How to remember Columbia?

[Hooknswoop 19]

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In this instance, the general feel amongst people i have spoken to is that this could have been prevented.

Who have you spoken to? Having worked at the NBL for a year, I can tell the atmosphere at NASA is safety above all else. Every incident had to be investigated and a documented fix had to be reported. This ranged from insulation in the ceiling falling due to a leak in the roof and rain water seeping in to cutting your finger on a cotter pin and getting a band-aid. Try and write a report describing how, in the future, what actions the facility is taking to prevent a diver from cutting their finger on a cotter pin ever again. How about making gloves available to al the divers (almost made them mandatory), requiring all cotter pins installed on mock-ups to be inspected prior to being placed in the water, and inspections on mock-ups in the water for sharp cotter pins. All that for a small cut on a finger. A common phrase from the supervisors, was "You are paid by the hour, take the time to do it safely and correctly. If you ever don't feel safe doing something, stop".

Part of the Johnson Engineering Safety and Health pledge (worn with their badge by everyone) states: "My continued employment depends on working safely and watching out for others" Certain areas mandated safety goggles and/or ear plugs. regardless if work was actually taking place or not. It was a serious offense to even walk through these areas without them, again, even if everyone was at lunch. No exceptions.

I believe NASA has a true commitment to safety and does everything within their power to minimize the huge risks invovled in human spaceflight.

Considering how much risk is involded, they have done an incredible job, even as their budget shrinks.

The astronauts are national heros, everyone one them. The hours they work, the commitment they make, the risk they willingly accept is amazing. And they do it all with a smile, humble, even grateful to be "allowed" to do what they do. To have that attidue about something that a lot of people can't or wouldn't do only increases my respect for those men and women.

The engineers that reviewed the video of the launch, could only use educated guesses as to the damage caused by the piece of insulation, for they couldn't actually see the damage. They made the best call they could with very limited information. The orbiter may not have been equipped to offer any way of anaylizing and then reparing the damage. An un-rehearsed spacewalk is not a trivial thing. A well trained for spacewalk is dangerous enough. There is no such thing a small problem with a spacesuit. They are literally working without a net.

I hope NASA conducts a speedy investigation, determines what happened, engineers a fix, and gets back on track in short order. Sorry, enough rambling.

Hook

[billvon 3,107]

>I believe the replacement test vehichle is called the X-33.

Well, the X-33 is a suborbital test vehicle. It was intended to reach about half of orbital velocity. The follow-on vehicle was usually referred to as the Delta Clipper or VentureStar, a single stage to orbit vehicle that would take over much of the shuttle's role.

There's a lot of work to be done there first, though. The aerospike engine concept needs a lot of work, and the one prototype of a lifting-body, VTO/VL single stage rocket, crashed a few years back. And although the thermal shield design is more robust, in order to carry enough fuel the airframe will have to have a propellant ratio higher than that of an egg, which leads to some interesting design problems; fragility will be a real problem.

They are all solvable, but I think it will take a long time to do it right.

In the interim I think there are some things we could do to make the shuttle safer. The LRB program could be restarted; that would give us greater lift capability and better abort options. The Shuttle-C could give us unmanned heavy launch capability; it would make building something like the ISS safer, faster and cheaper.

[wmw999 2,583]

Well said, hooknswoop. It's that way where I am, too. It's always OK to delay an inspection because you didn't get to look at the code, or anything else. It's not necessarily OK not to make the time to look at the code (i.e. you're expected to manage your time properly).

But it's always OK to make sure you have the best possible inspection.

Zeemax, I'm privy to a lot of inside NASA information, too (no, nothing juicy right now). And I'd fly on the Shuttle, expecting to come back safe and sound, any time. I'd put my son on the shuttle before I'd pay for his tandem jump.

Wendy Wilkinson
(this post needs my whole name)

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[diverdriver 7]

Exactly my point. There's a lot of work. And right now nothing is going on to get it done. They cut the budget which is a shame since it really looked like it had some promise. If nothing else it would further our knowledge of alternative engines to produce power for launch.

We need to reopen that project and get it done.

Chris Schindler
www.diverdriver.com
ATP/D-19012
FB #4125

[Push 0]

You misunderstood me I think. That 7 of our finest people died is what they are mourning about. What they are forgetting is HOW they died. So exactly, car accidents are definitely NOT like the space shuttle. You mourn car accidents. You celebrate the space shuttle (to a degree, of course).

-- Toggle Whippin' Yahoo
Skydiving is easy. All you have to do is relax while plummetting at 120 mph from 10,000' with nothing but some nylon and webbing to save you.

[Push 0]

Have you ever seen a parachute being packed? How it's stuffed into a bag? I swear, some of those packjobs look like they will not open. The first time I packed under supervision I honestly believed there are about 463 mals in that packjob. I didn't really understand what I did with all the flaking and stacking, I barely stuffed into the bag, there was fabric sticking out, the lines stows were uneven and weird, it barely closed, etc etc. One of the experienced guys at the DZ said he'll jump it any time though. And someone did, and guess what? It opened perfectly.

You just don't abort these kind of risky missions because something does not look picture perfect. If you did, noone would go to space, and sure as hell noone will ever jump. There's a reason why the propack is also called a trash pack.

-- Toggle Whippin' Yahoo
Skydiving is easy. All you have to do is relax while plummetting at 120 mph from 10,000' with nothing but some nylon and webbing to save you.

[Guest]

My reply was generic. My apologies if you were upset by my remarks. I was just on my soapbox.

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[Push 0]

Wait, you mean we're supposed to step off it when we're done?

-- Toggle Whippin' Yahoo
Skydiving is easy. All you have to do is relax while plummetting at 120 mph from 10,000' with nothing but some nylon and webbing to save you.