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Tag Archives: space shuttle
Unfamiliar Terms
During the summer of 2009, we were working on the history book about the Space Shuttle, ‘Wings in Orbit’. We had hired three summer interns, college students, to help with the book. Their primary assignments were to build the appendices, … Continue reading
STS-93: We don’t need any more of those
It was about a quarter past midnight on July 23, 1999 when the Ralph Roe, the Shuttle Launch Director, told Eileen’s crew that they were go for launch and wished them good luck. The launch, which had been scrubbed late … Continue reading
Practicing for Disaster
Even though we sometimes hated them, the training teams that prepared mission control and the astronauts for every flight are real heroes. Without their efforts, all of us flight controllers would have believed we knew everything there was to know … Continue reading
After Ten Years: Enduring Lessons
From the Rogers Commission to reading Dr. Diane Vaughn’s book The Challenger Launch Decision took me 17 years. For all those years I had learned the wrong lesson about the loss of Challenger. The sound-bite explanation kept me in ignorance. … Continue reading
After Ten Years: Picking Up the Pieces
Starting the new job at KSC, I had set out from my home in Houston on January 30th, with the expectation of spending about three weeks on the job before getting a weekend back in Houston. Among the most surreal … Continue reading
After Ten Years: The Moment of Truth
Prior to the Challenger accident, the theory was that riding on the space shuttle was like riding on a modern jet airliner; passengers are not provided with parachutes and pressure suits. Challenger changed all that. With pressure suits, parachutes, and … Continue reading
After Ten Years: Too Little, Too Late
First the official disclaimer: I can neither confirm nor deny that other national agencies might or might not have had capabilities that could have helped NASA during the last flight of Columbia. The fact of the matter is that in … Continue reading
After Ten Years: Death Never Takes a Holiday
During the accident investigation there were several efforts to determine what might have been done to save Columbia and her crew. None of the concepts to plug the hole in the wing would have worked; most would have caused even … Continue reading
Posted in After Ten Years
Tagged Challenger accident, Columbia Accident, MLK holiday, space shuttle
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After Ten Years: Counting Down to Disaster
Early on I decided that riding the NASA ‘corporate’ jet was not a real advantage. NASA had acquired a number of used Gulfstream II corporate jets to be converted to Shuttle Training Aircraft. Supposedly the Gulfstream people had upgraded to … Continue reading
After Ten Years: STS-113, the Calm before the Storm
Of course the title is wrong; there was nothing calm about STS-113. I was the Ascent/Entry Flight Director as you can see in the picture of the mission control team. This ISS assembly and crew rotation flight was jam packed … Continue reading
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