STS-93 Columbia Engine Failure

[inuyasha3436]

FAIL

[LessThanSte]

Im so gutted, this is the closest i ever, and will ever get to seeing a shuttle launch. We were on the other side of the canal, right by McDonalds, pretty much as close as you can get without being on NASA property and had been there all day counting down to the launch. It was the longest drive back to Clearwater ever :(

[usaeagle1776]

@LessThanSte I know what you mean. I was at a launch attempt in Aug of 1993, and they had something similiar. never go to go back to see another one. sucked big time.

[trechan]

Thats good that they spotted the initial problem and halted. It's important to confirm and recognize any future problems, you don't want another Challenger incident. I will agree that it is anti climatic, and that it was quite boring. However, they did save themselves from any future incidents.

[kinsley2108]

What an anti-climax.

[kingofinferno100]

WHY spend millions or trillions of funds on this(for 30 years) when we could have sent a man 2 mars by now

[chuanist]

This was a successful event; beats the heck out of blowing up.

[guitarnashelter]

would of been a bit of a burnout thats all,pussys,columbia was strain at the leash

[darkguardian1314]

This was the first launch attempt. The second launch lead to a series of malfunctions during the ascent due to electrical wiring and a broken oxidizer post resulting in a hydrogen leak. They ended up in a lower than planned orbit.

[hartonium]

I must say the term Haz Gas is funny as ...well... a Fart! So I'll let it be known we at the Shuttle Launch site also said as much. The "Hazardous Gas Detection" Engineers hated it! lol

[hartonium]

I was there at KSC as a propulsion engineer (MPS) and here's what happened.  The Haz Gas system (on launch attempt 1) "saw" a 620 ppm H2 "leak" in the aft fuselage but it was a false reading. The false reading (which was more than double that allowed by our LCC) was caused by Haz Gas taking a calibration run for their aft fuselage Haz Gas H2 detectors. Unfortunately Haz Gas took the H2 sample way too late in the count which caused the H2 to be 620 ppm.

[CmdShepard]

@hartonium so... resuming: it was your fault lol

[backinthecrystal]

I also have a little hydrogen in the aft. ;-)

[19thSFGA]

Good riddens nasa lost its vision when the shuttle came maybe nasa should go as well .Private industry will revive space travel nothing motivates like the allmighty buck !

[DAngelo136]

@19thSFGA Yeah like the highly profitable aviation industry

[lexichronicle2]

"what happed"

Too much hydrogen found around the engine. Once the shuttle eventually took off, a hydrogen line popped and leaked on the way to orbit, meaning it didn't quite get to were it was meant to be going but managed a safe orbit.

[rocketsforbao]

Dddffggggggtttggccffdddfgfffcf­ddrrrrrssdddxxfrredrrrfrrggggg­gghjjkkklnng vv vg Gnh hbb. V. Bbbbvbgbbg

[mbella76]

what happed



[mbella76]

are they letting the crew out of the suttle



[blahethanblah]

its eerie to see this ship 2 missions before its catastrophic failure in 2003.

[RainbowManification]

It farted

[Glock24Guy]

UM, the liquid fueled "main engines" run for six seconds before the SRBs are lit. This is done because they need to know the main engines are actually operating correctly before the SRBs are lit, because the SRBS cannot be stopped unless they are blown up.

If there is ANY issue with the liquid fueled main engines, the SRBs cannot be lit, and the Shuttle is left on the pad with water squirting everywhere.

[yoyoyoyoshua]

they had hydrogen in the ass

[RainbowManification]

@yoyoyoyoshua I have the problem from time to time.

[yoyoyoyoshua]

@RainbowManification I do most of the time.

[1fifaworldcuplover2]

@yoyoyoyoshua AFT

[vcsnavy]

The sparklers are there to burn off any combustible gasses that made have accumulated in the engine area prior to engine start. They are not, like some think, there to light off the engines.

[AndroidGeeek]

@vcsnavy Thanks for clarifying, thought they 'lit' the engines!

[Alexfan14]

Can someone explain what its the sparkle you see every time before launch? and the gas you see coming out of the shuttle?

[roamingcroat]

@Alexfan14 ...and the gas is oxygen being run through the engines to cool them down before start.

[dave46563]

@Alexfan14 the spark system is there to burn off excess hydrogen that accumulates around the engine nozzles before they ignite. if the engines ignite while hydrogen is present it can damage the nozzles and/or engines. vcsnavy is correct. they DO NOT ignite the engines themselves. the system is started by the computers at T-10 seconds. the high whining noise you can hear at roughly T-13 seconds is the water suppression system.

[Alexfan14]

@dave46563 Thanks a lot for explaining it :) I was always curious about the launch process of the shuttle

[awesomeologyism]

Modern technology is a lifesaver

[Mrjasonorum]

@awesomeologyism or a killer

[hertamaniac]

H aft sensor picked up a 640 PPM detection of hydrogen which exceeds the threshold limit for launch criteria. A computer controlled abort and you could hear them relay that the graph showed a spike of H.

[dtiydr]

Major boring event for the astronauts i guess.

[ColeFried81]

@dtiydr boring isn't the word I would use. Unsettling, terrified, nervous is more like it.

[blackarmoredfox]

i bet you all would love to just say go go go but think about this you might not make it back you just explode above the pad

[haarp35117]

T-7

[Cellmate412162]

Wait a minute... The fire suppression system didn't activate?! I understand that the main engines didn't start, but the spark emitters turned on and there was hydrogen in the aft detected. Isn't there still a risk of fire?

[Embraer091]

Astronaut: Cutoff, please cutoff..

Huston: Cutoff given..

Astronaut: I have to go to the bathroom to do number 02, wait a moment..LOL

[MegaBell88]

what the heck happened

[Dennisthemenace217]

They do auto sequence start so the computers control the systems. They control the systems because humans can't detect problems that quick and can't do RSLS aborts, then the shuttle might blow up.

[fightcol]

they had little hydrogen in the ass

[Pkm188]

@fightcol lol...love the sense of humor

[Evenor48]

Was a blue screen of windows vista LOL

[skateboy159]

what sounds like a steam train on video?

[thegame0135]

It's the APU

[tohtorigyro]

put some headphones on and you can hear it clearly in the backround.

[andyman2461]

was this the 3rd,4th or 5th last time Columbia went to space?

[OentOent]

The 2nd last time, the last two flights were STS-109 in 2002 and the disaster-flight STS-107 in 2003.

[penfat1]

i dont know

[Andrewmcmelonse]

I was there when it happened, i was like, HELL YEAH! thent he next, Damnit

[homeboy20012009]

Why wasn't there a launch abort, on 01/28/1986. That could had saved the lives & the space program.

[joachim2464]

the failure of the o-ring was not sencored so the computer could not notice it. In all the pad abort cases it is the computer that aborts the launch after main engine ignition.

[TheMiseryGuts]

@homeboy20012009 Dude. Read up. You can't abort a launch 2 minutes before a problem. Come on.

[LessThanSte]

This remains the closest i ever got to seeing a launch live. My dad and I were parked on a grass area, right on the beachline, just down from the McDonalds, about 12 miles i think from the pad. Such a shame!

One day i will see it again!

By the way, im sure i read that the abort turned out to be due to a faulty sensor rather than a leak. This is the mission where one of the main engines lost power, causing a lower altitude orbit than planned!

[Wabitfan]

do all shuttles have ejection seats or was it just the Columbia

[vaitripleseven]

Columbia had ejection seats only for couple of early missions (two or three, I can't remember exactly- go and google it). After that the hatches were sealed and hot seats removed for obvious reasons- there's no way to eject from the middeck.

[tjk2mars]

One downfall of the Ares 1 rocket...no way to shut it down after you light it.

[billybobmacguyver]

Yeah, but that what the escape tower is for..... More than likely, if a malfunction occured after ignition and lift-off in a liquid booster, the result would still be the same, an abort.

[yougotmiles]

Its a shame what happened to Columbia shuttle... stupid foam

[dancraggs]

Even if it's just a tiny pocket of hydrogen, the last thing you want is for that pocket to ignite, breaking away even a tiny piece of anything which could impact the shuttle on the way up. The guidelines are there for a reason, and whilst it's frustrating for EVERYONE involved, they all know that it's something that happens and something that you can't toy with.

[erikmartin2]

This is NOT overly conservative. An anomalous amount of hydrogen concentrating in the engine compartment means the engine is malfunctioning, regardless of whether or not the hydrogen accumulated so far could be ignited.

They concluded later that it was a faulty reading, but I think it's fair to assume that they were wrong, since when STS-93 eventually launched there was a hydrogen leak in the engine which eventually meant they were unable to attain their planned orbit.

[puncheex]

Turns out the hydrogen leak was cased by a plug that worked its way out higher up in the engine, fell during launch and dinged a hrdrogen line that diverted LH2 to cool the engine wall. An engineer saw the increased hydrogen flow, assumed an interior leak (it was actually exterior), and increased oxygen to balance the burn. As a result they ran out of O2 earlier than planned, and did an effective but unofficial ATO.

[puncheex]

The flares that fire around the engines at T-10 are designed to burn any stray H2 before the engines actually fire. The problem with the high H2 reading (a sensor error, as it turned out) is not so much the H2 itself, but that it might indicate a leak which could expand and damage or kill one or more engines.

[heroineworshipper]

Retractable walkway rotates back in a hurry after the abort.

[don312000]

One of the astronauts on that flight said she was out of her seat and already working to blow the hatch by the time the walkway was back in place, so that they could run for it if necessary. Fortunately, the H2 levels came down as soon as the abort was called and there was no need to evacuate.

[thenekom]

How frustrating that must be for astronauts.

[MarkWilliams212]

i dont know alot about engines but anybody know what wud of happend had the engines ignited?

[bedaman10]

The fuel would all explode and it would be a massive explosion. Everything within at least 1/2 mile would be destroyed.

[MarkWilliams212]

Oh ok really doged a bullet there then. =/

[ugowar]

LOL. Most probably nothing abnormal would have happened and they'd have launched normally.

A big bunch of these safety features are overly conservative, had there been that much free hydrogen to cause an explosion, it would have detonated when the sparklers lit.

[UdallIn72]

Overly conservative?

They've flown, what, about a hundred and thirty times?

...Two of them blew up!

[Toadman1911]

It was at 640 PPM as stated in the video. That amount of hydrogen would be in no danger of ignition, as hydrogen diffuses very rapidly, and only ignites at high concentrations (20%+). I'd say that's pretty conservative.

[bladeere14]

they have to take every precaution, imagine how much money they would lose if that thing blew up, the launch pad would be gone the shuttle would be gone and the crew would be gone.

[fwayndo1]

i guess that "probably" is not something they like to toy with

[UdallIn72]

The main engines can be shut off. It happened at least once to Discovery.

Once the SRBs are ignited, though, there's pretty much no turning back.

[BasserPeti]

Poor Columbia :(((((((((

[crucialconflict02]

dodged a bullet...

[oisiaa]

The controller sounded very nervous, hoping that he made the correct decision.

[Neptuneaus]

He wasn't nervous -- seeing a sudden spike of hydrogen levels in the aft engine compartment is a no-brainer as far as cutting off the count. He paused when talking to NTD (NASA Test Director Mike Leinbach -- currently serving as Launch Director) because he had to report the amount of hydrogen (BPM) he was seeing.

[emenentia]

It's done automatically... the computer lets the engine run for a few seconds before the SRB's ignite. If the computer senses a problem then it shuts off the countdown by itself.

[puncheex]

In this particular case, NASA says that the propulsion manager saw the spike and called "cutoff" (you can hear him, then the cutoff is repeated by the female voice that tracks the countdown). That is the official callout to immediately abort the launch, before the SRBs fire. I can't really believe that the computers weren't watching that as well, but the NASA narrative doesn't mention it.

[tomboi1978]

@emenentia Actually the reason the engines run for a few seconds is for the "twang". When the engines ignite the shuttle pitches forward slightly and must settle back to vertical before igniting the boosters.

[josekmlb]

@tomboi1978 the main reason is to make sure the engines are running fine. If they are not running good then you light the SRBS there is no stopping the liftoff

[lukas2643]

true my frind very smart the reson it did not ignite was caz of hyger gen in the air well hwat you said but well done some ones bed doing there home worke

[RJY4356]

To clarify on STS-93, this is NOT an engine failure. The cutoff happened before the engines started. It was a sudden spike of hydrogen gas that was seen and caused the engineers to cutoff the countdown.

[Ulsoro]

@RJY4356 lol yes just listen and ull know

[joachim2464]

@RJY4356 not the engineers, but the flight computer:)

[TheNewVideos]

@RJY4356 why? whats with that? What is the danger there?

[gamersedge]

@TheNewVideos You know of the hindeburg, right? Hydrogen is insanely flammable. So when you burn it off ant low energy with the sparklers, it's safe, but when you hit excess hydrogen with three of the most powerful rocket engines ever made, you could have a very large explosion. So it's important.

[owenbigpinekey]

I could watch this over and over again.

[owenbigpinekey]

Actually what i meant to say was i could watch your videos over and over again, i just love the shuttle and all things related to space. I hate seeing things like this when the shuttle has failures.