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Data Prove Breach In Columbia Wing
Superheated Air Triggered Shuttle Crash
By Kathy Sawyer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 31, 2003; Page A02
A flight data recorder recovered from the space shuttle Columbia shows that abnormal heating began inside the leading edge of the left wing no more than 16 seconds after the orbiter began to hit the upper atmosphere Feb. 1, and more than a minute earlier than other evidence had shown, investigators reported yesterday.
The new data, a big break in the investigation, provide confirmation that a breach opened in or near the leading edge of the left wing and allowed superheated air to flow through the structure, triggering Columbia's disintegration over Texas. The information also bolsters the theory that the damage existed before Columbia's reentry and could have been caused by the impact of a piece of debris from the shuttle's external tank during its Jan. 16 liftoff.
The team of about 100 NASA engineers, working through the weekend, has begun to review ascent data from the recorder as well as data from the reentry phase, said Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.
The investigators focused first on temperature readings from sensors inside the leading edge of the left wing, just outboard of where they believe the initial breach occurred. The readings showed a sudden increase in temperature shortly after 8:51 a.m. -- about 16 seconds after the orbiter entered the phase of peak heating on its way down through the thickening atmosphere, Brown said.
"This is one of the big things we've learned so far," she said.
The preliminary review of the recorder showed that approximately 420 sensors contain good data, "with more to come" as the work continues, investigators said.
The sensors reviewed over the weekend were behind left wing leading edge panels 9 and 10, Brown said. "These are the two sensors closest to the leading edge and these are the sensors they looked at first."
Investigators believe the breach most likely occurred at panel 6.
The data recorder was in remarkably good condition when scientists recovered it partly buried in soft ground near Hemphill, Tex. The vintage reels of inch-wide magnetic tape were flown to Minnesota to be cleaned, then to Kennedy Space Center in Florida to be copied for analysis by the team at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Until yesterday, it was unclear whether useful data had survived Columbia's violent reentry.
The recorder, called the Orbiter Experiment Support System (OEX), was installed aboard Columbia as part of its early test-flight program in the early 1980s. The data from it were not part of the stream of telemetry that flowed continuously to Mission Control in Houston throughout the flight.
That telemetry had already been intently studied as a primary source of evidence about what caused the accident. It showed the first signs of excessive heating a little after 8:52 a.m., when sensors around the orbiter's left main landing gear wheel well began to fail. Columbia broke up over Texas shortly after 9 a.m., killing seven astronauts.
The measurements stored on the OEX are expected to provide a wealth of additional information on pressure and temperatures during reentry.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
Superheated Air Triggered Shuttle Crash
By Kathy Sawyer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 31, 2003; Page A02
A flight data recorder recovered from the space shuttle Columbia shows that abnormal heating began inside the leading edge of the left wing no more than 16 seconds after the orbiter began to hit the upper atmosphere Feb. 1, and more than a minute earlier than other evidence had shown, investigators reported yesterday.
The new data, a big break in the investigation, provide confirmation that a breach opened in or near the leading edge of the left wing and allowed superheated air to flow through the structure, triggering Columbia's disintegration over Texas. The information also bolsters the theory that the damage existed before Columbia's reentry and could have been caused by the impact of a piece of debris from the shuttle's external tank during its Jan. 16 liftoff.
The team of about 100 NASA engineers, working through the weekend, has begun to review ascent data from the recorder as well as data from the reentry phase, said Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.
The investigators focused first on temperature readings from sensors inside the leading edge of the left wing, just outboard of where they believe the initial breach occurred. The readings showed a sudden increase in temperature shortly after 8:51 a.m. -- about 16 seconds after the orbiter entered the phase of peak heating on its way down through the thickening atmosphere, Brown said.
"This is one of the big things we've learned so far," she said.
The preliminary review of the recorder showed that approximately 420 sensors contain good data, "with more to come" as the work continues, investigators said.
The sensors reviewed over the weekend were behind left wing leading edge panels 9 and 10, Brown said. "These are the two sensors closest to the leading edge and these are the sensors they looked at first."
Investigators believe the breach most likely occurred at panel 6.
The data recorder was in remarkably good condition when scientists recovered it partly buried in soft ground near Hemphill, Tex. The vintage reels of inch-wide magnetic tape were flown to Minnesota to be cleaned, then to Kennedy Space Center in Florida to be copied for analysis by the team at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Until yesterday, it was unclear whether useful data had survived Columbia's violent reentry.
The recorder, called the Orbiter Experiment Support System (OEX), was installed aboard Columbia as part of its early test-flight program in the early 1980s. The data from it were not part of the stream of telemetry that flowed continuously to Mission Control in Houston throughout the flight.
That telemetry had already been intently studied as a primary source of evidence about what caused the accident. It showed the first signs of excessive heating a little after 8:52 a.m., when sensors around the orbiter's left main landing gear wheel well began to fail. Columbia broke up over Texas shortly after 9 a.m., killing seven astronauts.
The measurements stored on the OEX are expected to provide a wealth of additional information on pressure and temperatures during reentry.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company