of Toledo Bend Reservoir and Sam Rayburn which led to some of the cases of cancer from people catching radiation poisoning or cancer from eating the fish. One of the search members who helped search for missing pieces of Colombia actually died from radiation poisoning that they believe he got from touching a piece of the shuttle. NASA never took responsibility for it and all they did was build 2 small memorials and shoved it under the rug.
@@Roper15 “making plans … another shuttle” Fantasy. The crew was dead the moment that wing leading edge was struck. Only thing contaminated was your brain from the comic books in your tree fort
@@Nill757 so you use insults because you have no point?😂 It was documented that they were planning to send a rescue. As far as contamination goes you can look that up too!
Weird to be this early Also it is genuinely scary tbh, imagine being on a shuttle trying to get control of it and fighting for your life all for it be in vain as the shuttle gets destroyed.
I've heard witness testimony from ham radio operators that claimed they received their comms after it broke up. Apparently the containment vessel held until impact. From what the guy said it was very distressing.
It completely broke up in flight. Simplified explanation: A breach in the crew cabin from aerodynamic forces near the front wheel well caused loss of air resulting in near instant hypoxia. The bulkhead between the cabin and payload bay ripped apart pulling all occupants out. --Columbia Crew Survivability Report. Think what might happen to a rag doll being tossed around in a force 5 tornado in which a house does not survive.
The newest space vehicles are an order of magnitude more advanced than the shuttle. The Space shuttle was at best a very flawed vehicle that never performed nearly as well as its creators intended. That we relied on it for so many years speaks to the lack of progress in manned space flight over a half century.
@@billmoran3812 “more advanced” Still takes 6 months to get there, same as if tried 50 years ago, and six months back. People still need same air, food, water, shelter everyday. Flat screen space craft control panels change none of that.
I had highschool baseball tryouts that morning, in Texas. I just remember no one was really focused on baseball and everybody kept looking at the sky for long periods the whole time
The fact that the cabin just came off ALL BY ITSELF shows that they EASILY could have designed it in such a way that the cabin could ignite some thrusters and boost away from the orbiter and then land under parachute. This feature would have saved ALL the astronauts on both failed Shuttles!! 🤬🤬
This should have been a feature on the shuttle when it was being designed and built but it was a feature that couldn’t be retrofitted after the shuttle design was finalized. The shuttle is built very specifically and adding tons of weight to the fore end would change everything. For your proposal to work an entirely new shuttle was needed.
I remember watching this live on NASA TV. They were showing live telemetry, and I knew exactly what was happening well before anything was announced. It was truly heartbreaking.
OMG brought me back. was out in Okeechobee that day and the sonic boom blew me and my good friend Ryan off the road, didn't wreck but a very sad day for everyone. God bless those astronauts, damn things parts fell in Texas about 5 minutes later if that tells you how fast they go
Must’ve been absolutely terrifying. At least they lost consciousness fairly early. R.I.P. Columbia crew.
Still a better way to go than withering away alone at a nursing home or hospital
I'd rather go immediately doing what I love too
NASA.. never a straight answer
@@Swimfinz That’s nice Dear!
Yeah, most specialist said that they were awake/ alive during impact 😢
@@Swimfinz moon landing must have been fake then?
"Columbia, Houston, comm check."
I know that was procedure, but it's still incredibly haunting knowing what has happened 😨
That and “Go for throttle-up”were so benign for so long and now are stomach wrenching.
Thats " what was happening"
'Houston', not 'Huston'
@@allanfifield8256 ,?? Please understand we text with big fingers tapping small letter keys…typos in texts are common, it’s no big deal. We all know ValeryOp 5 meant “Houston”.
@enriqueamaya3883for me it was. Good thing this is past after 30y.
As a former USAF flight crew member, we learned long ago that “big craft don’t crash gracefully.”
Well, crash and gracefully tend to not belong within the same sentence anyway.
And I think this is with everything?
That pretty much says it all for any bad ending.
Very sad
Lol
Incredibly I was just talking to my nephew about this terrible tragedy an hour ago. I Lived in Orange Co. California at that time in the front yard with my daughter. I looked up and saw a huge smoke trail. At the same time as I went inside I saw the news indicating Nasa had lost communications with the shuttle. The rest is history. The realization of knowing what I was looking at was mind blowing and I will forever hold those people in my prayers and my heart. I also lived in Tallahassee Fla when the shuttle blew up in 1986 on lift off. I was watching when it happened. I have never really talked about these 2 events before today first with my nephew and now with you. God bless all astronauts and their families.
Omg must've been hard for you to know you're watching people dying 😢
Not diminishing your trauma and the astoundingly tragic events for those you witnessed, but god must have had the day off. Like every day.
The absolute criminal part of NASA's behavior during this flight was their refusal to perform high resolution imaging of the orbiter, which was possible, to determine if the fears of damage during liftoff were valid. The reason given was that they didn't want to set a precedent of doing this because then it meant they would have to do it on subsequent flights
@@miguelservetus9534 There was, actually. NASA even had a rescue plan in place, but decided to wing it instead.
The irony being that it then became standard procedure for all subsequent shuttle flights. SMH.
@Miguel Servetus They had several opportunities to image the spacecraft. They actually almost had an image taken, but it was cut off at the last second when management found out.
The managers claimed that no spacecraft actually had the capabilities to perform the task, so they didn't want to waste anyone's time, but they couldn't possibly know what the imaging capabilities of all satellites in orbit are.
Finally, even if they couldn't rescue the crew, they could at least have given them a fighting chance to do something about the situation. Apollo-13 is the greatest space rescue in history and it's almost impossible what those people did; while we will never know what could have been, it's disingenuous to write them off without ever having given them a chance to save themselves.
@@miguelservetus9534 there have been several studies outlining how the crew of Columbia could have gone into extreme power saving mode to stretch their expendables until a second shuttle could have been prepped and launched under emergency procedures, skipping many of the usual safety checks in order to launch in time with the required docking attachment
@@jim2lane Those plans were theoretically shaky at best and also would have endangered a second crew. The sad reality is that even if the damage was known there was an overwhelming probability that the Columbia crew were doomed.
Charlie Hobaugh's "Columbia, Houston! Comm check!" will be one of those phrases, I'll never ever forget.
Amen
Yep. An unanswered “comm check” is always haunting
Challengers. Lock the doors
That and "Challenger, go at throttle up!"
@@andyhopkinson2708 oh man…
Such a tragedy. Especially when you consider someone had raised doubts about safety JUST LIKE WITH CHALLENGER and it was ignored AGAIN. brave astronauts all of em
Linda Ham is the POS who knew and purposefully stifled any attempt to investigate further.
This doesn't mean safety should be minimized... but there are always, always safety concerns. The safest place for the shuttle is on the ground, but that's not why you build the shuttle. I worked with a guy who would bring up insane concerns, mostly to hear himself talk. He was wrong the vast majority of the time - not that the probabilities didn't work out, but wrong about what could happen. He was right once and dined out on that for years. There are only so many things that can be considered, only so many probabilities that can be reviewed, and there are always concerns that could be addressed differently. Sometimes things aren't addressed correctly, but it is also really easy afterwards to say, "see? Just like I said!" when it may not have been even said in the first place. You aren't necessity wrong, this just clearly pushed on a button on me and it let me think these thoughts through, so thank you for saying your piece so I could consider mine.
And the most furious, NASA never admit this was their fault. First, they gaslight and run a campaign to boycot the investigators who concluded that the tragedy happened becaused the foam on the big tank brokened during takeoff and puncture a large hole on the ship, led plasma entered. They even mocked chieft investigator "foamotologist" and do their best to deny the real test. But then the real test confirmed the theory of the investigators, accodring to the diary of the chieft investigator all NASA personels at the lab cried like a bitch when the foam destroyed the heat shield and the hull. By then, NASA tried to accused the company that produced the foam intended to designed the foam to be broken and ruined the company reputation for many years until the microscopic investigation concluded that the foam broken was because of its structure and the company did not know about this.
NASA never fixed this, instead they had to prepared 2 Shuttles and one was backup for the other, also Space Shuttle cannot go further than ISS so in case the puncture so large like Colombia the crew will abandoned the shuttle and take refuge on ISS. And thus many years later the program closed and immediately Russia increased the price to send US Astronaunts to ISS, forced NASA to paid nearly a hundred mil USD per seat if crew Dragon not appeared.
@@onothankyouWell in this case, like Columbia, concerns that were quite valid were raised by the engineers who were actually running the program only for management to shoot it down in favor of efficiency... in a federally funded agency.
Do you make a habit of doing driveby engineering?
@@koc988efficiency?
Missing the main problem here, a fundamentally flawed vehicle design: large wings on hypersonic envelope launch/re-entry, done to accommodate dual use military retrieval needs. It’s was never going to become safe by tweeks. If is wasn’t the wing strike at launch, it would have been a hopelessly unmaintaunable tile failure on a wing surface.
Nobody else in space flight has ever done wings re-entry. Why do you think that is?
My grandfather was a part of the recovery team. I never get tired of hearing his stories of his involvement with the shuttle program.
Post pics of the bodies 😂
@calypsohandjack9278 Doubt there's alot of remains.
@@calypsohandjack9278 You have a twisted mind. Get out of here.
Make a video of her telling the history and upload it for people to watch
@@calypsohandjack9278 you might have a problem
The professionalism of this crew fighting to the end to save their craft as they spun out of control probably even realizing they were doomed, but never gave up.
I love this type of heroism!!!
What other option did they have? They weren’t saving the craft for the sake of the vessel. They were attempting to save it to survive. It’s not like they could egress at 180k+ feet lol.
@@anthonyboni5884 I'll be clear of what I meant. They didn't freeze up, they didn't overly (if any) panic, they tried to work the problem as trained, and they worked together and stayed focus until the end. They didn't stop to pray, or scream, or call out for help or start working the problem irrationally. Or anything else that some people would do knowing they were doom. And yes of course they were desperately trying to save their lives. And maybe desperation was the reason the tried to the end. Or maybe they were Brave Professionals who were able to stay focus and work the problem when all hell was coming apart well falling from the heavens
@@Rayq007
Oh, you can bet your ass they were praying.
@@taw1967 Well no doubt you would of been.
I remember watching this and then lost. Heart breaking that transitioned to horror when we realized they had worked to save the shuttle and was conscious. 😢
I heard it overhead and saw the trail f4om it in the sky.moments later in East Texas.
A friend has footage from his telescope video rig- ama?jng!
I remember someone running in, " turn on the TV!"😢
*were conscious
How did they work 😳
It's actually quite remarkable how relatively few accidents there have been in manned space flight. In 60, 70 years we've had Apollo 1, Shuttle Challenger, and Shuttle Columbia. Seventeen lives lost, none of them forgotten, none of them in vain.
what about soviet spaceflight?
@@clayel1 The soviets had one decompression in space (3 crew, the only 3 people to have actually died in space), and one failed parachute (1 crew). Also two deaths during training exercises. Statistically at least their space program has been far safer than ours.
China have had it far worse.
One failed rocket launch crashed on a small village, killing maybe 500 people.
@@danieljensen2626 the guy who burned up?
People have died in space and will die in space again; make no mistake.
But people die in wars, climbing mountains and in plane crashes too.
Personally, I can't think of a more noble death... trying to expand mankind's presence in space.
RIP brave explorers.
20 years and it never gets easier to hear.
Honestly, the day that it does is a day I fear the most.
I heard that… i was so angry, so helpless, hoping it was quick for the crew…
🥱
Pretty much the only parts of the 400-page NASA survivability report that have been redacted before it reached the public are portions of the *crew injuries* section, especially around mentions of the autopsy. It doesn’t take too long to figure out what those redacted parts might have been…. Especially when some of them are outright stated to have been *images*.
www.asma.org/asma/media/asma/Travel-Publications/NASA%20Shuttle/SP-2014-616.pdf
@@scottmanley Interesting! I had not seen this document before. Thank you for sharing. I am glad that we learned so much from this incident, but the cost cannot be overstated. I hope, as it is believed, that they did not suffer in death, and I hope that they have found some peace now. Thank you so much for your dedication to educating the public.
@@scottmanley Not so long ago I saw a lecture during which there was a slide presentation depicting crew module with silhouettes of each crewmember in their seats colored adequately to represent heat impact visualization. Apparently from the thermal injuries alone, the source of breach was traced to the upper deck right side, where Laurel Clark seat was.
wow. eye watering read
@@scottmanley Thanks for sharing the report, it is excellent. Question: The report refers several times to the future Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV). What was that? Did you ever cover that in one of your videos? Some sort of early post-shuttle concept?
Brief, concise, hard truth. Heartache revisited.
Yes, I remember watching this as it happened.
I recently went to a space camp at the Kennedy space center and while there I would joke around with my friends but when we went into the memorial for Columbia and challenger, everyone got quiet. There was a real side panel and the real cockpit windows, one of them from each of the accidents but they we so somber, set in the separate room and it was truly humbling and a stark reminder of all the lives, few, but still live lost
one of my favorite movies as a kid was space camp
I live in Cape Canaveral! Hope you enjoyed space camp, and I'm glad you and your friends got to experience that. It is definitely a sobering moment. Did you get to see any launches? I've lived here my whole life and will never get sick of them, especially night launches
One thing I keep coming back to about the Columbia disaster is I’m amazed how long the Orbiter kept together, even once it began oscillating wildly which was almost impossible to even fathom. From initiation of LOC to CE, that orbiter held together for almost 30 seconds. A testimony to the construction of those shuttles, and yet how I wish Columbia could’ve held together longer and gotten those heroes home…
Had they somehow managed to not loose control then it might’ve made it home, but we’ll never know for sure
@@the_darkgamerytthe left wing was destined to come off. The shuttle was called the "flying brick" even with both of them attached. Nevermind how the aerodynamics would have torn the shuttle apart the same way it. Maybe if NASA allowed them to easily take an image of the damage they could have possibly angled in such away that the wing stayed on. That would require a water landing, but better than what they had
If you think about it the orbiter flew with a perfect operational record. Challenger was caused by an SRB and Columbia was victim to foam that came off the ET.
Altitude very thin atmosphere low drag loads, initially.
Theu could have done an ultra slow reentry, not regular dive into at.osphwre.
I remember being at Ft Hood and driving in that day. We watched it break apart and leave a trail across the sky. We all immediately knew what happened. Tragic accident for sure
RIP Columbia Crew, may your loved ones live lives at peace knowing you'll always be in their hearts and memories, God bless you all.
I was in Dallas-Ft. Worth when the shuttle passed by and created a significant sonic boom. Only minutes later, the news said that it broke up across Texas and Louisiana. So sad for the astronauts who lived and died, “living the dream.” RIP.
Same. Terrifying hour or two before I knew what happened
Heard this even in Austin
We could see the debris belt in lake charles
I was in Mansfield and saw it.
I had seen several shuttle landings before.
This one was much different.
I was watching the shuttle pass over from my back yard in far north Dallas. I was using binoculars and I could see pieces breaking off but I didn’t realize I was actually watching it disintegrate. I had been in Cocoa Beach Florida several weeks before and the shuttle crew came into a local seafood place I was eating at. They had their flight suits on and I thought it was neat to have seen the shuttle crew that would go up in the next few days. Little did I know I would witness their demise from my back yard several weeks later.
I seen both disasters happen live and it is still knocks the wind out my soul today
Just heard former astronaut Mark Kelly on NPR radio this week speaking about going to recover his classmates - 3 of the astronauts. Kelly was a short helicopter ride away and went in and discovered the bodies. Must have been horrific for him.
At the very least a brother carried them back away from the accident site.
You might appreciate “Recovering Columbia “ by Leinhart. He writes about Kelly and the whole recovery program.
@@miguelservetus9534 got it. Added it to my library today.
My parents knew one of them. They knew him since he was a young boy. He was from Spokane, Washington. My dad has a picture of them two. When this tragic incident happened, CNN and 60 Minutes wanted an interview but my dad declined. He didn't want that attention on him. But they say he was the sweetest person and very caring and outgoing who loved helping others. I think he was a scientist. May you and your crew RIP
If I may ask, which astronaut was it that your parents knew?
@@normacascio9041 His name was Michael Anderson, and his parents and my parents are old friends
@@johnhenderson6053my condolences to your family knowing that they lost an old friend. Especially a person who was part of such an amazing mission. Nice of your dad to think about the family, and not wanting to distract from the shock they were in.
@@johnhenderson6053 Oh yeah, I definitely remember the name Michael Anderson. Wow I'm so sorry for you all, and what a small world it can be sometimes. I can't say the time is right, but nice to meet you. This says a lot about his circle of friends, which is very impressive. Again my condolences.
I’m from Spokane and I’ve never heard of this local space badass 🫡 I’ll be doin some research today.
I think the one thing overlooked about this tragedy is just how long the ship survived that high angle of attack, it's pretty impressive.
Once it got to thicker air though it stood no chance
@@NathamelCamel sure, but then nothing would. My point was that it lasted for a surprisingly long time despite the failure it had suffered.
30 seconds? That's amazingggggggggg 👏 🙀
@@Dog_gone_it IKR I'd have expected almost instantaneous failure.
They dont have any more zoomed video of this?
I remember hearing the explosion over my head. Initially I thought it was just a sonic boom from a nearby Airbase, then my daughter called me from Pennsylvania. She was asking if I was alright? I informed her that I was good and currently at work. I was placing my W2 statement in my car when I heard the boom. She said it was the shuttle that blew up over my head. It was actually a little east of me, with debris flung over a large area. When Challenger blew up in 86 over Florida, I was working at RCA. They were monitoring the lift off. Saw it blow up even before they notified the President. We were kept in a room and had to wait before Reagan was told.
Amazing story brother. What was the atmosphere in the room at RCA when you all saw the flight blow up? I can imagine it would be similar although less intense to the feeling people got seeing 9-11 happen. Shell shocked
So sad, they went down doing what they were trained to do, working the problem. So much respect for them.
2/1/03 & 1/28/86 are two dates I'll never forget. I recall exactly where I was and what I was doing when both tragedies happened. RIP to all the men and women who lost their lives in both events.
Me too. I was watching both events when they happened. Hard to watch knowing what happened
I was in JSC Bldg 1 headquarters and we paused our meeting to watch the launch on the 28th. I couldnt believe what I witnessed. They were my friends. I had never experienced clinical depression before that, but a month later, I realized I was in trouble. To this day, I cry when I think about it, so I avoid the memorials each year. I now live in the wilderness, and my singular purpose in life is serving and worshipping God. 😢
I remember the first one, but not the second. Prolly bc I was working at NASA at the time, while in 86 I didn’t have anything going on.
@RyanM.thegoat We used to keep the imbeciles locked away from society. It's amazing that the internet forces the rest of us to witness drivel like yours. Shameful. Truly shameful and embarassing to witness.
@RyanM.thegoatsure yeah.
This would have been absolutely terrifying. A few years back, I was watching something about the Challenger explosion and apparently there was proof that the (or some of the) astronauts survived the initial explosion and were hurled further toward space and that at least two of them were alive when the fuselage came crashing back down. Apparently, they had initiated or activated a couple things manually at certain moments after the explosion and that's how it was determined they hadn't died instantly and had actually been totally aware/alert as they soared back down to Earth. That made me sick; I'd always assumed they'd died far more quickly and unfortunately they did not.
That's the difference between reentry and takeoff. The consensus is that all Challenger crew members survived the initial explosion. The crew cabin was intact, and detached immediately. Also a pressure breach at 192,000 feet is quite different from 47,000 feet. At 47,000 feet, you might lose consciousness for a few seconds.
That's really sad. I hope we can use the knowledge for the improvement of future vessels.
It has been used. The shuttle program as a whole taught us to maybe not build your rocket like a fucking cartoon
I have stood infront of the debrie they recovered from the crash at the Kennedy space center in FL. It is truly one of the most emotional and haunting experiences ever. Much respect for the crew. R.I.P.
In 7/4/82, I saw Columbia land at Edwards AFB, STS-4. My thought was when it was closer "My God, it's a house!"That same day, I saw Challenger being airlifted on the back of a 747 to KSC. I thought both machines were incredible pieces of engineering, and felt ill seeing what happened to both crews and their ships.
My father was assigned to the submarine NR-1 as a civilian engineer, while it did the recovery of Challenger for NASA's investigation in '86. It was an emotional time for every professional involved.
don't go to/visit a concentration camp.
7/4/82 - I was there too. Quite the day.
Me too. At first interesting, then sobering then tearful.
My god that is so heartbreaking and scary! I know that we have to look at this incident with a sense of detachment so we can learn as much as possible to prevent things like this from happening again. Yet it is so hard to not think about how they were just 7 people,with lives and loved ones,people that cared about them so much,and they were gone just like that. I am grateful to Scott Manly bringing their story back up on the anniversary of their passing,its nice to inform the younger generation of what happened and why we remember these great people. RIP crew of the Columbia,you are truly of the stars now.
I believe the crew of this beautiful feat of engineering remained calm and professional during the entire event until going unconscious. I believe they went above their duty to try to recover the aircraft. These are true hero's of all humans. They knew the risks, and knew everything that could go wrong. They did good, and above anyone could ask for. Rest in piece Columbia.
You know they did.
By saying “ they did it to save the aircraft “ then you’re saying they had a way to exit before the crashing but decided not to?
@@axe4770 Thats not what he said, is it. Dont put words into his mouth.
Their job and only job was to fly the vehicle, they like any pilot, would do this until they ran out of options. They would've been well aware that they were fighting a losing battle. Its tragic and at the end of the day they could've been saved another Sts was sitting on the pad. They could've been rescued but nasa are greedy. Both loses of challenger and Colombia crews could've been avoided.
@@rubyshoes1032they didnt go "above and beyond" they simply did their job in the presence of a malfunction.
Same goes for Challenger, they were doing everything they could till it broke up and they hit the water.
Scott, on watching this my stomach was instantly churnming. That it took under one minute to breach the pressure vessel has so much meaning... their spirits are always with us as a lesson to the one fact that the explorations of space has
Space is and will be dangerous to mankind's sense of being safe. The moment mankind considers itself safe, it absolutly is not.
Very necessary for education but seeing the animation is very very haunting. Thanks for putting this together though, can't imagine it's easy covering something as morbid as this.
Thankfully, they were unconscious before they died, but battled almost to the end.
Certainly a much better fate than challenger’s crew…
So they say were unconscious
Apparantly emergency oxygen activation was detected so not all may have been unconscious
@@Rettro404 WIth the forces involved and the temps quickly rising, it wouldn't have been very long.
They have no idea what their talking about pure speculation.
I'm a huge NASA junkie who grew up in Central Florida, and I woke up early that morning to track the orbiter because they predicted a louder sonic boom than usual.
When the Flight Director made the call to implement the FCOH contingency plan procedure, I knew the orbiter had been lost. I started to sob in that moment, while my family looked at me trying to understand what was happening.
By the time I explained it to them, CNN broke into their broadcast with live video of the orbiter breaking up.
Breaks my heart anytime I see the video.
I was probably like around 6/7 when this happened and I couldn't ask anything other than "what's wrong? And "are they going to be okay?"
Instinct knew it was bad but I had in my heart that if they took a risk to go up there for all us, they should be saved but I definitely learned that day.
God Bless everyone of them.
I have no idea when this happened or when I heard but I was hoping to know teacher had stories for the class but later learnt of the disaster
Was sitting with my back to the North at the dining room table with my then daughter in law. She was looking over my shoulder out the sliding glass door behind me with a puzzled look on her face not knowing what she was looking at. When I turned around I knew exactly what I was looking at. We were in Leander, tx ...North of Austin, tx.
Wow I'm surprised you could see it from down there! Lived in Leander for 3 years!
A friend in Nacodoches, TX found a helmet. I'm in Austin. I watched a shuttle years before crossing over us on it's way to Florida. It left a vapor trail that was so bright. Never saw anything like it. These guys came so close to making it back. RIP
A helmet from the columbia? Its such an important piece of history
Hillbillies from all over East Texas were swarming the woods hoping to get a piece of the shuttle. I'm from Lufkin, my buddies all gave reports.......not of finding anything, but of the massive amount of people combing the woods. I'm sure some people found things, but none of my close friends did.
Watching this gave me chills as I had watched this live in my classroom at high school. Never going to forget that moment.
I always wondered what the astronauts of sts-107 had to endure in their final moments from a scientific approach. The empathetic side hurts for the fear, terror and agony these people suffered. Fought until the options faded. Thank you Mr Manley, for the tragic insight that I'm sure was difficult to assemble. Godspeed STS-107. This should have been prevented.
The crew report is available online. Pretty chilling. They even mentioned the failed belt mechanisms that likely allowed some of the crew to be dismembered. Apparently it was another known problem.
I was only 4 years old at the time and yet I vividly remember coming downstairs that morning and seeing the footage on TV of the shuttle broken up, it was one of those things that you just remember burned into your mind. Rest in peace STS-107 ad Astra
Always wanted a detailed summary of the re-entry.
Thank you for the details
Wow. That's really a sad and terrifying commentary on the accident. I have no doubt that this crew was working to save the aircraft as long as consciousness aloud them to. The only silver lining on this storm cloud is that crew went out doing what they loved, and never giving up hope that she could be saved.
One of the greatest failures of the entire space shuttle program was ignoring known issues that seemingly inevitably led to this crash.
The retrospectoscope always has 20/20 vision.
In efforts like this thousands of thousands of risk based decisions get made with incomplete data.
Only in hindsight do we say ‘This was ignored.’ The reports show that NASA was aware of the risk but underestimated the probability.
Decision makers have tough jobs. I only rose to that level of my profession in the last stages of my career and had many a sleepless night.
Maybe if those responsible for deciding risk and probability that took the lives of the seven crew members should be held responsible instead of protected only to do the same on the next launch. That’s one thing that’s always been hammered to me and I have been made to do just that. When your high up the totem pole or rich your excluded from responsibility unlike the rest of us who many times end up destroyed over something they were held responsible for.
Haunting video Scott. Telling the story yet still paying tribute.
Heartbreaking. And to know they were alive long enough to realize it and try regain control…agonizing to the think about. Simply can’t imagine that kind of horror.
a sad day, not one of the saddest, I remember church and school bombings in the. 19501960, etc.
I was in grade school-we watched this heartbreaking event live, on a tv set up at the front of our classroom. Seems like only yesterday…when our palpable excitement of the moment slowly evolved into utter disbelief and silence.
I remembered seeing the memorial in elementary school and looking at it with reverence.
Space is unforgiving and when your life and the lives of your crew is determined by every little action that you do, you have to be able to live and die doing what what you can.
They're not just scientists, they're space marines. They chose to train to work in the most hostile environment known to mankind and blow it off like it's nothing.
Remember Columbia
I remember seeing the news, they were saying that “something happened” and that multiple sonicbooms were heard. I looked at the video, turned to my parents and said, “they’re dead.” Horrific tragedy, made worse by how preventable it was.
Sadly once Columbia launched there was very little that could be done, because it was a microgravity research mission and not a station mission. it never flew to ISS, it was in free flight the entire mission. It had no capability to do any orbital repairs, nor extend its stay to wait for rescue, nor reach the ISS.
@@tylisirn the original foam coating didn’t have this issue, it was changed in the 90’s by executive order to reduce “pollution”. Following this change the foam would regularly break away, as the change in process left larger air pockets that expanded at higher altitudes. The continued occurrence caused complacency. It was a 1:1M shot that it hit exactly like it did, but it did.
I recognize that not MUCH could have been done after launch. But it was still completely preventable.
@@quetzalcoatl9162 I’ve read the EO that changed it, so changes WERE made.
Absolutely chilling. Thank you, Scott. Well done.
I witnessed this incident in person. I was in our backyard near Dallas, looked up to the south, and saw the shuttle engulfed in a fireball. I didn’t realize what it was until later when I went inside and saw it on the news.
Bill Hicks was right about people like you.
I mean, it would have been engulfed in flames either way because of reentry but luckily MOST of the time they have undamaged heat shields.
I was at the cape on the Roof of the building we were constructing having seen the shuttle before from the same roof and finding out that we were directly in the path for landing but being a little short to see the runway but could see the smoke twirls when they did land. I waited 30 minutes past the arrival time and when starting my car and hearing on the radio on what had happened, it broke my heart and the families were close by doing the same thing i was, Waiting.
Both shuttle disasters are etched in my brain. I remember where I was and how I heard the news in both cases.
We live in East Texas. I'm never forget the ship disintegration and knowing it was going to land in bits near where we lived. The horror was just too real
I was in pascagoula, mississippi that day, working as an ironworker in the cheveron refinery. We were excited because we were supposed to hear the sonic boom as it passed. We never heard it and forgot. When i got in my truck that evening, i heard on the radio. What a tragedy.
That was a terrible day. I watched as it happened. Unforgettable.
At that time, I was a furnace tapper and knew of refractory paste applications and always wondered if they at least could've did a space walk and tried to repair the damaged tiles with some type of high temperature refractory paste buying them some time. It just seemed a poor design in those critical areas of the shield that ultimately sealed their fate. We'll never know. R.I.P.
It would have at least been one of several measures that might have made a survivable reentry possible. I've wondered if coming down with a bit of a commanded yaw in order to give the damaged area some protection might have also bought them more time...buy enough and you've survived reentry. Past that, if you've still got control you can then turn your attention to where to land. It's just so frustrating that 1) nothing was done to determine the spacecraft's condition 2) nothing was done to increase survivability. Instead it was just, y'all go run your experiments or whatever - at least some folks down here will get some resume food from your last days alive...
They had such a system on the later flights. I heard an engineer say that had they known exactly where that hole was, they could have yawed the craft left a few degrees to protect that wing, if only a manager's ego hadn't canceled the photos they requested from a military satellite.
@@hopelessnerd6677 So it wasn’t just me who had the thought. So frustrating. If Apollo 13 taught us anything it’s that you fight all the way down. ALL the way down. You give yourself every possible opportunity to survive. With this mission, no opportunity was taken to even understand status, much less survive. I remember Gene Kranz’ words after the 13 explosion (this is from memory; don’t @ me): “What do we know in terms of status? What do we have on the spacecraft that’s good?”
It’s even more chilling now to realise, on the live footage, when the bay doors are stripped off and the crew succumb.
Nobody could ever imagine what those heroes went through. Just unbelievable.
I remember learning about how the aux oxygen was located on the suits, and they had all been activated meaning they were alive after the initial break up and the fact they lived that long really blew my mind ( this was before we knew exactly what happened)
Pretty sure you’re thinking about challenger
I remember watching this happen in the sky as a young boy living in East Texas. Brings tears to my eyes even now. RIP Columbia crew
According to other astronauts, the moment Hudson and McCool saw that the RCS was firing continuously and was saturated, they would have known instantly they were dead.
I had always wondered exactly how the events of the breakup matched up with what we saw on camera that day. How heartbreaking… thank you for the video Scott.
The fact that they only found pieces of the crew is unsettling
Page 113 of the accident report shows how fast they may have died. Thank god they didn’t have to experience much.
crew, or crew ship?
@@SpaceKebab the astronauts.
I was at work Saturday morning when my mom called and told me to turn on the news. I grew up going to many shuttle launches here in Florida since my friend’s Dad worked at NASA. It’s something I wish my kids could experience.
The bravest people on the earth are the ones who leave the planet. R.I.F.P
Still one of the hardest days to remember.
God. They were awake for nearly a minute after losing control. They had to endure a minute of desperately fighting to save their lives :(
And they never gave up, even though they knew they were doomed
You're thinking about the wrong shuttle
On April 1982 I watched the Colombia shuttle take off from the Cape and we were about 2 miles from the launch pad and I'll never forget how my body shook as her engines roared to life. 🇺🇸👍
I watched this in my back yard with my horrified parents in Houston Texas. I didnt really understand what was going on.
I remember watching this live on television. It was a very sad day for everyone involved
The most complex and expensive machine ever built by man, brought down by a piece of foam…
goes to show how dumb space shuttles were. not very reliable and more expensive than traditional rockets
Both Shuttles were destroyed by NASA and the contractors arrogance, ignorance and criminal actions. NASA knew of critical problems before they launched and afterwards, but rather than stop to assess the issues, they murdered the crews.
I was just north of the debris field in East Texas. The sound of her breaking a part, I can only describe as a super sonic train wreck. It's a sound I will never forget.
They did everything that their training taught them to do in an emergency. I doubt that they had much time to be scared, knowing that they were taught to work the problem, number one priority. True professionals to the end.
I could have gone my entire rest of my life without seeing this. Heros.
They should've made the cabin a separate system, that can be decoupled and has its own parachute for worst case scenarios like this
bro parachutes would literally burn up at that speed
They were at 275,000 feet. Parachutes are no use whatever at that altitude. The air is very thin at that height. Apollo deployed its parachutes at about 10,000 feet when it had slowed to around 100mph.
I lived in Ft. Worth at the time. The boom of Columbia's break up woke me up. Sad, sad day. I watched her first launch and heard her last moments.
Wow. My thoughts and prayers are still with their families. My condolences again.
Terrifying! :(((
The last words sayd by flight director LeRoy E. Cain "Columbia - Houston comm check" makes me crying.
And that teacher who had won better than the lottery, but lost her life. Krista McKauliff? Idk how to spell her name, but I say it here in respect.
That was the Challenger disaster, not this Columbia disaster.
@@ddichny They're pretty interchangable.
I pray that they lost consciousness as soon as possible. Those astronauts were heroes in my book and I can’t even begin to imagine the terror they must have gone through as the shuttle broke apart. May they rest in peace and may we remember them as pioneers that sacrificed their lives in the name of space exploration. God Speed to those 7 brave souls.
I took the Pentagon call to activate NG to recover the bodies and debris 15 minutes before this event was reported on the News. 2/1/03
Damn this video is chilling
Especially the part where they were fighting even when the cockpit detached. That was fucking chilling bruh.
Imagine the sheer desperation these people had goin thru their minds tryna fix that.
Yeah, I remember watching it break up over East Texas. It was something I watched that literally took my breath away. It was a very sad day
I remember after the Challenger disaster there was talk about making the command section sealed and able to break away from the shuttle with parachutes to protect the astronauts. If that had been done it sounds like these astronauts would have been saved.
The command section shattered into pieces shortly after its separation from the main body.
@@crogeny On which one. I seem to recall that the Challenger command section was estimated to be together all the way down to the ocean floor.
As far as Columbia, if they had made the required changes to allow the ejection of the command section from the rest of the craft, it might have survived. There's no way to tell for certain.
However I do know a bit about ejection technology and part of it is to get the components carrying people away from the rest of the craft as quickly as possible.
@@equesdeventusoccasus You're right about Challenger but the post-accident report that Scott posted in another thread states clearly that the command section of Columbia shattered into so many pieces that the debris field of this section extended over 50 miles! We know with absolute certainty that the command section shattered because of this debris field and also because the autopsies of the astronauts showed that their bodies had all been fully exposed to the surrounding atmosphere at >100,000 feet (i.e., they were in freefall with no surrounding structure to protect them). The heat and forces at that altitude were so severe that the space suits of the astronauts were stripped from their bodies. The report explains in detail why the command section shattered.
@@equesdeventusoccasus Do you also understand the aerodynamically around each shuttle mishaps is different? Columbia coming down super hot as the module would shear apart from the difference in pressure upon exit its mothership failing body.
@@JoshSimpson I not only understand the aerodynamics and the differences between the two accidents, I also realize that even from this video's description, the people inside the shuttle were still attempting to fix things long after it was impossible to fix anything.
If we get another shuttle-like space craft, it should probably be equipped with a detachable command section that will detach manually, but would also have failsafes that would automatically detach the command section, when systems determine it is necessary.
Those poor people. I only hope they were knocked out before they realized their demise.
Unfortunately I think most of the crew knew they were in deep trouble as soon as the problems started. Though thankfully it was probably only 20-30 seconds, but still that must had seemed an entirety to them.
adrenaline probably takes control over your mind and makes fear go down.
I always wonder...right before the break up, there was a tight shot of the spacecraft which pulled back to the view you see here. If only he had stayed tight on that shot, we might have understood even more. So terrible that day. Can't believe it was 20 years ago.
Having worked at KSC on the Space Shuttle Program, I had worked the Launch book on STS-107. Columbia could have been saved up until the deorbit burn. That doomed it and the crew. Linda Hamm single-handedly changed NASA's motto from "Failure is NOT an option" to "Nothing we're going to do different" when engineers petitioned her to have photos taken either by a spy satellite or a ground-based telescope of the left wing. There was a previous mission where the right wing was similarly damaged during launch and during re-entry. Instead of the steep descent during re-entry, it re-entered at a swallower angle with the damaged wing 'shaded' by the Orbiter. It safely landed with significant damage to the wing.
I simply cannot bring myself to hit the "like" button.
I did it for you!
I’ll do it for you
I understand. In that case I would hit the like button for all the work that went into this explanation/demonstration. I think it helps to know what really happened and mistakes made. We are starting a new space age again.
I blame NASA for this disaster, they were aware that the wing had been damaged during takeoff and there were people making plans to send another shuttle for a rescue mission, but that plan got blocked by one of the head people at NASA. Also what they don’t tell you is that this disaster also caused East Texas to skyrocket into the top five areas for cancer cases because of the radiation that had contaminated the pieces of the shuttle . It also contaminated parts of Toledo Bend Reservoir and Sam Rayburn which led to some of the cases of cancer from people catching radiation poisoning or cancer from eating the fish. One of the search members who helped search for missing pieces of Colombia actually died from radiation poisoning that they believe he got from touching a piece of the shuttle. NASA never took responsibility for it and all they did was build 2 small memorials and shoved it under the rug.
@@Roper15 “making plans … another shuttle”
Fantasy. The crew was dead the moment that wing leading edge was struck.
Only thing contaminated was your brain from the comic books in your tree fort
@@Nill757 so you use insults because you have no point?😂 It was documented that they were planning to send a rescue. As far as contamination goes you can look that up too!
@@Roper15 None of that is true outside your tree fort, yknow, the place you keep your documentation.
Weird to be this early
Also it is genuinely scary tbh, imagine being on a shuttle trying to get control of it and fighting for your life all for it be in vain as the shuttle gets destroyed.
Heros to humanity, unlocking doors to the universe and truth for us all. (Salute imogi)
All things considered, loss of pressure was probably the least painful way they could have died in this crash.
I've heard witness testimony from ham radio operators that claimed they received their comms after it broke up. Apparently the containment vessel held until impact. From what the guy said it was very distressing.
It completely broke up in flight. Simplified explanation: A breach in the crew cabin from aerodynamic forces near the front wheel well caused loss of air resulting in near instant hypoxia. The bulkhead between the cabin and payload bay ripped apart pulling all occupants out. --Columbia Crew Survivability Report. Think what might happen to a rag doll being tossed around in a force 5 tornado in which a house does not survive.
Are we talking Challenger or Columbia??
We lost 2 of 5 of the most advanced machines ever to fly, inside our own atmosphere.... and someone still thinks we're going to live on Mars?
The newest space vehicles are an order of magnitude more advanced than the shuttle. The Space shuttle was at best a very flawed vehicle that never performed nearly as well as its creators intended. That we relied on it for so many years speaks to the lack of progress in manned space flight over a half century.
We are never going to Mars.
Yes. You're welcome.
@@billmoran3812 “more advanced”
Still takes 6 months to get there, same as if tried 50 years ago, and six months back. People still need same air, food, water, shelter everyday. Flat screen space craft control panels change none of that.
I had highschool baseball tryouts that morning, in Texas. I just remember no one was really focused on baseball and everybody kept looking at the sky for long periods the whole time
The fact that the cabin just came off ALL BY ITSELF shows that they EASILY could have designed it in such a way that the cabin could ignite some thrusters and boost away from the orbiter and then land under parachute. This feature would have saved ALL the astronauts on both failed Shuttles!! 🤬🤬
This should have been a feature on the shuttle when it was being designed and built but it was a feature that couldn’t be retrofitted after the shuttle design was finalized.
The shuttle is built very specifically and adding tons of weight to the fore end would change everything.
For your proposal to work an entirely new shuttle was needed.
what are you talking about? this wouldn't work during reentry
I remember watching this live on NASA TV. They were showing live telemetry, and I knew exactly what was happening well before anything was announced. It was truly heartbreaking.
OMG brought me back. was out in Okeechobee that day and the sonic boom blew me and my good friend Ryan off the road, didn't wreck but a very sad day for everyone. God bless those astronauts, damn things parts fell in Texas about 5 minutes later if that tells you how fast they go
Being able to visualize what happens is important for future space travel.