Editor’s Word: Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of Historical past at Rice College. He’s the creator of “American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Nice House Race.” The CNN Authentic Sequence “House Shuttle Columbia: The Remaining Flight” uncovers the occasions that in the end led to catastrophe. The four-part documentary premieres 9 p.m. ET/PT Sunday. The opinions expressed on this commentary are solely these of the creator. View extra opinion on CNN.
Across the begin of this century, the world counted solely two main gamers in manned area exploration: The Nationwide Aeronautics and House Administration (NASA) and Roscosmos, the Russian House Company. Ten years later, the heavens have been crowded by comparability, with a lot of non-public firms vying to restart the area race with Russia. Internationally, China had common manned missions and the United Arab Emirates, Japan and the European nations have been drawing near success.
The turning level between the 2 eras was an unforeseeable tragedy: the disintegration of the Columbia area shuttle on February 1, 2003. It occurred nearly precisely 17 years after a earlier shuttle, the Challenger, burned simply after lift-off.
That 1986 catastrophe had resulted in a towering wave of public anger at NASA, primarily as a result of high officers had been suggested very particularly to clean the launch. Merely put, the climate was too chilly for the gear. The intrepid American area program survived the Challenger horror, however NASA’s self-doubt by no means subsided. Not even twenty years later, after the Columbia exploded throughout re-entry, the 2 lethal failures broke the religion that many among the many American folks had in NASA.
Seven astronauts have been onboard the Columbia for its 16-day mission, primarily to carry out scientific experiments. The launch in mid-January had been uneventful – apart from one factor. The workforce assigned to evaluate video of the voyage observed what appeared to be a free piece of the protecting foam layer insulating the shuttle’s exterior tank. Quickly thereafter a piece of froth about as large as a briefcase dislodged and struck the entrance of the left wing. The evaluation of the malfunction was communicated to others at NASA, however the issue was thought of minor.
Shuttles have been invariably broken throughout missions. It was solely to be anticipated. “There’s this time period in NASA known as accepted danger,” defined Nancy Currie-Gregg, who flew 4 shuttle missions, the final in 2002, “There isn’t a such factor as zero-risk area flight, however how do you determine how a lot danger is appropriate?”
As a result of different shuttle missions had returned safely with “shredded” floor tiles – and since the stalwart Columbia had introduced astronauts house from 27 earlier flights – many NASA officers have been lulled into complacency. They went as far as to guarantee the pilot and commander through e mail that “there isn’t a concern … We’ve seen the identical phenomenon on a number of different flights and there may be completely no concern for entry.”
NASA officers additionally determined in opposition to enlisting spy satellite tv for pc pictures to look at the shuttle harm extra completely. If that they had, it’s attainable that the astronauts may have repaired the spaceplane or at the least deserted it for refuge on the Worldwide House Station. As an alternative, because the Columbia made its descent from area, superheated atmospheric gases entered by the gaping gap left by the dislodged chunk of froth. The construction was compromised and the shuttle broke aside in midair. Wreckage unfold over Texas and Louisiana.
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Within the wake of the catastrophe, NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe stated in an announcement, “That is certainly a tragic day for the NASA household, for the households of the astronauts who flew on STS-107, and likewise is tragic for the Nation.”
Because the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) famous in its remaining report, “the NASA organizational tradition had as a lot to do with this accident as the froth.” All of NASA’s launches have been suspended for two years. Whereas the shuttles ultimately flew once more, post-Columbia, this system was stunted and curtailed.
However as NASA floundered, Elon Musk’s upstart SpaceX scheduled its personal launches. Musk’s enterprise initially proved simply how exhausting rocket science is, although his firm lastly discovered success in 2008 with its reusable Falcon Heavy rocket. The billionaire’s membership was usurping NASA in area. At about the identical time, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin was growing rockets aimed primarily at suborbital flight. United Launch Alliance introduced two legacy aerospace firms collectively, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, in a concerted effort to develop and launch large rockets. All 4 firms are thriving at this time within the area trade.
Virgin Galactic, an American firm operated by Sir Richard Branson, is devoted to area tourism fairly than exploration. Likewise, Axiom House was based in 2016 to determine an area station for adventurers. And now, SpaceX has set its sight on returning people to the moon.
House entrepreneurs have been themselves launched into motion, pushed by the possibility to become profitable throughout NASA’s lull after the demise of the Columbia. NASA, removed from feeling threatened, has inspired most of the non-public firms with large contracts. The company already had an extended historical past of coping with sub-contractors, utilizing its pocketbook to steer aerospace improvement; that custom has adjusted seamlessly to the present area financial system.
Whether or not the rapacious present period in area might be propelled by the idealism of President John F. Kennedy’s American Moonshot is an unsure query. Definitely, the seven astronauts doing round the clock experiments in physics on the Columbia had, simply as JFK hoped, “set sail on this new sea as a result of there may be new data to be gained, and new rights to be received, and so they have to be received and used for the progress of all folks.”
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