Wayne That News Today

from space shuttle columbia as columbia continues to orbit the earth at an altitude of about 150 statute miles. columbia, houston, laurel, youre 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 directors office and the mission control center in houston is working with them. theyre -- everythings good. i walked into the analysis lab to start reviewing film from the launch. we...

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... -"weve got a prob...

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 dont really know much about that, bob. well 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 dont want to alarm the crew tha...

Cheap, very effective. But its 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 highaltitude 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 reso...

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 20plus years of experience, i can tell you every Shuttl...