Space Shuttle Columbia: Seconds from Disaster part 5 of 5

During launch a piece of foam the size of a briefcase breaks off the external tank, striking the leading edge of the left wing of Space Shuttle Columbia at 500mph.

Was it the root cause of the Columbia disaster? These videos answer that question.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• space
• shuttle
• columbia
• disaster
• foam
• hole
• in
• leading
• edge
• wing
• reentry
• burned
• up
• astronauts
• died

[knightryderrwn]

@Masfemneunouns,

Not only the speed, but figure that that foam, which had been attached to the super-cold external tank, was probably *also* super-cold, and therefore hard as a BRICK. So you basically have a brick smashing into the RCC (reinforced carbon-carbon) tiles at extremely high speed, and the foam punches a hole in the wing.

[orionpax12345]

@DisneyMousse seriously dude, what the fuck is wrong with you?

[Masfemneunouns]

@EasternMerchant Yes, foam. When you consider how fast the shuttle has to go to get into orbit, it is no surprise that a piece of foam can damage the orbiter's wing.

[EasternMerchant]

@EasternMerchant ya know. I"ve been watching all these Seconds from disaster documentaries and I noticed that alot of these catastrophic events occur over the littlest most insignificant things! I will never set foot in anything that goes into the air ever again in my life!

[EasternMerchant]

FOAM?? Foam is soft! how can Foam break off a piece of the shuttle's wing? those tiles are strong on those wings!

[Knepperify1]

The sad and tragic fact is that the second they initiated their retro burn, they were dead. At that point physics, materials science and hydrodynamics took over and the result was as you see.

The shuttle cannot stop re-entry.

[lieber011]

The shuttle has been found in Nacogdoches lake near Waxahachie, Texas due to the drought and the lowness of the lake.

[coreyagraph]

@jjames05 a piece a foam going 600 miles an hour..............it didn't hit a tile, it hit a

piece of composite......

[rocketsforbao]

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