Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster Pt 2: Final descent - BBC

[Sealy57]

I'm far from a conspiracy theorist, but one has to wonder about how much NASA knew about wing damage incurred during launch. The mood prevalent among launch control staff as reality set in that the shuttle was lost, seemed to be one of confirmation that their worst fears were realized. Ultimately, even if mission control knew beforehand that chances were good the shuttle would break-up on re-entry, they also knew there was nothing that could have been done to save the crew.

[HailAnts]

The Brits do a good documentary, but the shot of it 'exploding' is inaccurate. Columbia first spun violently out of control and simultaneously broke apart, like a high-speed jet would. Very high speed as it was traveling at like Mach 14 when it finally lost it.

[DeltaV2TLI]

Are they really playing music from Alien?

[MegaAROx]

ESOS CONTROLADORES DE VUELO, TAN REALES....

[65FALCONSG]

Most importantly, terrible waste of seven lives and secondly, terrible waste of money with just a little gained over what we (US space program) had already learned from gemini and appollo. Almost one billion dollars per space shuttle flight when you look at the total real cost?! C'mon, man!!!!

[BornAgain77757]

Absolutely no sense of urgency, two comments, Columbia is u beautiful

spaceship preforming magnificently, also, sure is noisy in here isn't it,

before these comments were made, the Shuttle wing was already

melting, from the inside out.

[BornAgain77757]

They needed; A SPACE WALK!

[BornAgain77757]

You are right, their was a Shuttle break up.

[musclecarluvr1]

It didnt explode, it disentegrated during re entry, the most critical time. Narrator says it exploded 38 mi. above ground. And the reconstructed video shows it exploding.

[MrComputergeek3]

it amazes me that the footage from the cockpit was INTACT and viewable

[snico]

@MrComputergeek3 The footage was downlinked to control...not physically filmed in the cockpit.

[DeltaV2TLI]

@snico Uhh no, the footage was recovered in the search for debris...they were using a handheld video camera to record. The portions of the tape close to vehicular breakup were damaged by the heat of reentry and the part of tape closest to reentry destroyed.

[DeltaV2TLI]

@DeltaV2TLI Duh, I apparently can't pull my head out of my arse to type...the part of the tape closest to vehicular breakup was completely destroyed or damaged so badly that none of it was viewable.

[crazyknight2008]

i still think there was more footage from inside the cabin but we will never see it, they all died from extreme blunt force trauma, their suits and seat restraints failed, nasa is at fault for not ordering a military satelite to do a check on its left wing priot to re entry..

[leah08leah]

What the? I was watching Dinosaur Office and I ended up here?

[TheJmate]

How could NASA not see such an obvious piece of foam shatter on the wing of columbia they must be retarted or something (no offense NASA but seriously pay more attention please)

[MsGagan123]

RIP

[Zoomer30]

The foam did the damage and NASAs "head up their ass and in the sand at the same time" problem solving/ignoring finshed them off. It's one of the main reasons NASA is being booted out of the human spaceflight game.

[JackGamer193]

God does not fucking exist! Get over it! And even if he does he's proved himself to be a total prick (read tower of babel). Plus I'd rather join the devil at least he's straight with you and to the point, rather than some fucking hypocritical 'God'. And 'baseballeddie1177' Jesus Christ is not a 'God' in the work of fiction you call the Bible, he's the son of 'God'. If you're going to believe something fucking learn something about it first, at the very least learn the basics!!

[MgoMuse]

RIP COLUMBIA

[peterdelang]

RIP

[MarkusAudio]

"The truth dawned...THE SPACESHUTTLE HAD BEEN LOST."

WTF??!?!?!?!? THE LIVES OF THOSE PEOPLE HAD BEEN LOST!!!!!!

[bustsomecaps]

got goose bumps watching it, one piece of suitcase sized foam destroyed the whole shuttle re entry...crazyness.

[nasa439]

R.I.P columbia

[tnguyen318]

Is there such thing as a cockpit video camera black box recorder?

[aimhigh59]

@tnguyen318 The video in this clip records to a DV tape mounted on their seat.

[tnguyen318]

What is a DV?

[aimhigh59]

@aimhigh59 Digital video.

[bishop51807]

2:44 the soundtrack from ailens!

[dowlad100]

do you know that this shuttle crushed on a city called palestine in texas, the first israeli zionist was on board, if you don't believe then google it.

[luckyStrike89ru]

@dowlad100 So? Israeli government shot it down to make it fall on a city called Palestine in Texas? And? Whats the point. There are cities in US called Moscow, Paris etc. No one needs your conspiracy theories here you islamist freak so fuck off.

[Simokin]

R.I.P from Turkey. God be with you..

[GHOSTGURUVJ0]

Is lucky in spirit it. Because.... Is no way back to the land of U.S and loss of they families unwelcome back. Probably is lack of safety check the plane, before flow up for safety. Unfortunately is bad news is... Gone!

[topgrain]

You can tell by the looks on their faces at ground control prior to the explosion that NASA knew those on board Columbia were doomed. They might have been praying that the damaged bird could reenter Earths atmosphere safely, but deep down they knew it wouldn't. Whether NASA could have sent another shuttle up into space to rescue the Columbia astronauts has never been debated enough.

[ablemorghon]

RIP. We salute you.

[MrCasspir]

Brave people, great job, glorious death. R.I.P.

[boxingfan101]

pffft whose bright idea was it to use the music from alien for this...

[rocketsforbao]

Columbia

[rocketsforbao]

Apollo 13

[tagurorockz]

we always remember you...r.i.p...from philippines

[antoniogabriel89]

Can anyone please tell me what he says at 3:34? "What'd go wrong?" ??? Wouldn't it be "What went wrong?" ????? i'm Spanish and I'd like to know.

[DrFrankLives]

@antoniogabriel89 He says "What'd gone wrong?"

[antoniogabri89]

@DrFrankLives Thank you so much!!! Now that makes sense ;))

[ZtwerdXP]

@antoniogabriel89 he has an accent but im pretty sure he says "What had gone wrong?" (almost like "What'd gone wrong?" he said it sort of together.

[antoniogabri89]

@ZtwerdXP Thanks a lot!!! yes, that makes sense. :D

[Seahorsefan]

@antoniogabriel89

'What did go wrong?' or "What'd go wrong?' can be for past tense and 'What went wrong' can be for present tense. "What had gone wrong?" can also be used too.

[sanctainquisitio]

Is space exploration worth this?

[quiksilver712]

@sanctainquisitio Absolutely, I think many astronauts would agree with me.

[sanctainquisitio]

@quiksilver712 Those that live sure would; but you should ask to those that perish.

[deedubya286]

@sanctainquisitio "If we die, we want people to accept it. We're in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life." - Gus Grissom

[sanctainquisitio]

@deedubya286 "A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.” Oscar Wilde

[segarza]

@sanctainquisitio seriously?

[TheMightyHarihar]

You go into space, you know the risks. You are but playing a game of probability, eventually something like this will happen. You have to learn from it and move on and reduce the game of probability you are already playing with God.

[jazzguitar2010]

@TheMightyHarihar The reduction in the risk should have been taken care of by NASA engineers who just assumed a piece of foam could not hurt the wing, instead of having a data base to support their claim. Foam? Soft. Probably ok. Well, "probably" wasn't good enough for these poor astronauts. It's surprising that even at NASA, they roll the dice on things that are easily verifiable (as they showed us when they conducted post-failure tests on the foam and wing. Why were these tests not done prior?

[Jhoxer]

2:06  silêncio mortal , dead silence

[janmadytay]

@racedemon89 Who the fuck asked you?

[crossy70]

Waste of money!!! TRILLONS WASTED. Not one thing the shuttel has done has benefitted the American people at all. Its an expensive, fun "toy" that I had to pay for.



[2003SCT]

@crossy70 Hey, my taxes had to pay for your education and that was a waste since you aren't even able to spell shuttle correctly. I want my money back for that. :)

[pokerrich9]

@crossy70 how u feel about russia and china having the knowledge and technology and we dont... oh perhaps u didnt hear about the World Wars?

[HannahAndAlena]

It doesn't matter what the fuck happened to it its already sad enough knowing they died!

[rasmusa2821]

Man I bet the realization of the loss of Columbea must have been a chilling reminder of Challengers fate. to those in the control room in Huston

[janmadytay]

@Daevo69 Yeah not like ur flawless space program, O thats write u don't have one. Shut ur fuckin mouth douchbag..

[bahrest2]

@ 2:56 isnt this the alien-soundtrack ?

[pacman445]

Columbia- Houston UHF coms check......

[83nitish]

silience



[Daevo69]

exploded lol dumb asses

[anuoldman]

this is not a very good docu.... it says there was an explosion... there wasn't... there are various other problems... read the investigation docs or something,

[vicorly]

Similarly, Challenger did not explode either. I read the entire Rogers Commission report. From Wikipedia: The O-ring failure caused a breach in the SRB joint it sealed, allowing pressurized hot gas from within the solid rocket motor to reach the outside and impinge upon the adjacent SRB attachment hardware and external fuel tank. This led to the separation of the right-hand SRB's aft attachment and the structural failure of the external tank. Aerodynamic forces promptly broke up the orbiter.

[vicorly]

When the hot plasma entered the wing, the internal structure began to melt and deform. This lead the shuttle to spin out of control.

Columbia DID NOT explode. It broke apart due to aerodynamic forces exerted upon it as it spun out of control.

[Bing9791]

Amos 9:2 TEV

"Even if they dig their way down to the world of the dead, I will catch them. Even if they climb up to heaven, I will bring them down."

[stripped5]

Interesting they start playing the movie "alien" music at 2:52.

[Benderrr111]

Lock the doors? Why? What does that has to do with anything??

[pharees]

@Benderrr111 no one is allowed to leave until they have stored all the evidence from their computers, finished reports and written accounts of everything they saw, heard and did

[kgb474]

@Benderrr111 its a nasa phrase used to imply that nobody calls in or out of that room without going thru the switchboard. nobody enters or leaves the room till they've gathered all possible data. and to the "roger, i'm done"...that was NOT what was said the instant comm was lost. All that was audible was, "Roger, Buh........".

[sara32884]

Wow... you can totally feel the emotion in this video and from inside the flight control area...

[ChristofSeahaven]

2:02...rodger im done?.....chilling

[freddy9968]

shit i was crying :(

[lizardrunner14]

maukschilol is right there is no death to a child of the lord God all mighty

[jcampo4]

They went home. 

[Crazysaint233]

I dont know how it is humanly possible to handle a situation as horrifying as that. Repeating yourself over and over to find that there is nothing on the other end of the line; knowing 7 lives were lost. I find the way these people at Mission Control handled this situation was phenomenal under the immense stress.

May the crew rest in peace.

[Ecardz]

Pffff, thats what they get for using the OLDEST shuttel in the line (columbia) for MONEY reasons.....

[krakenwave]

Funny how the VCR "broke" just before everything when wrong....

[sevenvt]

@krakenwave They claim the footage was damaged in the breakup, not a "vcr" malfunction.

[neverlokback]

I feel really sad during the long silence.

[KINGKENNYTHEHOLY]

@edyli2000 go die creep

[Ecardz]

@edyli2000 Trolololo

[amazingrays1]

Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but the one guy looks just as upset before there was a problem and after the problem.

[international153]

8 years ago today... RIP from russia

[OvGangstas]

Damn. This is intense.

[chrisjackson1]

I remember being surprised that Columbia was still being used when that mission went up. I personally don't think NASA had any business sending up a shuttle that was nearly 30 years old, had been through 26 previous missions, and was basically a PROTOTYPE of the whole Space Shuttle program...especially after Challenger.

Common sense should tell you...old stuff breaks. Anyone who has owned a 30 year old car has broken down by the side of the road, and no car has ever withstood 1/1000 the stress.

[peppystraps]

@chrisjackson1 - True, but remember, this shit happened because of the impact during lift off....a piece of foam that hit the shuttle and tore a huge hole in the wing....They were in space for 16 days with no knowledge of that fact...They didn't stand a chance :-(

[SuprntrlWytch13]

I thought they lost contact with the shuttle for most of the descent?

[GuitarMRO]

REST IN PEACE GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[zagros24]

UFO did it!

[chillaxer1993]

when the audio is re-analyzed

MMACS: "We just lost the tire... HUSBAND: "feelin' the heat" ...MMACS:pressure on the left outboard and left inboard, both tires."

[bhu5han17]

pls pls care fully working...because indian star kalpana is not in here....

[rodrigotuga89]

the silence... quite frightening environment.... ='(

R.I.P Tripulation! ='(

[flute1234]

At 2.53 you can see the tear on the face of the flight director. RIP to the fallen. And i pray for comfort for anyone still affected by this disaster.

[faithoffaith]

Its hard to believe they are alive and then the next thing they are not those last pictures are so sad they look so happy and confident everything is going good and then....

[maukschilol]

The best thing to hope for astronauts in such an accident is, that they die instant. poor but true.

R.I.P.

[baseballeddie1177]

@maukschilol Rick Husband would disagree with you. The most important thing to him was his Christian faith and where he would spend eternity. The is no death to the child of God.

[Nevawake]

@baseballeddie1177 wow and i thought i was losing reality.

[baseballeddie1177]

@Nevawake U have and U R , but U can gain it some day via Christian conversion.

[NinaRainful]

Geeez this guys were on their way home and the shuttle exploded. May the astronaunts rest in peace. They died in the line of duty.

[baseballeddie1177]

 There is a powerful statue of Cmr. Rick Husband in his home town of Amarillo,Tx. This was a great Christian man. The statue shows him in full astronaut gear, hopefully , confidently, yet humbly reaching toward the sky with one hand .

[alexhamster1134]

@baseballeddie1177 his religion is irrelevant

[baseballeddie1177]

@alexhamster1134 Irrelevant to you. To Rick Husband it was the most important thing in his life. Prior to ship breakup there was no reponse to NASA for about a minute, almost like NASA was being ignored. Huband most likely led a Christian prayer with the others in the space ship. Do some research before you run your mouth with ignorant garbage.

[alexhamster1134]

@baseballeddie1177 well if it made him feel better before dying thats his business. reality was, they all burned up :( sure this is emotional, but bringing religion into this is unecessary. he was who he was, whether he believed in god or zeus :)

[baseballeddie1177]

@alexhamster1134 Actually the way they died is not known for sure.Where we live in eternity and Christian faith is whats matters. What is more important than spirituality. Religion is man made , having a relationship with God is whats important. If Zues is your God yourself prepare for Hell fire and burnup on entry. Do some research on Rick Husband- a Christian man.They had no communication from him for about a minute when communications were working,he was no doubt in prayer with his group.

[LeYasa]

@baseballeddie1177

Yeah man. Anyone who chooses to believe in a different god then you totally deserves an eternity of pain and torture. God, Jesus, Allah, Zuez...a diety by any other name would still be an asshole.

[emarum]

@baseballeddie1177 Get real. No man lives forever. And it's really, really obnoxious when you attack people for believing in another God, telling them to prepare to burn. This was a tragedy. Your comments are despicable.

[baseballeddie1177]

@emarum there are no other Gods but Jesus Christ; u r ignorant

[specialthi]

@baseballeddie1177 are you for real?!? i'm a Christian myself but you're going about this totally the wrong way. do you really think the best way to defend your faith is to go on an all out foul mouthed attack? Jesus spread the Good News not by proving people wrong all the time but by showing love and compassion. Dude you have to realise that some people are different from you, live with it. love the sinner, not the sin.

[Tionois]

@baseballeddie1177 He would not do that. If he'd do that while the communication still worked he had no place there as an astronaut. You don't assemble people to prepare for death and pray when you get malfunction readings, you try to find out what's causing them, whether there's mechanical or detector problem... all that stuff. The last trasmition sounded like they were in middle of something, doing things, not praying.

I don't say his final thoughts weren't fixed on God though.

[Doggfair]

no matter how many times I watch this kind of videos, watching someone's final moments alive is so sad and appalling, R.I.P.

[tjrxk7]

The astronauts were alive till they hit the water or very near the impact. What a way to go. Parts of their scalp were found imbedded into their helmits. Gruesome news that never made the 6:00 mainstream.

[tealmarlin]

@tjrxk7 are you talking about challenger? or Columbia?

[tjrxk7]

@tealmarlin Challenger or Columbia.... Not sure off-hand. It was the more recent one as I recall seeing it happen live on tv from my job at the Warner Lambert Co. in Morris Plains, N.J. in the early-to-mid 80s. Upon further research I found out what sort of fate befell those brave lads and lassies. (I believe there was more than one woman on board but I could be wrong on that.)

[tealmarlin]

@tjrxk7 ok, sounds like challenger becuase Columbia broke up over land, and Challenger broke up over water. And of course we all know that the crew compartment hit the water at more then 200 mph

where did you get the crew details from, PM me

[mike1964180]

as the old shuttle pilot said, for years nasa could look its spacemen/women in the eye and say we will do everything in our power to get u up and get u down safely. They can no longer make that claim. There were emails from flight engineers asking for "permission" to check out possible damage to the wing. Nasa refused that request. So no matter what they say, they rolled the dice and played God with these peoples lives and everyone under the flightpath too. Just unbelievable the arrogance. RIP.

[5hafayet]

fuck all-state Ads! 

[shflbm]

o my god, my stomach sat in knots for that entire video :( poor people

[kirza94]

whoa i'd heard about the Columbia accedent watching this makes it much worse than i thought :( , Rip

[forbus56]

"The space shuttle had exploded....." Well, no. It didn't explode...it broke apart.

[MoscowMaestro]

They knew they'd sent them into space in a deathtrap.

[sinclaircats]

@MoscowMaestro You are so right

[ECTBWHO]

: )

[international153]

@ECTBWHO Give some respect!

[mortysand]

Don't need the "outside-the-shuttle in space" reconstruction. The footage from inside and from inside the control center are sufficient.

[alexhamster1134]

@mortysand shh...

[jazzguitar2010]

@mortysand Then Hollywood, California would have no way of understanding the video.

[zizikelizike]

the silence ... it must have been horrible to wait like that, knowing something is going wrong

[spacepatrolman]

@zizikelizike Rudolph Gulianni who was the mayor of new york when the attack on the world trade center happened was supposed to promote his autobigraphy in a bookstore but that was canceled because the shuttle disentigrated then because of loose tiles