Columbia’s final moments?
February 25th, 2003
James Oberg reports on the latest theories about the last few seconds leading to the breakup of the Columbia. There’s no new insight into the cause of the failure of the port wing, but Oberg spells out just why some analysts think it’s plausible that the crew lived through the minute or so after the shuttle started to yaw to port. Oberg concludes:
No one can know what Columbia’s seven astronauts were actually experiencing and doing in the final seconds of their flight, but the engineers who discussed the possible scenarios were deeply shaken by the implications. The overwhelming consensus is that the lack of knowledge is probably the merciful way it should be.
Amen to that.
[Via Robot Wisdom]
February 26th, 2003 at 12:54 am
I would say there are far worse ways to die than a minute or two’s panic, then obliteration - even assuming that astronauts panic. There are many Q&As online - try a Google on [astronaut “were you afraid”] - where astronauts say they were not frightened by serious problem situations: they are a) highly trained, and b) selected by personality type. We’re judging the situation by our own mindsets. forgetting that astronauts are chosen for their coolness under (or even, as test pilots, enthusiasm for) ‘white knuckle’ situations.
April 7th, 2004 at 11:28 pm
If any one really needs a answer to “Columbia’s” crew’s final moments, search out Boris Volynov and his dramatic re-entry in Soyuz 5 in 1969 January.
See…”Soyuz - A Universal Spacecraft”, Rex Hall and David Shayler, 2003-4, Springer-Praxis, pg.154.
p.s. Don’t dwell on awful things…
… the crew would not want it.