I saw the Columbia disaster in real time. I was 7 years old in a classroom watching the launch. Our class was one of the lucky few that was going to get her lessons piped in. My friends had family working at NASA. My best friend's father took me to White Sands NASA offices during "take your daughter to work day". I was adopted temporarily for the event.
So it was a little bit different for me. I won't say I was more mature. I will say that my first thought was that I would never see those lessons because of the explosion. But that went quickly to the teacher and everyone else being dead.
Plus we got counseling in a day when few did: but not only because those 7 people died. But because another accident happened that nobody else even heard about that involved invisible fire. It was a hydrogen fire. It killed 36 people. There was no good way to detect a fire you can't see. The people who got out held brooms ahead of themselves so the broom burned so they didn't. Plus there were some areas that were completely out of oxygen due to fire and fire suppression. You couldn't see that. The fire suppression system locked doors and people couldn't get out. It was the stuff that nightmares are made of.
And those were relatives and friends of the kids in my class.
I bring all this up because I am nerd cool? No. But because they said things that shaped who I am.
And I heard why the O ring problem wasn't addressed. And I know why they couldn't just rewrite the schedule. It wasn't bad publicity necessarily. At least, the scientists and engineers didn't care about those things.
But NASA is a government organization, and it got its budget directly from Congress. And Congress said no. Political pointed heads directed the priorities. And the scientists and engineers could do what they were told, or lose a once in a lifetime opportunity. It was the only game in town back then.
But do you know what happened afterwards? They finally got the gumption to get up and leave. That's where private space came from: Virgin, SpaceX and Blue Origin. Without them we wouldn't have a space program today. I'm not sure it would have had the exceptional brain trust, if not for the outrage over those seven scientists... And the 36 who died because a politician or 50 wouldn't blink for the lives of their friends and family.
I didn't mean to steal your thunder. If it helps, your article was so good it gave me almost flashbacks to that day and vividly reminded me enough to gather the details. I didn't think I could remember that much from back then, but especially the fire was horrible just hearing about it.
I didn't necessarily think you were upset. I just felt self conscious because it's one of those stories that gets me accused of bragging or "privilege". And I was privileged to know those people and see what I saw up close. But it's not the same thing as how they mean that word.
I was an AFROTC cadet when Challenger happened. We were in the middle of a command staff meeting when a junior cadet came busting into the room yelling that the shuttle had exploded. Staff meeting ended, somebody turned on the TV, and we watched the replay, over and over and over. We had a lot of cadets with pilots billets whose ultimate goal was astronautics. I've never before or since seen so many young men openly in tears as I did that day, but not one of them changed his mind about his dream. Likewise, the next time our sci-fi writing group met and one member asked how many of us still wanted to go into space, every one of us raised our hands.
Fast forward a few years. My husband, a NASA contractor, had just been transferred into the Risk Assessments group and we traveled to Florida for him to attend a training conference. They discussed Challenger, among other things. One evening he confided to me, "If things don't change, we're going to have another disaster." We were literally at the airport for the flight home when the news about Columbia blasted all over the airport TVs.
He, being the one who had to work on the aftermath, could give you more details than I can, but from what I understand there really wasn't anything they could do to save Columbia. The damage to the wing from the loose tile striking it happened during the launch, not before the launch like the O-ring situation, when it could've (should've) been delayed and dealt with. The shuttle had neither an ejection capsule nor means for astronauts to do an EVA to perform a repair. The damaged area was small but in a critical spot and it couldn't withstand the intense heat of reentry. I suspect the crew knew through most of their mission that the odds of surviving the landing were very slim if not nil.
When "political correctness" came to NASA, the situation got even worse. Jon hasn't worked there for several years now. I agree that private, commercial space ventures are the way to go.
I knew the damage to Columbia happened after launch. I just learned that there was no way to do an EVA to correct the damage from you, but I guess that makes sense.
I saw the Columbia disaster in real time. I was 7 years old in a classroom watching the launch. Our class was one of the lucky few that was going to get her lessons piped in. My friends had family working at NASA. My best friend's father took me to White Sands NASA offices during "take your daughter to work day". I was adopted temporarily for the event.
So it was a little bit different for me. I won't say I was more mature. I will say that my first thought was that I would never see those lessons because of the explosion. But that went quickly to the teacher and everyone else being dead.
Plus we got counseling in a day when few did: but not only because those 7 people died. But because another accident happened that nobody else even heard about that involved invisible fire. It was a hydrogen fire. It killed 36 people. There was no good way to detect a fire you can't see. The people who got out held brooms ahead of themselves so the broom burned so they didn't. Plus there were some areas that were completely out of oxygen due to fire and fire suppression. You couldn't see that. The fire suppression system locked doors and people couldn't get out. It was the stuff that nightmares are made of.
And those were relatives and friends of the kids in my class.
I bring all this up because I am nerd cool? No. But because they said things that shaped who I am.
And I heard why the O ring problem wasn't addressed. And I know why they couldn't just rewrite the schedule. It wasn't bad publicity necessarily. At least, the scientists and engineers didn't care about those things.
But NASA is a government organization, and it got its budget directly from Congress. And Congress said no. Political pointed heads directed the priorities. And the scientists and engineers could do what they were told, or lose a once in a lifetime opportunity. It was the only game in town back then.
But do you know what happened afterwards? They finally got the gumption to get up and leave. That's where private space came from: Virgin, SpaceX and Blue Origin. Without them we wouldn't have a space program today. I'm not sure it would have had the exceptional brain trust, if not for the outrage over those seven scientists... And the 36 who died because a politician or 50 wouldn't blink for the lives of their friends and family.
Wow
I didn't mean to steal your thunder. If it helps, your article was so good it gave me almost flashbacks to that day and vividly reminded me enough to gather the details. I didn't think I could remember that much from back then, but especially the fire was horrible just hearing about it.
Umm...
Okay?
Not sure why you thought your response bothered me, but we're good.
I didn't necessarily think you were upset. I just felt self conscious because it's one of those stories that gets me accused of bragging or "privilege". And I was privileged to know those people and see what I saw up close. But it's not the same thing as how they mean that word.
Gotcha. Yeah, it doesn't bother me.
And if there is a person who is less likely to accuse someone of "privilege" than I am, I'd like to meet them.
But maybe that's just me.
I was an AFROTC cadet when Challenger happened. We were in the middle of a command staff meeting when a junior cadet came busting into the room yelling that the shuttle had exploded. Staff meeting ended, somebody turned on the TV, and we watched the replay, over and over and over. We had a lot of cadets with pilots billets whose ultimate goal was astronautics. I've never before or since seen so many young men openly in tears as I did that day, but not one of them changed his mind about his dream. Likewise, the next time our sci-fi writing group met and one member asked how many of us still wanted to go into space, every one of us raised our hands.
Fast forward a few years. My husband, a NASA contractor, had just been transferred into the Risk Assessments group and we traveled to Florida for him to attend a training conference. They discussed Challenger, among other things. One evening he confided to me, "If things don't change, we're going to have another disaster." We were literally at the airport for the flight home when the news about Columbia blasted all over the airport TVs.
He, being the one who had to work on the aftermath, could give you more details than I can, but from what I understand there really wasn't anything they could do to save Columbia. The damage to the wing from the loose tile striking it happened during the launch, not before the launch like the O-ring situation, when it could've (should've) been delayed and dealt with. The shuttle had neither an ejection capsule nor means for astronauts to do an EVA to perform a repair. The damaged area was small but in a critical spot and it couldn't withstand the intense heat of reentry. I suspect the crew knew through most of their mission that the odds of surviving the landing were very slim if not nil.
When "political correctness" came to NASA, the situation got even worse. Jon hasn't worked there for several years now. I agree that private, commercial space ventures are the way to go.
I knew the damage to Columbia happened after launch. I just learned that there was no way to do an EVA to correct the damage from you, but I guess that makes sense.
Wow.