Columbia - 13 years on

[markjames68]

After the Challenger 30 year thread it's another sad day for space - the 13th anniversary of STS-107's demise.

While nothing could have saved Challenger after launch, this is an interesting "what if" article about the potential to save Columbia's crew, had NASA taken action on the foam strike right away.

The audacious rescue plan that might have saved space shuttle Columbia | Ars Technica

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by markjames68

After the Challenger 30 year thread it's another sad day for space - the 13th anniversary of STS-107's demise.

While nothing could have saved Challenger after launch, this is an interesting "what if" article about the potential to save Columbia's crew, had NASA taken action on the foam strike right away.

The audacious rescue plan that might have saved space shuttle Columbia | Ars Technica

Thank you for posting that; it was an outstanding read. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Mr_Geek]

Very interesting article.

This rescue attempt would make a good movie. It'd be interesting to see this all in action.

[markjames68]

@Mr_Geek, part of it reads like the movie Gravity combined with The Martian and Apollo 13.

While it states that it all would have been extremely difficult and rather risky, I do believe in my heart of hearts that NASA operates the best when it's facing a technical crisis. At that point everyone focuses less on overtime and pretty political battles.

For those of you who are space buffs, Secret Space Escapes is a great show on the Science Channel.

STS-27 was really, really scary. Nearly total burn through of the belly of Atlantis which would have resulted in LOCV. The only thing that saved them was the fact that the L-band antenna was there. Had another tile been lost...



We Are Going to Die | Secret Space Escapes | Discovery Science

Based upon this I read "Riding Rockets" by Mike Mullane which I highly recommend.

One other thought - they still had a surplus of O2 for another 14 days in orbit, but their CO2 canisters would have run out. To prevent CO2 toxicity build up I wonder if they could have purged some of the cabin O2 and replenished it from their existing supply.

[Dude111]

I remember that day,it was very sad