Shuttle Data Recorder May be Key to Accident 238
DreamerFi writes "A flight data recorder from the space shuttle Columbia, recovered last week in East Texas, contains readings that continue 14 seconds later than any previously studied data. Those readings are likely to play a crucial role in determining the cause of the shuttle's catastrophic breakup on Feb. 1."
sad news (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Live radio (Score:2, Informative)
It is just those few minutes during the radio blackout time that things seemed to go wrong.
Re:Live radio (Score:2, Informative)
More info about OEX recorder (Score:5, Informative)
<karmaho>
I came across an article [spaceflightnow.com] at Spaceflight Now which contains basically the same news, as well as a link to the OEX specifications [nasa.gov] in the NSTS 1988 News Reference Manual.
</karmaho>
No insight here, move along...
Recorder not strengthened like black box (Score:5, Informative)
During one of the original news conferences, a reporter asked if there was a black box, similar to those on aircraft. He was told no because NASA did not believe that they could design a black box that could survive a shuttle disaster. Did NASA lie? No, they told the truth, there are no black boxes designed to withstand a shuttle disaster.
Re:Black box?! (Score:3, Informative)
However Columbia did have extra monitoring recorders (to supplement the ground feed) because it was the first shuttle built and flown in space. They later removed some of that equipment, but did leave some of it, including this piece (fortunetly)
Re:Accident cause (Score:3, Informative)
Columbia FAQ (Score:5, Informative)
There's an excellent FAQ [io.com], that will clear up a lot of misconceptions, and hopefully shut up some of the ignorant pedants.
If you're afraid it's a hidden goatse link, here it is naked:
http://www.io.com/~o_m/home.html
Re:The Shuttle is *extremely* difficult to land .. (Score:5, Informative)
STS-112 [spaceflightnow.com]
"Making his first hands-on landing, first-time shuttle commander Jeffrey Ashby took over manual control of the shuttle five minutes before touchdown as the spaceplane passed through 50,000 feet above the Florida spaceport. "
STS-93 [floridatoday.com]
"Update for 11:17 p.m. EDT
Commander Eileen Collins is taking manual control of Columbia. Three minutes to touchdown. The shuttle has gone sub-sonic. Twin sonic booms now being heard in the local area around Kennedy Space Center."
STS-113 [cbsnews.com]
"Following a computer-controlled plunge to a point about 50,000 feet above the Kennedy Space Center, commander James Wetherbee, making a record fifth descent as a shuttle skipper, took over manual control and guided the spaceplane to a breezy landing, reports CBS News Space Consultant William Harwood."
If I remember correctly, the first Shuttle pilot (dunno his name, some ex-Navy pilot)
Pilot, Robert Crippen, USN
Mission commander, John Young, USN
I get most of my understanding of the Shuttle landing procedure from the X-Plane sim, which makes it very clear that it's extremely difficult for a human being to land the Shuttle...
I would suspect that they have a leetle bit more training than you do.
Re:However (Score:1, Informative)
Most of the problems with the current Shuttle design stem from compromises made back in the days of the Skylab program. Some orignal Shuttle designs called for a smaller vehicle with fewer crew (2-3 instead of up to 7). The idea being, these Shuttles would service orbiting labs that could be lifted on Saturn V expendable boosters.
When President Johnson slashed NASA's budget after the Apollo missions, it was clear that launching manned labs on huge expendable boosters was out. So, the Shuttle design was enlarged to carry the payload and crew necessary to support science and military missions using the Shuttle instead of a separate laboratory. The cost of this decision was a Shuttle that costs *more* per launch than a Saturn V, carries less, and may be more dangerous than the Apollo capsules. The root cause of these problems was a political, not technical, decision.
Manned space exploration will continue to be expensive, dangerous, and uneconomical as long as major decisions are made by politicians. Congress and the executive branch need to provide a clear mandate to NASA and approve funding without demanding excessive control over the details. I personally think that NASA should be split between spaceflight research, manned space flight, and unmanned exploration. These three interests compete with each other for scarce funding and as a result, none gets enough attention.
Re:The Shuttle is *extremely* difficult to land .. (Score:2, Informative)
At that point in the envelope, I believe only one human being has ever taken the stick, and he let auto-pilot take over. Columbia was doing it as planned: by computer.
Here, read the 8:49 a.m. section here: [bayarea.com]
Columbia was still going too fast, so at 8:49 a.m. it made the first of three planned sweeping S-curve maneuvers, banking first to the right and, later, to the left. These maneuvers extend the time the shuttle is in the atmosphere and can be slowed by friction.
The computer was still doing the flying, and that was supposed to continue until about three minutes before landing, when the astronauts would take computer-assisted manual control.
If something had gone wrong, said Rob Navias, a press officer at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, the astronauts could override the computers. It has never been done, and Hauck said it probably would not be done except in the most extreme circumstances, because computers can react more quickly than humans.
Word I have is that this S-curve maneuver has only had human hands involved with it *once*, and it was a quick default back to auto-pilot
Re:Amazing (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Amazing (Score:3, Informative)
So I do not see a problem for a dedicated collection box to keep tape alive in it. After all it is not the box to survive. It is the tape within.