Comm Check 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...

-theres this big countdown clock. i just remember staring at that clock, like, watching every second go down, like, "is it now? is it now?" -i dont know what i expected when i saw that clock -- like, for them to just magically arrive when it reached zero. -iain was very excited. -moms coming home, and, you know, hes gonna get mom hugs, great meals. you know, life will be back to normal. ♪ -somebody from nasa said, "youll see the big kind of parachute that pops out of the back." and i think tha...

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...

We lost comm with the crew, but thats actually common. I mean, you dont have communications all the way through entry. So that didnt initially get my attention. Good morning to you. Im miles obrien. It is now 9 00 a. M. On the east coast, 6 00 a. M. Out west. Take a look outside. You should see 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...

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

And i think thats probably what i was most excited about [laughs] was watching the parachute come out. There was something not right. I remember our capcom, charlie hobaugh, trying to reestablish communications. And he said, over and over again, columbia, houston, comm check. Columbia, houston, comm check. And i had not lost hope that we would reestablish communications to the crew. No C Band yet. Copy. C bands a radar that sits on the ground. And literally, it sends out a signal, and it bounces...

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