All language subtitles for Americas Secret Space Heroes Series 1 3of6 Space Shuttle 1080p

NARRATOR: In
1972, NASA starts work

on a radical new
reusable spacecraft.

Its innovative design pushes
engineering to the limit.

BOB CRIPPEN: They had to be
light, they had to be reusable,

and they had to
be very powerful.

NARRATOR: The space
shuttle challenges engineers

to create a vehicle
that must withstand

the explosive rigors of launch.

MATT: Just that main
engine, to get that to work

is mind-boggling.

NARRATOR: Just as incredible:

the incinerating
temperatures of reentry.

STORY: You’re like in
the middle of a blowtorch.

NARRATOR: Not once --
but time and time again.

TOM: A lot of
sleepless nights over that.

NARRATOR: Against all
odds, engineers must strive

to make spaceflight routine.

BOB CRIPPEN: Flying in space
is tough and it’s dangerous.

NARRATOR: This is the remarkable
story of the unsung heroes

who designed, built and
flew the space shuttle.

[♪ theme music ♪]

NARRATOR: April 12th, 1981. The
Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

Astronauts John
Young and Bob Crippen

are about to risk
their lives in a vehicle

that’s never flown before.

Space Shuttle Columbia.

BOB CRIPPEN: It
was a test flight.

We didn’t know
exactly what it was gonna do.

MISSION CONTROL: We’ve
gone for main engine start.

NARRATOR: The shuttle’s three
main engines roar into life,

followed by two giant
solid rocket boosters...

and the shuttle
leaps from the pad.

BOB CRIPPEN: That’s
when my heart rate went up

to about 130 beats per minute!

NARRATOR: As
Columbia thunders skywards,

it’s the moment
thousands of engineers

have dedicated their lives to --

the launch of the
first-ever reusable spacecraft.

♪ ♪

The space shuttle is
an engineering marvel.

For thirty years
it was the workhorse

of America’s space program,

responsible for some of its
most memorable achievements.

ASTRONAUT: We’ve separated
about one foot per second.

NARRATOR: Launching satellites.

Delivering and servicing
the Hubble Space Telescope.

And assembling
humanity’s largest permanent

outpost in space -- the
International Space Station.

The shuttle’s
unrivaled array of space firsts

rests with an
extraordinary feature

and an incredible
engineering challenge:

the ability to fly in
space time and time again.

♪ ♪

For years the idea of
a reusable spacecraft

is the dream of
early space pioneers.

ARCHIVE: The capability to
launch, maneuver in orbit,

and then maneuver
inside the atmosphere

so that a landing
can be made at will.

ANDY: If you go back
and you look at the old

science fiction
films of the 50’s,

spaceships were
reusable. It was accepted.

And that dream
was very much alive

in the minds of
the engineers at NASA.

NARRATOR:
By the end of the 1960s
NASA has put men on the moon.

But it’s come at a vast cost.

Each
multimillion-dollar moon rocket

is discarded after launch.

DON: In the case of the rocket
engines and the rocket vehicles,

they didn’t come
back. They were throwaways.

They burned up
in the atmosphere,

and those
vehicles were expensive.

NARRATOR: With budgets for
space exploration falling,

NASA must find a new solution.

One which promises to
make spaceflight routine --

and ultimately cheaper.

ANDY: So you are saying to
the engineers you have a chance

to build the world’s
first reusable spaceship,

and it’s going to be amazing.

NARRATOR: It’s a
hugely ambitious project.

And NASA must persuade
the US Government to fund it.

That means
recruiting a powerful ally

with a vested interest in space:

the US Department of Defense.

An eye in orbit
is the perfect place

to keep watch on
America’s adversaries.

ANDY: NASA
understood that in order to get

the shuttle
approved they had to make

the shuttle attractive to
the Department of Defense.

NARRATOR: Seeing the
shuttle’s potential, the DoD

agrees to join forces with NASA.

But not without two
important stipulations.

First, the shuttle
must be able to return

to a specific landing
site after just one orbit.

ANDY: The DoD guys say launch,

take classified reconnaissance
photos, and come back down

at the end of one orbit and
land back at the launch site.

The problem is that while
you’re doing that one orbit

in that 90 minutes the Earth
is turning underneath you.

NARRATOR: Meaning the
shuttle’s launch site shifts

over 1,000 miles eastward.

ANDY: That means you’ve
got to launch it like a rocket

and land it like an airplane

where you can steer to
the proper landing point.

NARRATOR: Such versatility
is something that’s never been

attempted before
with a spacecraft

but is critical in
making it reusable.

Aerospace engineer Tom Moser

is tasked with the
engineering challenge.

TOM: As the
requirements evolved,

we knew we had to
have a delta wing

like some of the fighter jets.

NARRATOR: A delta
wing will give the shuttle

more controllability
when returning to Earth.

At the Smithsonian
Air and Space Museum,

it’s possible to see
this distinctive shape

with Space Shuttle Discovery.

VALERIE: The delta
wing gave this vehicle

maneuverability to move to
the left, move to the right,

and it also gave it
maneuverability during reentry

to make these
big sweeping S turns

as it was descending to
bring this vehicle home.

The wings are
doing all the work.

NARRATOR: The
shuttle’s delta wing design

promises the flying versatility
the military requires.

But NASA must also fulfill
the second major requirement

from the
Department of Defense --

launching large spy satellites.

TOM: We had to carry
a very large payload.

It weighed like 65,000
pounds, 15 feet in diameter

and 60 feet long.

NARRATOR: The strict
military requirements

dictate the design and
shape of the spacecraft,

called the orbiter.

To launch it, engineers
must build three revolutionary

rocket engines fueled by a
giant external tank, along with

two solid rocket boosters,
giant reusable rockets,

and then combine them to
provide the immense thrust

needed to lift the
heavy payloads into orbit.

TOM: So it was huge. The DoD
requirements were a big driver.

A huge driver in the
design of the shuttle.

NARRATOR: The
military’s demands create

a huge engineering challenge.

But having them on board checks
the boxes on Capitol Hill.

And in January 1972 President
Nixon green-lights funding

for the shuttle program.

ANDY: But this was a new idea,

and it was one thing to say it,

and it’s another
thing to actually do it.

NARRATOR: Now NASA, and
the engineers it will employ,

face the
enormity of constructing

one of the most
complex machines ever built.

♪ ♪

California, 1972.

With the space
shuttle’s design determined,

engineers at
Rocketdyne begin work

on a critical element of
getting the orbiter into space:

its three main engines.

Fresh out of college,
Dan Hausman is challenged

to help create a
revolutionary rocket engine.

DAN: It was very
exciting because it was

a brand new engine program,

and we called it the
white truck to space.

Once a week we would take
the space shuttle to orbit

and life would be good.

That’s really
not how it ended up.

It was a big challenge
to get that system to work.

NARRATOR: The space
shuttle main engines

will be the most
sophisticated ever built, and,

most
importantly, reliable enough

to be used time
and time again --

a demand that’s never been
made of a rocket engine before.

BOB CRIPPEN:
They had to be light.

They had to be reusable and
they had to be very powerful.

All those
factors combined to make

an extreme
engineering challenge.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Rocket engines produce
thrust by burning propellants.

Simply put, the more
propellant burned each second,

the more powerful the rocket.

To increase the
flow of propellant,

rockets use a spinning
pump called a turbopump

to increase the fuel pressure,
ultimately increasing thrust.

To lift heavy payloads, the
shuttle’s engines must deliver

well over a million pounds of
thrust -- a staggering amount.

MATT: Think of the
engineering that is required

to make that system alone work.

Forget about everything
else that’s on the vehicle.

Just that main engine, to get
that to work is mind-boggling.

NARRATOR: Dan Hausman
and his colleagues know

it requires a quantum leap
in turbopump technology --

engineering one with
a phenomenal spin rate

of up to 600
revolutions -- every second.

DAN: Your car
engine runs at 3,000 rpm.

A high-pressure fuel
turbopump ran at 33,000 rpm,

and the balance of
that has to be perfect.

NARRATOR: But Dan’s team
have an engineering solution.

Place a small rocket
inside the main engine

and use its powerful exhaust
to rapidly spin the turbopumps.

It’s called a preburner.
It looks good on paper...

[Explosion]

... but on the test stand the
engines catastrophically fail

in a fraction of a second.

BOB CRIPPEN:
Those initial tests, the
engines came apart quite often,

which is not a
pretty thing to watch,

especially if you plan
on using that to go fly.

NARRATOR: The
problem is a balancing act.

If the preburner
spins the pumps too slowly,

the engines
won’t get enough fuel.

Too fast, and the
pumps spin to destruction.

DAN: It just has to be
perfect, a jewel watch;

and if it’s not
it’ll just come apart,

and that’s where the
issues were, was in turbopumps,

and that’s why the
turbopumps have been redesigned

a number of times.

NARRATOR: Calculating
something as complex as

the performance of a
rocket engine is a breeze

with today’s computing power.

But with the limiting
technology of the 1970s,

it’s a painfully slow process.

DAN: And all of our engineering
was done on slide rules.

There was no such
thing as computers.

We calculated that all by hand.

NARRATOR: Dan’s team persist,

precisely
fine-tuning the turbopumps,

allowing each rocket
engine to fire without a hitch.

DAN: And when those
three engines actually all lit

and behaved nicely, we all
said, wow, that was amazing.

NARRATOR: Getting
astronauts into orbit requires

a remarkable
feat of engineering.

But getting them safely back
is an even greater challenge.

ANDY: Yeah, you’ve
gotta have a lot of power

to get a spaceship into orbit,

but the tricky part turns
out to be getting it back

through the atmosphere in that
process that we call reentry.

NARRATOR: To orbit
Earth requires a speed

of around 17,500 miles an hour.

But landing a shuttle
safely means shedding

almost all of that
energy to touch down

at around 200 miles an hour.

As astronaut Story
Musgrave can testify,

this huge deceleration
creates a fiery problem.

STORY: It’s just outrageous.

You think you should evaporate
in a second, you are engulfed,

you’re like in the
middle of a blowtorch.

NARRATOR: Early
astronauts returned in capsules

with heat shields
designed to survive

only one blistering reentry.

But the space shuttle
must fly multiple missions,

which produces a
critical engineering problem.

ANDY: How do you
create a heat shield

that can withstand that
searing heat and be unscathed

so that you can use it again?

NARRATOR: For the engineers
this forces a radical rethink.

The Holy Grail is a material
that can withstand temperatures

of up to 2,300
degrees Fahrenheit.

Eventually engineers
discover a breakthrough.

ANDY: In the 1960s, Lockheed,
working with the help of NASA,

came up with a new technology.

And that new technology
was made out of silica,

just like beach sand.

NARRATOR: It’s discovered
that silica can be used

to create a hard,
lightweight ceramic

with amazing thermal properties,

providing an extremely
good barrier against heat,

as thermal protection
systems engineer Martin Wilson

demonstrates.

MARTIN: If you heat it up, it
tends to cool off very rapidly.

So you can hit it
with a lot of heat.

It gets very hot very quickly,

but it also sheds heat
very, very rapidly also.

And the back is
just cold to the touch.

NARRATOR:
Silica ceramics fit the bill
as a reusable heat shield.

But the engineers
aren’t out of the woods yet.

Now they must
find a way of covering

the shuttle’s aluminum airframe.

But it’s much
larger and more complex

than conical reentry capsules.

Engineers plan to clad it with
thousands of custom-made tiles.

BOB CRIPPEN: The tiles
were essentially all different.

Every one had to be
manufactured specifically

for a particular
spot on the vehicle.

NARRATOR: It’s a
painstaking task.

Over 33,000 tiles must be
cut, fired and precisely glued.

But in March 1979,

with its maiden
flight just one year away,

orbital assembler
Rockwell International

are falling behind schedule.

They transport the orbiter
from their plant in California

to Florida, where the remaining
tiles will be attached.

♪ ♪

But the trip reveals a
design flaw which requires

a radical rethink if the shuttle
is to make it into space.

When Columbia arrives at
the Kennedy Space Center

on the back of a specially
modified 747 Jumbo Jet,

engineers like Bob Sieck
can hardly believe their eyes.

BOB SIECK: It
didn’t look as nice as

the advertising
brochure would’ve indicated.

There was lots of exposed skin.

NARRATOR: Thousands
of tiles are missing.

Many have
fallen off in transit.

It’s a shocking realization.

TOM: The tiles didn’t have
sufficient strength to stay on.

Means we can’t fly. Pure
and simple. Could not fly.

ANDY: So suddenly the
engineers had to stop and say,

oh my God, how are we gonna
prevent this from happening

to a shuttle in flight?

NARRATOR: The
shuttle is grounded.

NASA scrambles to understand why
so many tiles have fallen off.

The answer lies with something
as small as stitching.

The shuttle is designed to flex

during the stresses
and strains of flight.

But attaching tiles
to a flexing airframe

is a recipe for disaster.

So the tiles are glued
onto stitched felt pads

that absorb the forces, keeping
the tiles from cracking.

TOM: The tiles are very
rigid and very fragile,

so the pad allows the tile to
move relative to the aluminum.

NARRATOR: But on inspection
a startling discovery is made.

The orientation of stitching
within the felt pads means

that instead of absorbing
the forces of flexing,

the pads are amplifying them.

It’s why so many
tiles were lost in transit.

For the engineers, the fix
is a daunting realization.

TOM: So we had to
make the tiles stronger.

That kept us awake at night.

A lot of
sleepless nights over that.

NARRATOR: Engineers experiment
with how to strengthen

the tiles so they’ll remain
attached to the felt pads.

Their breakthrough
is painting the bottom

with a mix of silica, water and
ammonia and then baking them.

The solution soaks into the
tiles, adding extra silica,

which sets hard when heated.

It’s a process
called densification.

TOM: It doubled the
strength of the tile

and essentially did not
increase the weight a bit.

Did not change the thermal
performance. It was a miracle.

Well, it was not a miracle,
but it was good engineering.

NARRATOR: It might
be good engineering,

but the
implications are massive.

Thousands of tiles must
be stripped from Columbia

and strengthened.

TOM: We had to take them
off the vehicle, densify them

and put them
back on the vehicle.

NARRATOR: Desperate to have
the shuttle ready for launch,

NASA must expand its tile
workforce from 200 to 3,000.

ANDY: Now you have to call
in an army of technicians.

This is like a
mobilization in wartime.

It’s gotta happen for
just this one problem.

TOM: It was a
schedule nightmare.

And we literally counted
tiles. How many we’d put on?

How many did we take off?
How many do we have left to go?

NARRATOR: More than a year is
spent working round the clock

to complete Columbia’s
thermal protection system.

♪ ♪

The astronauts
know their lives depend

on the quality of this work.

BOB CRIPPEN: John Young
and I spent a lot of time

with the people that
were doing the tile work

telling them how much
we appreciated the effort

they were going
through, how important it was.

It was your body that was going
to be strapped into that thing,

and you wanted to
make sure it would work.

NARRATOR: Fixing
Columbia’s heat shield ranks as

one of the crowning
engineering achievements

responsible for certifying
the space shuttle ready to fly.

♪ ♪

April 12th, 1981.

Columbia finally stands poised
for its first test flight.

Preparing to board
are Commander John Young

and Pilot Bob Crippen.

BOB CRIPPEN: Flying in space
is tough and it’s dangerous.

It was a test flight.

We didn’t know
exactly what it was gonna do.

NARRATOR: Chief shuttle engineer
Bob Sieck is in the firing room.

BOB SIECK: There was
tension, apprehension;

but on the other hand
there was confidence saying,

hey, we’ve done the best we can.

TOM: The anxiety was
high, extremely high,

because we had two of our,
two of our colleagues on board.

MISSION CONTROL:
T minus 10, 9...

NARRATOR: The
astronauts ready themselves

for the flight of a lifetime.

BOB CRIPPEN: I
turned to John and I said,

"I think we might do it."

NARRATOR: At T minus 6 seconds,
the shuttle’s fuel pumps

spin into life as
the engines ignite.

MISSION CONTROL: We’ve
gone for main engines start.

♪ ♪

BOB CRIPPEN: And that’s
when my heart rate went up

to about 130 beats per
minute. I was pretty excited.

TOM: It was like
something being born saying,

"Look, I’m ready to go!"

NARRATOR: Finally,
as the shuttle’s two

solid rocket boosters ignite,
Columbia surges from the pad.

♪ ♪

BOB CRIPPEN: I mean you get up
and move, you clear the tower

in a couple of seconds!

[Engines roaring]

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: The
engineers in the firing room

can hardly
contain their excitement.

BOB SIECK:
There’s this initial shout
of joy from the control room,

big roar, and then we all
remembered our discipline

and it was immediately quiet.

NARRATOR: After a
bone-jarring two minutes,

the mighty solid
rocket boosters are spent.

MISSION CONTROL: This
is the SRV-7 flight...

BOB SIECK: Another big
roar, and then another,

"Oops, remember our
discipline." Quiet.

MISSION CONTROL:
Negative [inaudible]. Columbia,
you’re negative [inaudible].

BOB CRIPPEN: At that
point it gets really quiet.

You’re not shaking anymore.

It’s about as calm as me
sitting here in this chair.

NARRATOR: Finally, eight and
a half minutes after launch,

Columbia’s three
main engines shut down,

having performed perfectly.

[Laughing]

BOB SIECK: Euphoria reined.
High five, hugs, handshakes,

tears, flag-waving.

LEE: There probably wasn’t
a dry eye in Firing Room 2.

I mean, it was just
an emotional experience.

NARRATOR: After almost a
decade of engineering toil,

Space Shuttle
Columbia arrives in orbit.

Engineers and astronauts are
ecstatic. But it’s short lived.

♪ ♪

As the astronauts open the
shuttle’s payload bay doors,

they’re greeted
by an alarming sight.

Missing protective tiles
-- which could spell disaster

for their safe return to Earth.

BOB CRIPPEN: When I opened
up the payload bay doors,

I saw that we had
some tiles missing.

It did cause a lot of
consternation on the ground.

ASTRONAUT: We do have
a few tiles missing.

MISSION CONTROL: Roger
Cripp, we can see that good.

NARRATOR: Unmistakable
black patches reveal where

tiles from the spacecraft’s
heat shield have torn off.

Luckily, they’re
missing from a noncritical area

on the topside of the vehicle.

ANDY: Now, that part of the
shuttle is not a real cause

for concern because
it does not experience

the really intense
heating during reentry.

But what no one knows is,
are we also missing tiles

underneath the shuttle,

where a missing tile
could be catastrophic?

NARRATOR: During
reentry, Columbia’s underside

will experience
searing temperatures

of up to 2,300
degrees Fahrenheit.

Tiles lost from here
pose a significant threat

to the astronauts’ survival.

TOM: If a tile was missing,
there was no way to repair it.

There was nothing to do.

NARRATOR: The fate of
Columbia’s astronauts

will only become clear when
they reenter the atmosphere.

♪ ♪

April 14th, 1981.

After a near-textbook
two days in orbit,

Columbia begins the
final critical part

of its maiden flight,

slamming into the atmosphere
at over 17,000 miles an hour

as it returns to Earth.

BOB CRIPPEN: It’s
about Mach 25 when you hit

the Earth’s atmosphere
at around 400,000 feet.

NARRATOR: As Columbia begins
to experience the blazing heat

of reentry, all
thoughts are on the orbiter’s

thermal protection system.

TOM: That was a scary moment.

ANDY: You know,
who knew if this thing

was actually surviving reentry?

TOM: We didn’t know if it
would burn through or what.

NARRATOR: Enveloped in a
searing shroud of plasma,

radio communications
with Columbia are lost

for a nail-biting 16 minutes.

ASTRONAUT:
Houston, Columbia’s here.

MISSION CONTROL:
Columbia, Houston’s here.
How do you read?

NARRATOR: But right on schedule,
communications are restored.

And the relief in
Mission Control is palpable.

ANDY: It was only when
that call came through

that everybody could
breathe a sigh of relief.

NARRATOR: Columbia’s
heat shield survives reentry,

and, escorted by two chase
planes, the orbiter glides

toward a landing at
Edwards Air Force Base

in California’s Mohave Desert.

BOB CRIPPEN:
No rattling or shaking.
Just as smooth as can be.

Bit like you coming in a
commercial airliner somewhere.

♪ ♪

TOM: It was an "ahh" moment.

BOB CRIPPEN:
Wow, this thing works. It’s
great. It’s a super machine.

[Cheers and applause]

NARRATOR: For the first
time in history, a spacecraft

has been launched as a rocket
and returned as a glider --

a reusable vehicle
ready to fly in space again.

♪ ♪

The success of
Columbia paves the way

for a new era in space flight.

NASA rolls out
three more orbiters,

Challenger,
Discovery and Atlantis,

deftly demonstrating
the shuttle’s ability

to carry a wealth of scientific
experiments, satellites

and commercial
payloads into orbit.

♪ ♪

For a while it seems spaceflight
has become almost routine.

MISSION CONTROL: T
minus 4 minutes and counting.

NARRATOR: January 28th, 1986.

MISSION CONTROL:
We have main engines
start, 4, 3, 2, 1 and liftoff.

Liftoff of the 25th
space shuttle mission,

and it has cleared the tower.

ASTRONAUT: Roger
that, Challenger.

MISSION CONTROL: God, no!

MISSION CONTROL:
Fight controllers here looking
very carefully at the situation,

obviously a major malfunction.

LEE: Immediately we
know there’s been a tragedy.

We know that seven
lives have been lost.

NARRATOR: Just 73
seconds after launch,

Space Shuttle
Challenger disintegrates

in a devastating fireball.

LEE: You can’t help but think,
what happened? What did we do?

What did we not do? What step
did we miss in a procedure?

NARRATOR:
Immediately after the disaster,

many engineers
suspect the failure lies

with one of the shuttle’s
most complex components --

its main engines.

But engineer Dan
Hausman knows it’s too early

to jump to conclusions.

DAN: We were told it
was an engine failure.

Then I said, it could have been.

Until we look at the
data, we don’t know.

NARRATOR: Hausman and his
colleagues meticulously pore

over every millisecond of
data returned from each engine.

DAN: Those
engines, they were working

just like they were supposed to.

NARRATOR: Leading them to a
more surprising conclusion.

DAN: I quickly realized
that it was an SRB issue.

NARRATOR: The two solid rocket
boosters -- SRBs for short --

help lift the
shuttle off the pad.

Firing for just
over two minutes,

they’re the largest of
their type ever built.

They draw on tried and
tested technology, and,

compared to the main engines,

their design is
relatively simple.

STEVE: I never
considered that the booster

would ever cause us a problem.

Because the booster
really had no moving parts.

NARRATOR: But analyzing film
footage of Challenger’s launch

suggests otherwise.

STEVE: The first
indication that we had

was a film of the launch.

You see a puff of smoke
when they ignite the boosters.

NARRATOR: The footage provides
investigators with a vital clue.

BOB CRIPPEN:
Hardware talks to you.

STEVE: It was trying to tell
us we had a bad joint design.

From the very beginning.

NARRATOR: The solid
rocket boosters are stacked

from a number of
segments joined together.

Inside each joint are flexible
rubber bands called O-rings.

On ignition,
pressure inside pushes on

the flexible rubber O-rings,
forcing them to seal each joint.

But the black
smoke caught on camera

suggests an
O-ring seal has failed.

Engineers need to understand why

a catastrophic failure
occurs during this launch

compared to the previous
24 successful launches.

The team
redoubles their efforts.

BOB SIECK: On the morning that
we actually launched Challenger,

it was cold.

STEVE: If you go look, it
was, there was ice on the pad.

NARRATOR: The night before
launch, temperatures plummet

into the low 20s --
almost unheard of in Florida.

Investigations discover that
at these freezing temperatures,

the rubber-like
O-rings become brittle and

fail to seal the solid rocket
booster joints as designed.

This leads to the devastating
chain of events with Challenger.

STEVE: So what you
actually have is something

that looks like a blowtorch.

You’ve got 6,000-degree
gas going over both O-rings

and out into the environment.

NARRATOR: A little
over a minute after launch,

searing exhaust
from the breached O-ring

burns through the
SRB’s lower strut,

causing it to pivot into
the giant external fuel tank,

which ruptures, cascading
tens of thousands of gallons

of fuel into white-hot exhaust.

BOB CRIPPEN:
It was certainly not a day
we should’ve gone flying.

NARRATOR: The loss of Challenger
is a huge blow for NASA

and the engineers.

DAN: After Challenger there’s
a lot of us wanted to quit.

We didn’t want to
be part of a program

that cost people their lives.

We didn’t want to
be a party to that.

And so they brought people
in to talk to us and said,

"You know, we need
you guys to help work

so that doesn’t happen again."

And so some people quit.
They just couldn’t handle that.

And so the rest of us
just worked very hard

to make sure it
wouldn’t happen again.

NARRATOR: Engineers redesign
the SRB joints and O-rings,

adding triple redundancy, with
heaters that will keep them

at a constant temperature.

BOB CRIPPEN: Some people felt
that was a belt and suspenders,

but it made me feel a
lot better to go fly.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: September 29th, 1988.

After a comprehensive
engineering review

and with hundreds of
safety modifications,

Space Shuttle Discovery
heralds a return to flight

of America’s
manned space program.

♪ ♪

The next 15 years sees the
shuttle once again prove itself

as an engineering marvel.

But its sheer complexity means
the odds are stacked against it.

February 1st, 2003.

After 16 days in
orbit, Columbia and its crew

are on their way home,

blazing through the atmosphere
at 25 times the speed of sound.

Then, just 15
minutes from landing,

Mission Control are unable
to establish radio contact.

Unknown to them, Space Shuttle
Columbia has disintegrated

in the skies above Texas.

MISSION CONTROL: Columbia,
Houston, UHF comm check.

NARRATOR: Eventually NASA’s
worst fears are realized --

the loss of the orbiter
and another seven astronauts.

For NASA, losing a
second shuttle is devastating.

But the most likely cause makes
it even more unbelievable.

MISSION CONTROL:
Okay, everybody.

No data, no phone calls, no
transmission anywhere outside.

NARRATOR: Film
footage reviewed after launch

reveals a piece of
foam insulation falling

from the external fuel tank.

It strikes the leading
edge of Columbia’s wing.

VALERIE: This is the
leading edge of the delta wing.

It’s made of a
reinforced carbon-carbon,

and it’s actually a cap that
fits over the edge of the wing.

It takes the highest
heat of all during reentry.

NARRATOR: And it’s during
reentry that Columbia is lost --

suggesting its
protective heat shield

of reinforced carbon-carbon
or RCC may have been breached.

MATT: We really didn’t
think something that was

as light as a feather could
break something as tough as RCC

in half.

NARRATOR: But as engineers
begin their investigations,

the truth behind
Columbia’s disintegration

will become tragically clear.

♪ ♪

Space Shuttle
Columbia’s destruction

leaves engineers dumbfounded.

How could a seemingly
harmless piece of foam

smash a hole in the
orbiter’s critical heat shield?

Ballistics expert Matt
Melis is one of the engineers

tasked with finding out.

MATT: We got a phone
call from one of the folks

at Johnson Space
Center, and they said,

"We think that this
is an impact problem,

and we think we’re
going to need your help."

NARRATOR: What they
find is disturbing.

MATT: So this is a little piece
of foam, it weighs two grams.

This is an example of the
test specimens that we shot.

It weighs what a
sheet of paper weighs.

The reinforced carbon-carbon --
and this is test sample of that

-- this is what the leading edge
of the wings are made out of.

And our tests showed
that, if going fast enough,

500 miles an hour, which is not
that fast in aerospace terms,

this little piece of foam
can cause critical damage

to this material,
which is as tough as nails.

So it’s an amazing lesson
that we learned from that.

NARRATOR: The team
examines the launch footage

to determine exactly
where the foam struck.

They narrow it down
to a specific area --

between carbon panels 6
and 9 of Columbia’s left wing.

Building a replica,

they focus on this
part of the leading edge.

Using a powerful airgun, they
first fire foam at Panel 6.

It remains intact -- leaving
the engineers puzzled --

but a vital clue
helps their next test.

In the search for
debris, investigators find

fragments of
Columbia’s leading edge panels

belonging to the
wing that was struck.

MATT: They began to
piece these tiles together

and these fragments of
the leading edge together,

and they showed molten material
in the area of Panel 8.

NARRATOR: Most metals melt
at extremely high temperatures,

the kind
experienced during reentry.

Discovering so much
melted metal around Panel 8

is the breakthrough
the engineers need.

MATT: That really
provided supporting evidence

that this foam strike took
place in the region of Panel 8.

NARRATOR: The final
piece of evidence comes from

the foam firing tests.

Engineers now focus on Panel 8.

And the results are shocking.

TEST FACILITY: 5,
4, 3, 2, 1, 0. Whoa!

MATT: A piece of foam ultimately
caused the loss of the vehicle

and the loss of seven lives.

NARRATOR: Engineers
learn from the tragic lessons.

But with the loss of two
orbiters and 14 astronauts,

the shuttle
program’s days are numbered.

ANDY: The Columbia accident,

like the Challenger
accident before it,

was a very painful reminder
that there was nothing routine

about flying the space shuttle.

NARRATOR: July 8th, 2011.

♪ ♪

Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off
on the program’s final flight.

Over three decades, 135
shuttle missions chalk up

a combined three and a
half years in orbit, carrying

355 individual astronauts
from 16 different countries.

and delivering over three and a
half million pounds of payload.

But ultimately the
shuttle’s complexity means

the running
costs -- and risks --

are too high to continue flying.

Today the shuttles reside

in the Smithsonian’s
National Air and Space Museum

and other
exhibits around America,

an inspiration to all
who come to see them.

BOB CRIPPEN: You can’t
fly a vehicle like this

and not appreciate
the handiwork of everyone

that was involved in it.

MATT: The accolades
that those people deserve,

it’s just an absolutely
incredible amazing feat.

VALERIE: They did
what it took to keep this

remarkable flying
machine in service as the icon

of American’s
aspirations in space.

NARRATOR: The
shuttle’s work is now complete.

But its engineering legacy will
outlast those who built it.

Of all things with
wings, the shuttle has to be

the most magnificent
flying machine of all.