01x02 - Part Two

[bunniefuu]

-This is mission

control houston.

You're looking at

live video coming

From space shuttle columbia

As columbia continues

to orbit the earth

At an altitude of about

150 statute miles.

Columbia, houston, laurel,

You're loud and clear

on air to ground one.

-The second day,

I drive in to work

Kind of euphoric

because another launch,

Another successful launch.

You know, the

flight director's office

And the mission

control center in houston

Is working with them.

They're everything's good.

I walked into the

analysis lab to

Start reviewing

film from the launch.

We started the film

at the beginning.

[ rockets roaring ]

We're watching this liftoff.

You see the roll maneuvers,

beautiful blue sky.

We do the normal review,

and we start pointing out

All the things that

we normally see.

And we got to 81 seconds,

And then we see this object

Come off of the

external tank area.

♪

It moved down, and

then striked the vehicle

And explode into a white cloud.

My reaction was, "oh, sh*t."

♪

♪

-you'll always find

me sunny side up ♪

you'll always find

me sunny side up ♪

[ music playing

indistinctly on radio ]

-Columbia, houston.

-Turned off?

-Hey, good morning to all,

And a special good

morning to my wife, rona,

The love of my life.

-I remember myself going

to sleep and imagining

Where he is right now.

"I wonder where he is right now.

He's somewhere over us,

Maybe going around in

the circles around the earth."

♪

[ laughter ]

It's surreal.

These seven people who are,

You know, living in space.

Eating and working and

Going to the bathroom and

♪

Seeing earth from space.

♪

-Well, actually, things

are going really well.

And, uh, things have

been working well.

Columbia is in great shape

And working

absolutely perfectly.

We had a great ride to orbit.

-After the launch, we came

home for the next 16 days.

We knew that the crew

was going to be in space.

By that point, I mean, I

turned on nasa tv here

And just started

watching the mission.

♪

-Next up for the blue shift

Was a blood draw

experiment here.

Here, laurel is telling mike

That this isn't going

to hurt her a bit.

-I was just thrilled for them.

They were they

were doing great.

There's pride, excitement.

But more than anything, I just

loved listening to rick's voice.

I loved listening to

him talk back and forth

With mission control.

♪

-As a kid, it

mostly just felt

Exciting and new and

just kind of made your world

Feel more magical and bigger.

I was just like, "yeah,

that's just awesome.

Space is so cool."

♪

-All of us as a group

Were extremely concerned

about what we had just seen.

Looking at that film,

we were all discussing

How big are we

talking about a problem?

How much damage

are we talking about?

Worst case would have been

Damage all the way down

to the skin of the vehicle.

♪

That would have given us

a problem during landing.

Well, that probably would

have been loss of vehicle

And loss of crew.

♪

So I went to see wayne, my boss.

♪

-Based on my 20-plus

years of experience,

I can tell you every shuttle

flight that flew had issues.

People came to me

as a flight director

Or as manager every day.

In this case, bob page

knocked on my door,

Came in my office, and said

- "we've got a problem.

This is the largest

strike of the vehicle

That we have ever seen."

-He's a little bit of

a high-energy guy,

So it wasn't

unusual, I didn't think.

But he had a little video

clip that he showed me.

It's really hard to tell if

anything bad had happened.

I mean, this is insulating

foam. It's lightweight.

-So the orange, um,

is the external tank

Which is covered in

foam on the outside.

-It's carrying cryogenically

cold liquid oxygen and hydrogen,

And it's going to sit

out on the launch pad

In the sunshine in florida.

You don't want that

to start boiling off,

So over the outside of the tank

There is this spray-on

insulating foam.

Cheap, very effective.

But it's got this property

That, as you go

through supersonic flight

In the atmosphere,

bits of it come.

-The question is how bad

of shape is the orbiter in?

-And bob said, "I really

wish there was some way

To get more information."

-I knew this mission

passed over places

Where there were some

high-altitude telescopes.

These are looking at stars.

So if you want to

look at the orbiter,

You could probably

get the entire orbiter

Fit in the field of view

And have extremely

good resolution.

-And I said, "well,

I don't really know

much about that, bob.

We'll have to check."

-And so I got the assurance

from wayne that, um,

He would make some calls

and he would see what

What could be done, and,

um, things were put into motion.

♪

No. You don't want to

alarm the crew that early.

They had just gotten onto

orbit. They have a job to do.

When we have the complete story,

Then that's when

we pass it on to them.

And we did not know

what the problem was.

♪

♪

[ radio crackling ]

-Mom? Mom?

I miss you.

-Hi.

-We talked using the early

Tele-video

conferencing capability

And super low-tech bandwidth.

It's ratty comm, but

it's a very special time.

-Mom?

-It was a huge

relief being able to

See her again.

[ giggles ]

[ laughs ]

I really couldn't comprehend

that she was in space.

Like, it didn't make

sense to me at all.

[ laughs ]

♪

It felt like

Counting down to christmas

waiting for her to get back.

♪

♪

♪

-The second day of the mission

was just an ordinary day for me.

I was ready to go home about

5:00 on a Friday evening

[ telephone ringing ]

And then I got a

call from my manager.

She said, "rodney,

Do you know that a large

piece of foam hit the left wing?"

And I think I gasp and

I said "ooh" or "ahh."

I made some exclamation.

"no, I did not hear that."

And she said, "they have

just released a video."

♪

Every time I watched the video,

I'm looking at portions of

the video or a sector of it,

Just to see if I can glean one

more piece of detail out of it.

And the question I had,

"what is that cloud of

expanding white stuff?"

One can't help but ask,

Is that part of the

wing coming apart?

♪

[ upbeat music

playing on radio ]

♪

♪

♪

I was thinking about this

foam strike all weekend.

And I thought, "can't

we get the astronauts

To look through this

side hatch window?"

There's a little

window right here.

This little dark circle.

Could they have looked

back to this area in here to see

If there's any damage

debris, residue, anything?

What I was expecting is

you first look with your eyes.

Just look.

♪

-So let's see. Rodney

sent me an e-mail.

"we know that the remote

manipulator system arm

And cameras are not available,

But what about the

left side hatch window?"

Uh, he's questioning whether

there's been any action,

Uh, to ask the crew

to look for damage.

Uh, no.

The area that was struck was

not visible from the orbiter cabin.

♪

-Okay, well, good morning or

good evening as the case goes

For all you guys

working around the clock

There in houston.

-You have to understand

nasa works on procedures.

We have a mission plan.

- Red shift is

Just finishing up their day.

-Any deviation needs to

be evaluated and assessed

On how it will

impact everything.

-Laurel, just to be advised,

You have about

two minutes of video.

-To deviate from the

processes and the procedures,

You need to have a reason,

And the reason needs data.

It's not just "I have a

bad feeling about this."

-And I got no

reply to my e-mail.

My request was never answered.

-Columbia, this is cnn.

How do you read me?

-Hey, cnn. We've

got you loud and clear.

-Stand by, and we'll have you

on the tele here very shortly.

Say hello to the crew of

the space shuttle columbia,

Now traveling above the

pacific at 17,300 miles an hour,

150 miles above

us, waving to us.

Let's give you an

idea of who's who.

I remember interviewing

the crew in space.

Rick husband, the

commander, second mission.

Laurel clark

Prepping for that

interview, I thought about

The foam strike

and how to handle it.

But on launch day, when

I saw that Footage,

I wasn't sure what

to think about it.

I'm not a rocket scientist,

so I called to somebody

Who I know knew

very well at nasa.

I said, "help me understand

how worried I should be for this."

And he said, "oh, it's

foam. It's very light material.

Probably doesn't

cause any damage."

But it nagged me

the whole mission.

Colonel ramon, um, I'm curious,

Was the launch

what you expected?

I was thinking about the foam.

I just didn't know how to,

in a five-minute interview,

Set that up.

Are all these

experiments working?

They couldn't all be

working as planned.

-Well, things are

going very smoothly.

As expected, there's

some minor glitches.

-I had gone through this

process of convincing myself

That it was going to be okay.

Alright. We're going to

have to leave it at that.

But I had this sinking feeling.

Didn't feel right.

♪

♪

-We spent the weekend

analyzing this film.

We estimated the size of

the foam 16 inches across,

18 inches long suitcase size.

So it's a big chunk of foam

moving at 750 miles an hour.

But in the end,

what we did not know

Was the condition of

the vehicle post-strike.

♪

-Returning from space,

A craft that is going

17,500 miles an hour

Heats up gases,

And very hot gases become

something we call plasma.

The shuttle is

enveloped in this inferno,

And it's kind of beautiful.

But obviously you want

to be protected from it.

-Well, they came

to the conclusion

That the best way

to deal with that

Was to arrange a system

of tiles to cover the shuttle.

-All of the black

here shown is all tiles.

-And these tiles are made

of a silica fiber material

Which is very heat-resistant.

-I can show you.

This is a test tile.

-There are about 31,000

of them all together,

And we hope those

tiles will stay on

When the orbiter comes

back into the atmosphere,

Because otherwise the

craft itself could be damaged.

-During the development of

the space shuttle in the 1970s,

There was quite an

effort to develop a way

To repair damaged

tiles on orbit.

It was a huge effort

And it was an utter failure.

They could not develop anything,

And that was one of

the "accepted risks"

Of flying in space.

♪

-Okay. Good morning.

We're ready for roll.

-In a meeting, there's

20, 30 people in the room.

There's people

joining from kennedy.

There's people from

huntington beach, california,

Representative from engineering,

a representative from the crew.

The chairman of the

meeting was linda ham.

-She basically ran this mission.

-If there were going

to be any changes,

She headed up this team

That would have to

approve any changes.

-She was effectively the

deputy to ron dittemore,

The program

manager in those days.

Linda has excellent judgment,

Can grasp complicated

problems very quickly.

She was the first woman to

be certified as a flight director.

Linda was recalling sts-112,

a flight two flights before.

-[ indistinct ]

-Main engine start.

Two One

We got booster

ignition and liftoff

Of the space shuttle atlantis.

-Sts-112 had a very similar

piece of foam come off

From almost the same location,

But in that case, the foam

hit solid rocket booster

And put a dent in it.

-The foam traveled

traveled down.

It struck right here,

these three lines.

-It didn't hit the orbiter,

so it was no effect

To the flight.

The management

team, they analyzed it

And came up with the conclusion

That no safety of

flight issue existed.

-We dodged a b*llet on that one.

Here's your warning,

and you only get one.

♪

-A special team was forming,

And I was told

that I would be on it.

The mission management

wanted to know how bad is it

No damage, minimal

damage or grave damage.

In that room on

the first meeting,

There were probably

12 to 15 people.

They were the best

experts in different fields,

But all we knew

was this was foam

And it hit the left wing.

But where on the left wing

We did not know.

♪

This is why we naturally

came to the conclusion

We cannot initiate

a credible analysis

Until we know the damage

location and extent of damage.

We must have

another piece of data,

Another image.

I knew that the military

satellites at that time

Were extremely good.

There were stories like

They could read license

plates from space.

-We have quite a fleet

of spy satellites out there,

And mostly are

trying to, at that time,

Chase down

t*rrorists in afghanistan

And iraq or whatever.

Aiming it at the shuttle

was a possibility.

-That's why the whole group

thought it was a good idea.

Let's ask for military assets.

The meeting

participants all agreed.

"we will always

have big uncertainties

Until we get definitive, better,

Clearer photos of the

wing and body underside."

So, in boldface, I

put, "can we petition,

Beg for outside

agency assistance?"

♪

♪

-Good morning, blue.

-You know, as a kid,

Your imagination

just like, runs wild.

And I'm like, do they

just float and sleep

Or, you know, does he get

to go out in actual space?

Did he see aliens?

Mostly just thought,

like, he was an explorer.

Kind of like, I don't know,

like a space indiana jones.

-You know, we make it a point

to get out and go to schools

And talk to kids all the time.

And when I do that, I

really try to let them know

What it was like for me

when I was a kid growing up,

And how I had this

dream of one day

Becoming an

astronaut, and that really,

If you work hard and

you're always persistent,

You can really make

those dreams come true.

-He wanted to always

be involved in something

That was kind of

bigger than him,

That contributed to to

society, that had a purpose.

It was fun to watch him.

He looked like he

was enjoying himself.

The crew looked

like they were doing

What they needed to be doing,

And everything was

going off really well.

And I didn't know

at that time that

Anything concerning

had happened.

There were people

that did, though,

But I wasn't one of them.

♪

♪

-I was in my office in florida,

And I got a phone

call from the head

Of what we call

systems integrations.

He's an engineer who

I respect very highly,

But he said, "hey, we really

don't have all the information

We'd like to have

on this debris strike.

Do you know of

anybody that's got a way

To get better pictures?"

Now, I had this

engineer as well as bob,

Asking me to see if I could

find out some more information.

Nasa does not own

any military satellites,

But at that time we had a

close working relationship

With the patrick air force base,

so I put in a request with them.

-There's a lot of

work to get a photo.

One would have to

interrupt the mission

To get the right lighting,

to make sure you're over,

The right satellite

is in position.

And then now you have an

army of people on the ground.

We have to reorient the shuttle

For the proper exposure

angles and all that.

And to do that means

they may have to terminate

Their science experiments.

In a program manager's mind,

That's responsible for getting

shuttles up there on schedule,

If you interrupt the

science mission,

You have the ire

of all the people

And the science

objectives were now ruined.

And that looks badly on nasa.

-A little bit later in the day,

In the afternoon, I

got a call from linda,

And she said, "hey, I heard

That you were trying to

get some better pictures."

And she said that she had talked

to all the appropriate managers

And no one had a requirement

for any more information.

They had what they

needed to do the analysis.

She said, "I want

you to turn this off

Because we don't need to

bother those other people."

-How did you feel

when she said that?

-I was mad

Because I don't

like to be overruled.

I'd been, you know, trying

to act within my authority,

And I'd been

countermanded by my boss.

-Linda ham knew

that nasa's history

With the department of defense

And using spy satellites

was a little bit checkered.

-There had been

a previous mission

Where the landing parachute

door came off on launch,

So the orbiter was flying with

the parachute without its door.

Nasa made a request

to get some imagery.

However, the photos

didn't help much.

-So, even if you

can get photographs,

It doesn't mean they'll

necessarily show anything.

-I think they were a

little bit embarrassed

In the end about asking.

And nasa never

wants to look stupid.

Nasa wants to be the

agency with the answers.

-If you'd have said, "linda,

Two different people

need this information.

Their departments

are both asking.

Are you aware?"

That may have changed

the course of events.

-Could I have argued

with her? Maybe.

But did I get the impression

that her mind was made up

And, you know, that

was the end of that?

That's kind of where I was.

And you can say, "well, you

should have argued more."

Well, that would that's nice

of you to say that, but I didn't.

I was going to

be a good soldier.

So I called air

force base and said,

"I know I made this request.

Um, turns out we don't need it.

Forget I asked about it."

♪

-I was told that we would

not be getting images.

When I read it, I got

angry and confused.

What does this mean?

So, I e-mailed paul shack.

I e-mailed, "why? Did

you do anything about it?"

No reply, no reply,

no reply. Quiet.

So I called him, and I got him.

-He was shouting at me.

[ chuckles ]

Can't call it an argument

Because an argument

takes two people shouting,

And just one was

shouting in this case.

-I asked him, "why

are you ignoring?

You didn't reply to

my e-mail. Why?"

I was asking why

you didn't respond.

Now I have you.

-Well, I got sarcastic.

I said, "don't be

a chicken little."

-Paul shack treated me as

if I were the well-intentioned

But silly chicken.

And the lesson is chicken

little is not to be trusted.

Chicken little

always gets excited.

I was very upset and

angry and disappointed

With my engineering

organizations, top to bottom.

There's a ticking clock.

We were losing time.

This is an e-mail I drafted.

"in my humble technical opinion,

This is the wrong and bordering

on irresponsible answer,

Not to request

additional imaging help

From any outside source.

Remember this,

nasa safety posters

Everywhere around stating

'if it's not safe, say so.'

Yes, it's that serious."

I felt the need to

draft that e-mail

With that strong language.

And the strongest word in there

is accusatory, "irresponsible."

But I struggled on

sending it or not sending it.

I was afraid about

my future career.

I was married,

and we had a child,

Had a home, had a mortgage.

And I did not

send it in the end.

-I remember that Wednesday night

When I came home from work,

He showed me the

e-mail that he had not sent.

He was very agitated,

very frustrated

Because he wasn't

sure what to do.

The thrust was

finish the analysis,

Even though you

have no information

On which to base your analysis.

And if it's bad, then

we'll try to do something.

He said, "it's like being

asked to analyze a car accident

That has just happened outside,

But you're not allowed

to look out the window."

-But the total denial forced us

Into the rock and a hard place.

We have to produce an

analysis anyway, without a photo.

♪

-Alright. Now we

play volleyball.

[ laughs ]

Football.

Bicycle kick.

[ laughter ]

-Okay, so this is the e-mail

that was sent to the crew.

"you guys are doing a

fantastic job staying on timeline

And accomplishing great science.

There is one item that I would

like to make you aware of.

This item is not even

worth mentioning,

Other than wanting to make sure

That you are not surprised by it

In a question from a reporter.

During ascent, at

approximately 80 seconds,

Some debris came loose

And subsequently

impacted the orbiter left wing.

Experts have reviewed

the high-speed photography,

And there is no concern

for rcc or tile damage.

We have seen this

same phenomenon

On several other flights

And there's absolutely

no concern for entry.

That is all for now

It is a pleasure working

with you every day."

So, they saw something.

They're taking care of it.

This e-mail was too

short, too sweet, too easy.

-Okay. Good morning

and welcome to the mmt.

-Day nine. Rodney's team

presented their analysis.

-I wasn't presenting the

results of our analysis.

The protocol was

that a senior engineer

Would present on our behalf.

-We all knew that if

the engineers find out

That this is bad, there

is nothing we can do.

If your heat shield was lost,

that was just the end game.

-The presentation

showed five scenarios

That we were analyzing

over the past few days.

-Rodney's concern

was uncertainty

In where the damage was.

The way they

compensated for that

Was to analyze multiple

possible locations.

Instead of analyzing this area,

We're going to

analyze this area.

"it would cause

localized heating,

But no burn through,"

I believe were the

words that they used.

-When we completed the analysis,

None of the scenario

showed a fatal outcome.

-I felt some relief.

I thought we were in

good shape, I believed him.

-That's what you want to hear.

You don't want to hear,

"we're going to

lose the vehicle."

-What's missing in that

is we should have had

In boldface at the

very beginning,

"these are engineering

assumption cases.

We do not know

without extra data

Whether these are actual

representations of reality.

A turnaround issue, what they

meant was some level of repair.

-So when columbia comes back?

-When it comes back,

but nothing really bad.

That bad. Just local repair.

Patch it up and let's go again.

-And that's what was being

communicated to linda

- Yes. Yes, yes.

- Okay.

Even though you all sat there

- Yes.

- And thought it wasn't okay.

What? You

didn't you didn't

She was in the room with you.

- She was in the room with us.

- So what

What prevented you

from going to talk to her?

-The chain of command protocol.

You don't approach

managers directly.

-You're, you know,

you're a grown man

And you're in the

room of only 12

-I'm a grown man with grown

men telling me not to do that.

There are other grown men

with power and authority saying,

"don't do that."

-What would have been

the repercussions of talking

To her in that room?

-I don't know if, uh

I don't know.

♪

♪

-I really love seeing

a team come together,

And the bigger team who

makes this entire mission possible

Is the team on the ground,

And all the folks who

work in mission control,

And all the folks who work

at the different nasa centers.

It's just such a great

feeling for me to

To see everybody

working together as a team

Like that, and

even getting up here

And hearing their familiar

voices on the on the radio,

It's just a great feeling.

-We are supposed to do

everything we can for the crew.

They trust us, they have

their training and expertise,

But they want to

believe and pull full faith

That we're doing the

very best for them.

-In the nasa world,

People don't talk in

terms of "it's life or death."

You use the terms "threat

to the vehicle and crew,"

Or "risk to the

vehicle and crew."

It might have more

power or more punch

If we talk life and

death, but we don't.

♪

♪

-Okay, well, then,

we've got, uh,

An announcement

that we'd like to make

On behalf of the sts-107 crew.

It is today that we

remember and honor

The crews of apollo

1 and challenger.

They made the

ultimate sacrifice,

Giving their lives and

service to their country

And for all mankind.

Their dedication and devotion

To the exploration of

space was an inspiration

To each of us, and

still motivates people

Around the world to

achieve great things

In service to others.

As we orbit the earth,

We will join the

entire nasa family

For a moment of

silence in their memory.

Our thoughts and prayers

go to their families as well.

-Here we go.

-We went to nasa and did what

they called a teleconference.

Yeah, I remember being excited.

-He did all these

What he would call

stupid astronaut tricks.

I think he did different

flips and, like, would poke

His head out from different

angles to make us laugh.

And also just to play

around with weightlessness.

When else are you going to

be able to float on camera?

So [ chuckles ]

It was really cool to see.

-It was our dating anniversary.

It was also the

anniversary of challenger.

We had about 20 or 25 minutes

And he shared how

the mission was going.

-It was so nice to be able

to see him, talk to him.

And he was having a blast.

-I just kept telling him

how much I loved him

And he said, "I love

you guys so much."

He goes, "evelyn, I

love you so much."

And just kept saying that.

Those are our last words ever.

That was it.

-I got a really nice note

from evelyn husband

And she just said, "I

just want you to know

How much we at nasa

appreciate how you cover space."

I was worried about

her and her kids.

Anytime a shuttle is going to

come to earth, I'd be worried.

In this case, I had

a little more worry.

♪

-Columbia, houston,

good morning,

And we're looking forward to

Our last day on orbit with you.