All language subtitles for Space Shuttle Columbia The Final Flight S01E01 1080p WEBRip x264-BAE_track3_[eng]

-Oh, is that it?
-There it is!

-That's it right there.
There it is.

-Yeah, I see it. I saw it.

-There it is. Oh, it's cool.
-Yeah.

That is cool.

Oh, check that out, man.

-It's going really fast.

-Whoa.

-What the heck is that?
-I don't know.

-Wow.

-Look at the chunks
coming off of it!

-Yeah, I saw that.
-Yeah.

I see what you're saying.

That thing looks like it's
flipping all over the place.

-Oh, yeah.

-I can still see it,
but I'm losing it.

-It was a Saturday morning.

It was a beautiful day.

And as I turned
onto park street,

I heard a loud boom.

[ rumbling ]

-Our house just shook.

We looked at each other,
and we said, "what is that?"

-When I looked up,
I saw a bright white ball.

[ sirens wailing ]

-The phones were ringing
off the hook,

Much more than our dispatch
staff could handle.

-I didn't know
if we were being attacked.

-Search and rescue teams
are warning people

Not to touch any debris,
should they come across it.

-There are some
disturbing pictures

That are coming up
from the broadcasters.

-We're waiting for more details
as to how this happened,

Maybe the beginnings
of why it happened.

♪

-Nasa has declared a state
of emergency over texas.

-There is something amiss.

We are watching mission control.

Nasa has gone
through this before,

17 years ago with
space shuttle challenger.

You can see in their eyes.

-If you work
in human space flight,

This is the worst possible thing
that could ever happen.

-Lean in. Bunch up. Arms.

Bunch up. Bunch up.
-Whole nine yards.

-Lean in there, ilan.

Alright.
-Yeah.

-Here we go.
[ camera shutter clicks ]

Alright. Very good.

[ camera shutter clicking ]

-I was
an astronaut crew secretary.

-Grinning, grinning, grinning.

Smiles. Alright.
[ laughter ]

-I would see the crew daily.
-Perfect.

-Let me take my glasses off.

-That'll be in here.
[ laughter ]

I'm not a star-struck
kind of person, right?

But you fly 12,500
miles an hour?

I was like, "yeah!
I like you."

[ laughs ]

-Whoo-hoo, baby!
[ laughter ]

-When they got selected
as a crew,

I went and got
their astronaut bio

And I read what they did,
what they liked.

[ laughter ]

I went over and I'm like,
"ah, doctor. Ah.

"dr. Dave brown, surgeon.

Dr. Kalpana chawla, phd."

Laurel --
laurel was a submarine doctor.

I thought that was so cool.

Mike -- he's air force pilot.

And then willie --
he was like a test pilot.

Rick --
he'd already been up to space.

And then there was ilan.

You know, he was already
a hero in his country.

So I was like, "wow!
We have the juice here!

This will work."

♪

And they came together
to start training.

-Welcome aboard.

-Four of us are flying
for the first time.

Roll camera.

And that could be seen
as a disadvantage.

In some ways,
it's an incredible advantage

Because we have a wealth
of enthusiasm and excitement

That other, more seasoned crews
may not have.

-I was married to laurel clark,
who was on the columbia mission.

We met in navy dive school.

She beat us in swimming --
the guys --

And that was kind of irritating.

She was just tenacious.

She always had a smile on her
face no matter what happened.

It was really beautiful.

[ both laugh ]

-I feel very fortunate
to be assigned to this mission.

I'm expecting it to be

The experience
of my lifetime so far.

Ready, ready, mark.

-We were so excited.

♪

-I remember going into nasa

Taking a series of photos

With my mom and dad
after school.

I was 7.

I was worried.
I was, like thinking, like,

"how is her hair
gonna fit in there?"

[ chuckles ]

She made everything joyful
all the time.

She was my whole world.

-I remember the columbia
mission being announced.

I mean, I knew them all.

In my class was laurel clark,

Dave brown, and willie mccool.

We were all there
at the same time.

You get your blue flight suit.

That's pretty exciting.
I mean, "yes!"

I've spent 54 days in space

Over four missions.

Most fun thing
I've ever done by far.

There's a lot of risk involved.

I really believe
that humans are explorers.

And in this country,
we're really good at this stuff.

I mean, think about this
for a second.

We sent people to the moon
in the 1960s.

Think about how hard that was.

♪

Americans like that we're
a country that does hard things.

[ applause ]

And nasa does some hard stuff.

-They got the flag up now.

-It's about what it means
for us as a nation

To lead in space.

You know,
we have a record of success.

♪

-Colombia will open

A new chapter
in american space travel.

-This is a once-in-a-lifetime
happening,

The maiden voyage
of the space shuttle.

-I had an emotional feeling
with columbia

Because she was the number one.

She was paving the way
to the utilization of space

In a more practical way,
cheaper, better.

♪

Previously,
rockets were expendable,

One-time use,

But the space shuttle
was reusable in its design

Up to 100 times.

It was a quantum leap forward
in space travel.

-T minus 10, 9, 8,

7, 6, 5, 4...

We have main engine start.

♪

♪

-And it's up and away.

Go. Go, columbia, go.

[ all cheering ]

-People had seen apollo launches
exploring the moon.

The space shuttle
reignited that interest.

It was the pride
of the united states.

-Columbia, houston.

-I still think
it's one of the most

Complex machines
ever built by the human race.

♪

In the beginning, there were
four operating shuttles --

Columbia, challenger,
atlantis, and discovery.

One of the goals was to fly
20 missions a year.

Sometimes they were
sending satellites,

Quite a few classified missions
for the department of defense.

Eventually they were used

For assembling and building
the international space station.

But reusability puts demands
on the design

That it has to be
robust and resilient

And come back intact
and fully operational.

It's a huge demand.

And there were
numerous problems.

-The mission aboard
the orbiter columbia

Is a 24/7 science marathon.

In all, there are more
than 59 experiments.

♪

-My husband rick
was the commander

Of the space shuttle columbia.

-Howdy!
[ laughter ]

-Never in my wildest dreams
did I think I'd ever

Meet an astronaut,
much less marry one.

And so he told me.
He said that he wanted --

Since he was 4 years old that he
wanted to be an astronaut.

-My name is rick husband.
I'm the commander of sts-107.

We're going to be flying
a 16-day science mission.

-I was, I think,
probably 10 or 11.

I knew it was a big,
in-charge position

And that he would be
the leader of the team.

You think of something like
buzz lightyear, star command.

You're like, "wow, dad's
the commander of a shuttle."

[ laughs ]

-Okay, let's do like this,
you know?

-Yeah.
-While they were in training,

Dave brown,
one of the astronauts,

Came to rick and asked
if it was okay

If he recorded footage of
the crew throughout the mission.

-We're trying to ignore
our best pal, dave,

Who's busy documenting
our journey toward space.

-Dr. Dave!
-Yeah.

-Man, this is above and beyond.
-I know.

6:30.
-Yeah.

-Dave, your camera
is affecting me.

-It is?
-[ laughing ] yeah.

-Kalpana was definitely
one of her kind.

And what everybody
knows about her

Is the first female
astronaut from india.

She was intelligent.
She was hardworking.

She was unstoppable.

♪

-Rolling.
-Take 3, dave and laurel.

-Action!

We're here
in the wind river mountains

With the crew of sts-107.

-Brought to you by the national
outdoor leadership school.

-Well, laurel, are you ready?

-Dave, my palms are sweaty.
My knees are weak.

I'm ready
for an outdoor adventure.

[ all cheering ]

♪

-The crew went on an outdoor
team-building trip in wyoming.

-Now, willie's not safe
until we're all safe, right?

-It was, I think,
close to two weeks long.

-And it comes around...
-Right down in this valley.

-My dad had come up
with the idea to help them bond,

And dave filmed the crew
while they were doing that.

[ laughter ]

-This is such a nightmare.

I'm trying to make
these stupid brownies

Because everybody wanted
brownies for breakfast.

-You're not hungry?

-I'm not that hungry.
-No?

-But I would love
to have some breakfast brownies.

That would be delicious.
-Well, there's some right here.

-[ laughs ]

Wow!

Looks kind of like bear scat.

-[ laughs ]

-Well, you know...

-On the trip in wyoming,

They had to work together
as a team.

-Mnh!
[ laughter ]

-When you're on
the space shuttle,

You really have to have
a high level

Of what they call
behavioral health...

-And what do you think, willie?
-Mm-mmm!

-...Where you're not just
technically competent,

But you're low-maintenance...

...'cause you are inherently
in a confined space.

You can't say, "I'm just gonna
take a time out and go outside

And not deal with your,
you know, b.S. Anymore."

♪

So, nasa had started to realize,

"we got to get
a handle on this,

And it's really important."

♪

[ all cheering, whooping ]

-When they came back,

It was like their bond
was forever.

They walked in sync
with each other.

It was like
left, right, left, right.

They were the columbia crew.

They were sts-107.

They were a unit.

-One, two, three.
-One, two, three.

-Excellent.
-Whoo-hoo.

♪

-Michael anderson
was my husband.

We got to go watch
the underwater trainings

To simulate zero gravity.

He was excited,
but if you looked at him,

You would think
calm and collected,

But he was excited.

He would tease the kids

We were gonna go
to mars as a family.

Halfway, he was joking,
but halfway, he was thinking,

"hmm, this would be
kind of cool."

-Check o2 actuator is in eva.

-He loved it.
It was his dream.

But he thought about it.

I mean, he thought about
the safety issues,

And he knew he was
in a dangerous career field.

-I'm probably different
than most astronauts.

I really don't enjoy launches,
you know?

I think a launch is
a terrible way to get to space.

When you launch in a rocket,

You're not really
flying that rocket.

You're just sort of hanging on.

Even though we've gone
to great pains

To to make it as safe as we can,

There's always the potential
for something going wrong.

You know, so we try not to think
about those things.

We train and try to prepare for
the things that may go wrong.

But there's always that unknown.

And I guess it's that unknown
that I don't like.

-I went with michael
to florida for the first time

And actually saw the shuttle.

And when I saw it, I was like,

"you really want
to get up in this?

You really, really,
really want to do this?"

[laughs] I remember
saying to him

Because somehow

It didn't look as glamorous
as it did on television.

I was like, "wow, that's,

"you know,
the oldest one in the fleet.

Mnh, I don't know about this."

It looked smaller to me,
you know?

It looked a little older.

I was like, "okay,
this is getting really real."

And then I remember

Thinking about what happened
to challenger.

[ cheers and applause ]

-Space shuttle challenger
is just a few seconds away

From blasting off
from the kennedy space center

Near cape canaveral, florida.

-T-minus 15 seconds.

T-minus 10, 9, 8...

7, 6...
-6, 5, 4,

3, 2, 1!

[ cheers and applause ]

♪

-Liftoff confirmed.
-Liftoff.

-Engines throttling up,
three engines now at 104%.

-Challenger go at throttle up.

-Challenger go at throttle up.

♪

[ all gasping, screaming ]

-Vehicle has exploded.

-I hear from launch control
he vehicle has exploded.

That's the orbiter itself.

The shuttle challenger
has exploded.

We must assume
that the crew is not alive.

This is unheralded in the
history of the space program.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have
covered space shuttle launches

Since the very first launch,

Since before the first
launch itself, going way back,

And nothing like
this has ever happened.

[ woman screams ]

-It was a sad day
for all americans.

♪

This was our space program.

This was our national
space program.

And here they lost their lives
doing it for our country.

♪

-When I thought about
challenger,

I talked to michael.

I said, "you know what?
"you're doing what you're doing,

"and I'm glad you're loving it
and liking it,

"but you got a wife
and two little kids here

If something happens."

♪

-We prayed a lot about it.

He talked to us about his faith,

And he was like,
"hey, god has got me.

"like, if something happens,
like,

"god is gonna take care of me,

"he's gonna take care of,
you know,

"you guys as a family.

"you'll be okay.
There are risks to this.

"like, I chose a profession

That, you know,
is dangerous sometimes."

He was like, "but we don't want
to be fearful about it."

-How do you stop somebody
from doing something

That they've worked
so hard to do and achieved

And was so dedicated
and committed to?

I wouldn't have stopped him.

♪

-I was working at nasa then.

I had done
this threat assessment.

Any commercial airliner,

Your chances of a bad outcome
are one in a million,

Probably closer
to one in ten million.

Scuba diving
and flying in general aviation,

Military flying is 1 in 100,000.

The shuttle was 1 in 100.

Your chances of a bad outcome
are 1 in 100.

You know, if somebody told me,

"hey, you can go on
this roller coaster ride,

And there's 1 in 100 chance
that you'll die,"

Well, there's no chance
in the world,

No chance in hell
I would do that.

Flying on the space shuttle?

The benefit we get
for our country is enormous.

♪

You know,
I think a lot of us feel

That this is a tremendous amount
of risk

And, you know, there will be,
you know, accidents

And people
will lose their lives,

But I also think
that people generally think

It's not gonna be them.

♪

-Nasa has grounded
its four shuttles

Until at least September
because of small cracks

That have been found
in the fuel lines.

The concern is
the cracks could grow

And splinter into
hazardous chunks of metal.

♪

-They got a bunch of us,
like a dozen engineers,

To go fly down
to kennedy space center

To go look at cracks.

There was copious amounts
of engineering discussion

And testing going on.

-Stop. Thank you.

-If a main engine
were to explode,

That would destroy the vehicle,
it'd be out of control,

We'd lose the vehicle
and the crew.

It's too dangerous
to fly any shuttle

Until we get a handle on this.

It grounded the entire fleet,
including columbia.

-It was, like, delayed
and delayed and delayed.

[ breathes deeply ]

You're kind of glad
that they're dealing

With whatever the issue is,

And you're hoping
that everything's okay.

And, you know, it makes it a
little bit more nerve-wracking.

♪

-Nasa management and engineering
came up with solutions.

Once these propulsion cracks
were fixed and repaired,

We can resume flight.

But I had oversight
into all the missions,

And there were
numerous problems.

Well, the other shuttle fleet --

They were just one
after another.

It just wouldn't end,
the damages

And things
that were out of whack.

The tiles were being damaged
every flight.

One time, a large piece of foam
from the gigantic fuel tank

Dented the solid rocket
boosters on liftoff.

Another time,
a vulture hit the tank.

♪

If it hit the windows,
catastrophe.

This is a complex vehicle

That always needs
a lot of caretaking.

♪

♪

-Every single mission
that I was there for

Was scrubbed, rescheduled,
delayed

Because something
wasn't exactly right.

What did catch my attention,
in terms of trouble,

From the very first time
I saw them up close

Was this was 1970s technology.

This was a lot of moving parts,

A lot of mechanical,
moving parts.

And anytime
you have that happen,

It's challenging
to keep it flying.

♪

These weren't ancient
by any means,

But they were getting up there.

-We don't have too much time
'cause launch is coming.

36 or 37 days to launch,

And it's starting to get
exciting.

-Why is it exciting?

-What do you mean,
why is it exciting?

We're going to space.

Well, for the first time,
at least, for us.

For me, it's exciting.

-This was an amazing,
amazing opportunity.

There were a lot of israeli
fighter pilots

That could have been chosen
to take this role.

But it was my father
that was chosen

To be the first
israeli astronaut.

♪

-I'm just really looking forward

To being able to spend
that much time up in space.

♪

But I tell my son all the time

That my most important job
is being his mother.

♪

Motherhood's been incredible.

-I relied on my mom for so much.

So much.

♪

-Three weeks from the launch,

We were flying from houston
to albuquerque

For christmas,
iain and laurel and I.

-It was my dad flying the plane

And me and our dog
in the back seat.

-And we start hitting
some of this turbulence,

And all of a sudden the plane
gets into this, like, downwash.

It's going down like this.

Well, I mean, we just crashed.

It was just, you know, bam,
slapped down.

And the fact that we survived

Is, to this day,
something I cannot explain.

♪

I think it messed iain up

Because the closer we got
to the flight itself,

He kept saying,
"I don't want you to leave, mom.

I want you to stay here
on earth."

Basically, he said,
"I don't want you to go."

-I, uh, begged her
pretty desperately not to go.

I was...

I was very emotional,
and I was crying to stop --

Try to stop her from leaving.

-These guys have trained,
you know,

Forever for this mission,

And the last thing they want

Is for them to catch something
and be sick.

That just would be catastrophic
for the mission.

So they put them in quarantine
a week prior.

The children weren't allowed
to be around them.

-I had to say goodbye to him
before he went to quarantine.

And I remember hugging his waist

'cause that's where I
came to him when I was 12.

That moment, actually,
right here in the kitchen,

Um, I remember crying

And just knowing
how much I would miss him.

♪

-I remember we drove him
to quarantine

And we all said goodbye
and, like, had hugs and kisses

And it was
a really sweet moment.

And it was just us,
and that was it.

He was off.

-[ chuckles ]

-This is gonna be good.

-Ilan just walks into
the kitchen,

Starts looking in cupboards,
starts grabbing stuff,

And it just miraculously
happened.

He transformed it.
-Cheers!

-We're almost there.

-The last time iain saw his mom
was in houston,

In the crew quarters at jsc.

And actually they're supposed
to not see their kids

For seven days.

And we snuck him
into crew quarters,

Unbeknownst to anybody else,

For him to get a hug
from his mom.

-She was just reassuring me
that it was gonna be okay

And, "I'll miss you, too,
but, you know, I'll be back."

-It was a very long hug,
you know?

Oh, maybe --
I don't know if they knew

It was the last one or not.

Who could deprive a child
of that from his mom?

♪

[ cheers and applause ]

♪

-Absolutely thrilled to be here,

Thrilled to go do a lot of work,
see some incredible things,

And spend some more time

With this great group of people
I'm with today.

[ applause ]

-I left washington
to head down to florida

To witness the launch.

Had an opportunity
to visit with the crew.

The launch of columbia
had occurred

A year and a half after 9/11.

At that time,
I was in briefings

To identify, "what are
the high-value targets?

"what are the things that would
be an attraction for terrorists

To just get the attention
of the american people?"

One of them was the shuttle.

♪

-The post 9/11 regiment
remains in place,

A huge no-fly zone
around the launch pad

Patrolled by fighters,

Enhanced radars,
surface-to-air missiles,

And the launch time kept secret
until the day before.

♪

-There were gunboats out there.

There is, uh, you know,
frogmen in the water.

-They had snipers
on the roof of the hotel,

As well as mounted police
all up and down the beach.

-You could easily hide
a sniper in a swamp out there

With a high-powered rifle,

And a couple of hits
in the wrong spot

On the shuttle, and bad day.

-This is shuttle
launch control,

Everything is going well
and as planned,

With the countdown
for the launch of columbia

Scheduled for 10:39 a.M.,
eastern time, sts-107.

♪

-The first one.
The second one comes easy.

-Ooh, good morning.
[ indistinct conversations ]

-How are we doing?

-Alright.

So, we all ready this morning?

-I think we are.
[ chuckles ]

How about you? Are you ready?
-Oh, I'm ready.

I'm ready.
I got the easy part.

♪

-Shalom.

-Ready for the big day?

[ chuckles ]

♪

-Plugs. Tethers.

-Hey, dave.
-Dreaming of sleeping in space.

-In 2003, I was responsible
for all the astronauts.

[ laughter ]
-but he's gonna lose.

-I was here supporting.
I was an astronaut myself.

-You're out.

-Every time you get suited up,

There is anticipation.

I don't know.
Anxiety, excitement.

Yeah, launch day
is pretty special.

♪

[ indistinct speaking ]

-Okay.
-Alright. Here we go.

[ hands tapping rhythmically ]
[ laughs ]

-Every launch, we do this
really strange thing

Where we play this card game,
this poker game,

Because it's been done
since neil armstrong.

-You win. You win.
No, that's good.

It's good. It's good to win.
-I get to go to space.

-One step closer to launch here.

-Everything is timed
very specifically.

And they actually have a,
you know --

It was an old analog clock
with a marker on it.

Then you just got to wait.
You want to go.

-You know the risk,

And you know
what you're getting ready to do.

You know, if you don't,

You probably shouldn't be
in that business.

-Rick husband got the whole crew
together inside the suit room

Before they went out the door
into the hallway.

And they all got together,
arms around each other,

Head bowed, and said a prayer.

-Amen.
-Amen.

-Amen.
-Christian, hindu, jew,

All together as one...

[ cheers and applause ]

...As they walked
out of the suit room.

♪

-And our astronauts
are coming out now,

As they are making their way
to the astronaut van.

[ cheers and applause ]

-Morning, ronnie.
-Morning. How you doing?

-Doing great.
-Alright, we're gonna go today.

♪

♪

-There it is.

♪

Let's go.

[ indistinct speaking ]

♪

195, here we come.
-Okay, everybody, high five!

[ all chanting "hup" ]

-Hooray!
-Whoo-hoo!

-Alright.

♪

-Morning, gentlemen.
Welcome to the 195.

We're gonna have
a wonderful day today.

-When you're up there
at 195-foot level

And you're getting ready
to get in the vehicle,

It's pretty amazing.

I mean, you're all suited up,

And this is for real.

And the vehicle --
it's venting, it's creaking.

It's like it's alive.

You just can't believe
in a couple hours

You're gonna be
inside this thing,

Blasting off into space.

For me, if there was
any apprehension, it was then,

I mean, but you can't say,

"no, I don't think
I want to do this."

[ chuckles ] you know?
You're pretty much --

You're going.

♪

-How do you do?
Good to see you.

-Thank you.
-Good to see you.

-Thank you.
-Doc.

-The astronaut
support personnel --

The final folks
to speak to them

And the crew that's strapping
them in to the vehicle.

-Here we go.

-And the nasa test director,
jeff spaulding,

Has given approval for the crew

To begin entry into the vehicle.

Once they're in their seats,

They will be basically
laying on their backs.

Husband climbing in.

Next to enter the vehicle
will be ilan ramon.

And he is currently
taking his seat on the mid-deck.

-Here at the kennedy space
center in florida,

A lot of concern
about security

With the first israeli
astronaut on board columbia

For this 16-day
science mission.

I'm there to cover that launch,
like we always were.

I'm three miles away, which is
as close as they let anybody.

-28th launch for columbia,

The 113th shuttle
mission launch.

I'm always thinking about
what I would say

If things go really wrong,
uh, and --

Because that's my responsibility
to be that person.

One of the experiments on board
the shuttle columbia...

So you sort of have to go
down the list of threats,

If you will, you know,

9/11, ilan ramon.

Did they really fix
those cracks?

And then it's up to, you know,
a million movable parts

All working in synchronicity,
which is kind of the fact

That it ever worked at all
is pretty amazing.

-Back here in the space shuttle
flight control room,

Monitoring columbia's systems

In preparation for the first
shuttle launch of the year.

-Thank you very much.
-The ascent team is led

By flight director leroy cain
for today's launch.

-Okay, folks.

One ops, one, count to 20.

-As a flight controller
in mission control,

Sts-107 was my second mission.

For me, it was always

When you got
the t-minus 10 minute hold

And you give the final
"go/no go" for launch.

That is kind of the moment
where you realize

That this is about to get real.

-Go/no go for launch, final.

Guidance? Gc?

Prop? Gnc? Max?

-For me personally, I could feel
my adrenaline gland just go

And then my heart rate
pick up a little bit.

-You ready for g1 launch target?

-There's a lot
of responsibility.

You're getting ready
to launch a space shuttle

With humans on board.

It is not an easy business.

-Houston, flight is go.

-You're committed at that point,

So now it's focus
on what's ahead of you.

-Countdown clock
will resume on my mark.

Three, two, one, mark.

-T-minus nine minutes
and counting.

[ indistinct conversations ]

-It's a weird feeling,
you know?

Your loved one
is strapped into that vehicle,

And it's getting
ready to launch.

I just thought, "I have
absolutely no control

Over how this is gonna go."

-Gls is go
for orbiter access arm retract.

-I do remember
looking at the shuttle

Getting ready to take off.

-He was adamant, now to me, that
he didn't want his mom to go.

And then he started crying.

The whole the whole launch
was him crying.

It was awful.

♪

-I was 12 years old
when the launch date came.

I could see the shuttle
from afar and be like,

"wow, my father is on
that shuttle right now.

He's strapped in, about
to be launched into space."

♪

We were so excited.
It was hard to contain.

-For the first two-plus minutes
of the mission,

With the solid rocket
boosters attached,

There's no option for abort.

You have to wait
till they're done

And burned out and cut away.

That's a death zone.

No matter what happens
in that scenario,

You cannot do anything.

That was when the challenger
went down.

-11, 10...

-9, 8, 7,

6, 5, 4,

3, 2, 1.
[ cheers and applause ]

-The weird thing is
that you see that flash

And you see that smoke coming up

And it's like, "well --

Well, that sucks.
There's no sound."

And then it's...
[ rumbling ]

..."ba-boom."

[ crowd cheering ]

♪

-You don't quite expect it
to be as powerful.

-107!
-Whoo!

-107!
-You feel your insides

Shaking and vibrating
from this huge sound.

♪

It's hard not to cry.

-For me, it's like

"the star-spangled banner"
playing.

It's incredibly visceral
and inspirational.

-You sit there and you look
at that trail of fire

And you think, "god, there's
seven people on top of that."

Every time that kind of gets me.

-And you're watching
seven of your closest friends

On this ball of flame
going off into space

And my heart's going like this

And, you know,
I got tears running down my --

I mean, it's very emotional.

-Columbia's three main engines

Draining a half a ton
of fuel per second,

Heading towards space

On the first shuttle mission
of the year.

-You know how on tv
it looks like

You're going up really smoothly?

No, not at all.

It's kind of a wild ride.

And there's a lot of vibration.

And on my first flight,
it was so much,

I thought to myself,
"there's something wrong here.

Cannot possibly feel like this."

♪

-Solid rocket booster separation
confirmed.

Guidance now converging.

Columbia's onboard computers

Commanding the main engine
nozzles to gently swivel,

Aiming the shuttle
for a precise target in space

For main engine cutoff.

-I was, like, more nervous.

You know, you see the plumes
of smoke and the fire,

And you kind of know
what's going on,

But you're just kind of like
in the back of your head,

"is I supposed to do that?
Is that correct?

Okay, like, there they go.
Wow, that's so high."

You know,
just all these thoughts,

And then all of a sudden
they're just gone

And you're just
still hearing it.

♪

-And a perfect launch
for columbia,

A perfect climb to orbit,

Seven astronauts now setting off

On a 16-day marathon
scientific mission.

♪

-The space shuttle columbia
is safe in orbit,

And here at the kennedy
space center in florida,

Nasa and the us air force.

Breathing a collective
sigh of relief.

♪

-They're in orbit,
and that's when you're --

You know, you're home free.

-So it was like a sigh of relief

When they -- when they were,
you know,

Up in space, and it was like,
"whew, they made it."

-Let's take a look
at the view from orbit.

This is 225 kilometers above us.

♪

-Once they turn off those main
engines and they're in orbit,

You know, you're in
a relatively safe situation.

You can safely walk away
from the camera.

And they started quickly
playing the launch replays,

And -- and that was
when we saw it.

I was in our truck.
Producer called me in.

He said,
"you got to look at this."

It was kind of a grainy image,
but, you know,

You see this poof, like a --

Like you dropped a bag
of flour on the ground

And it all floated into the air.

Didn't take much of a telephoto
to show this kind of explosion.

He played it
over and over again.

But it did not look good at all.

It looked bad.