Lost final minute of doomed shuttle crew
Astronauts on the doomed space shuttle survived for almost a minute after their final communication with mission control, it was reported today.
The Columbia’s seven crew were apparently aware that the craft was breaking up around them as it re-entered the earth’s atmosphere on February 1.
“It’s a pretty good container they have the crew in, that’s the last part to come apart,” a Nasa investigator told the New York Times. “It stayed together for a pretty long time.”
He said the crash should have been prevented because it was caused by a problem that had previously been identified but not corrected – foam falling from the fuel tank and hitting the wing during blast-off.
“As we sit there thinking about what they were going through, or what their last thoughts were, it kind of angers you,” the investigator added.
The shuttle’s final communication was at 8:59am when Colonel Rick Husband, the flight commander, was cut off as he spoke to mission control, saying, “Roger, uh.”
Reports at the time suggested the astronauts had died almost immediately.
But records taken from the wreckage indicate that their capsule survived for at least another 50 seconds and that they saw sensor readings showing major problems as the craft approached earth at 18 times the speed of sound.
The last two seconds of data transmitted from the flight deck suggest that the autopilot was switched off, indicating that the astronauts made a frantic attempt to take control of the shuttle. All seven crew members died in the crash.
The crew on board the Challenger, which exploded shortly after take off in 1986, are also believed to have survived the initial blast.
