28th Flight News Today

♪ ♪ ♪ -my wife, laurel, was on the shuttle. she was a scientist primarily involved with life sciences. one day during the mission, i was reviewing the notes, and then heres this foam issue. during launch, a large piece of foam had come off the external tank and impacted the left wing. me and my colleague had this discussion of, "hey, you can use a family conference to talk to laurel and find out what she knew." -oh! -you got to remember the hat youre wearing is your flight-surgeo...

There was mass confusion. -we can only hope that what were seeing is not the worst, but we dont have any confirmation. -they were reporting what they knew on tv, but here we knew that it was falling all over our county. ♪ -gc, flight. -flight, gc. -lock the doors. -copy. ♪ -i was starting to see the beginning of the process for shut down, preserve your data because its going to be needed later for investigation. -fdo, do you have any tracking? -no, sir. ♪ -no phone calls off-site, outside ...

But there wasnt anything. ♪ -milas not reporting any r.f. at this time. -fdo, when are you expecting tracking? ♪ -one minute ago, flight. ♪ -columbia, houston, uhf comm check. ♪ -he makes the call. we hear nothing. ♪ you look at the screen, and the tracking hadnt moved from the dallas area. oh, it was painful.

What looks like a streaking meteor. its actually the space shuttle columbia coming back. were watching it. landing about 15 minutes away. ♪ -weve also lost the nose gear down talkback and the right main gear down talkback. ♪ -columbia, houston. comm check. ♪ -and then everybody started to lose sensors. they were getting no telemetry whatsoever. the screens were just going blank, reading nothing, just turning off. -columbia, houston, uhf, comm check. ♪ ♪ -there was a tenseness coming in...

On her 28th flight, the 113th shuttle mission, 16 days seemingly flawless ending with a sudden and seemingly inexplicable disintegration over northeast texas. ♪ things happened very quickly. there was a conversation, a transmission from rick husband, the shuttle commander, sort of half of a "roger," if you will, that kind of thing, and it was all over. lets try to put together what we know and give you a sense of where this investigation might be headed. i felt like it was my responsibility to...

That a lot of people had, that it could be something terroristrelated, even in this small, rural area, because you never know where that might take place. Phones were ringing off the hook, much more than our Dispatch Staff could handle. There was mass confusion. We can only hope that what were seeing is not the worst, but we dont have any confirmation. They were reporting what they knew on tv, but here we knew that it was falling all over our county. Gc, flight. Flight, gc. Lock the doors. Copy....

I was sickened, like a body blow. And so somehow, i just got my act together, and i just started talking. The tragic loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia on her 28th flight, the 113th shuttle mission, 16 days seemingly flawless ending with a sudden and seemingly inexplicable disintegration over northeast texas. Things happened very quickly. There was a conversation, a transmission from rick husband, the shuttle commander, sort of half of a roger, if you will, that kind of thing, and it was all ove...

There was a tenseness coming into the room. My focus was forward you know, trying to get something to report to flight that was useful. But there wasnt anything. Milas not reporting any r. F. At this time. Fdo, when are you expecting tracking . One minute ago, flight. Columbia, houston, uhf comm check. He makes the call. We hear nothing