NASA experts warned that the doomed space shuttle Columbia was “survivable but marginal” in the days before the catastrophe, newly disclosed e-mails have revealed.
The warnings were accompanied by complaints that senior officials at the agency were not taking the danger posed by a breach near the shuttle’s left wheels seriously enough.
They also reveal concerns at Nasa that damage caused to Columbia on lift-
off should not be “widely discussed” and that subsequent studies about the risk to the shuttle should be kept secret.
“We can’t imagine why getting information is being treated like the plague,” a research engineer wrote in one of a series of messages describing internal concerns about Columbia’s safety before it exploded over Texas on February 1, killing all seven astronauts.
The board investigating the accident, which obtained the e-mails from Nasa late on Friday night, believes Columbia suffered a breach, based on its analysis of rising temperatures inside the same wheel compartment that the engineer had cited for concern.
The engineer, Robert Daugherty of Nasa’s Langley research facility in Hampton, Virginia, wrote days before Columbia’s break-up that experts on the shuttle’s protective heat tiles were concerned that Columbia’s condition was “survivable but marginal” after it was struck by debris on lift-off.
Other documents Nasa released showed engineers feared Columbia was struck on lift-off by three pieces of loosened insulating foam, not just the one previously acknowledged. Daugherty explicitly warned in an e-mail on January 29 that “one of the bigger concerns” was that damage to thermal tiles near the wheel compartment seal could permit a hole there. He appeared most worried about pilots struggling to land Columbia with one or more tiles inside damaged from extreme heat.
He wrote: “It seems to me that if mission operations were to see both tire pressure indicators go to zero during entry, they would sure as hell want to know whether they should land with gear up, try to deploy the gear or go bailout.”
The accident board has already found that Columbia almost certainly suffered a devastating breach along its wing and possibly its wheel compartment, that allowed searing air to seep inside during its descent at nearly 12,500mph.
Unusual temperature readings inside the wing and wheel compartment began within minutes of the shuttle’s re-entry, far off the coast of California.
Senior Nasa officials have steadfastly supported assurances since the accident by The Boeing Co, a contractor, that Columbia was expected to be able to return safely despite the possible tile damage.
They have also maintained that concerns expressed in e-mails among mid-level engineers – such as Daugherty – were part of a ‘what-if’ analysis, and that even these employees were satisfied with Boeing’s conclusions.
The full article contains 490 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
