One tall tale has the same astronaut being "bumped" from both the shuttle Challenger and Columbia. Other, more obscure myths have involved the Tesla death ray, the secret HAARP system in Alaska, or numerology, or corporate espionage, or a UFO attack, or solar storms that zapped the shuttle. There are many other lunacies on the Internet. The purported quatrain, like a similar prophecy about the 9/11 terror attacks, is a complete hoax. Nostradamus had predicted the disaster in a quatrain referring to seven who perish in a ship descending from the sky over Texas. That conclusion was found to be erroneous only in hindsight.ġ0. Columbia's astronauts were fully informed of the actual results of NASA's analysis, which determined that the impacting debris had not hit a vital region of the heat shield. No official decision was ever made, because nobody thought there was any need. He reported a private conversation during the mission that speculated what might be best in the event lethal damage were discovered. This newborn myth consists entirely of exaggerated or misrepresented excerpts from a recent blog posting by former NASA official Wayne Hale. The foam came off because of EPA regulations banning stronger glue that used Freon. Second, the camera was taking a time exposure on a tripod, so when the "open" button was pushed, it briefly shook, laying down the zigzag.ĥ. First, a shuttle re-entry typically leaves a persistent streak across the sky that lasts several minutes. Two effects produced this optical illusion. The spacecraft was crippled by 'space lightning' during re-entry, but NASA covered it up.Ī widely circulated image taken in California showed the shuttle's fireball streak with a zigzag line catching up with it. Had the ship been slightly lower and slower when it disintegrated, some of the astronauts might well have been saved by their bailout suits.Ĥ. Others were killed by the blunt force trauma suffered during collisions with swirling cabin fragments. At least one of the astronauts had neglected to fasten their helmet and gloves, and died of asphyxiation. There was enough frictional heating to scorch some of those fragments as they continued to fall, but no flames or smoke in the traditional sense.Įquipped with spacesuits and parachutes, the crew would have had time to experience the initial tumble and breakup for several seconds, and to hope that they might be thrown free and descend safely by parachute. Fragments of the spacecraft ionized the thin air that they passed through. The streaks in the sky over east Texas that morning were essentially meteoric effects resulting from Columbia's speed - about Mach 15 - and its 40-mile altitude. The vehicle was flaming and trailing smoke. The crew cabin was then crushed and torn apart by the severe deceleration.Ģ. It then turned end over end at least once before aerodynamic braking broke its back and tore it into pieces. The vehicle blew up when it hit the atmosphere.Ĭolumbia was lost when the air drag across its left wing, created by turbulence around a growing hole on the leading edge, jerked its nose to the left too strongly for steering rockets to overcome. 1, 2003, and the realities underlying them:ġ. Here, then, are the top 10 typical myths surrounding the Columbia's loss on Feb. But in the end it is usually the softness of humans, and not the hardness of space, that is to blame. If we relax from relentless vigilance, spaceflight will kill, and has killed. In such a culture, disasters were not accidental, but inevitable.įormer NASA Administrator Mike Griffin often pointed out that spaceflight is so very difficult that humans can handle the hazards only if they're at their best. The disaster was a consequence of that flaw, not of the essential and unavoidable nature of spaceflight. The biggest misconception is what I call "Myth Zero." This pernicious and poisonous myth is that the disaster was an "accident" - suggesting that it was caused by factors beyond human control, and was just one of those things that should be expected and tolerated on the space frontier.Īs investigators later determined - and as some experienced safety analysts warned beforehand - the root cause was a series of bad decisions made by people who ignored traditional and time-tested strict safety standards. This is a continuation of earlier myth-busting work by others. But for those who want to help themselves, and others around them, to stick to the facts, in tribute to the fallen, I've composed my own list of myths - some harmless, some not so much.
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