All language subtitles for Space Shuttle Columbia The Final Flight S01E02 1080p WEBRip x264-BAE_track3_[eng]

♪

- This is
mission control houston.

You're looking
at live video coming

From space shuttle columbia

As columbia continues
to orbit the earth

At an altitude of about
150 statute miles.

Columbia, houston, laurel,

You're loud and clear
on air to ground one.

- The second day,
I drive in to work

Kind of euphoric
because another launch,

Another successful launch.

You know,
the flight director's office

And the mission control
center in houston

Is working with them.

They're... everything's good.

I walked into
the analysis lab to

Start reviewing film
from the launch.

We started the film
at the beginning.

[ rockets roaring ]

We're watching this liftoff.

You see the roll maneuvers,
beautiful blue sky.

We do the normal review,
and we start pointing out

All the things
that we normally see.

And we got to 81 seconds,

And then we see this object

Come off of
the external tank area.

♪

It moved down, and then
striked the vehicle

And explode into a white cloud.

My reaction was, "oh, shit."

♪

♪

- ♪ you'll always find me
sunny side up ♪

♪ you'll always find me
sunny side up ♪

[ music playing indistinctly
on radio ]

-Columbia, houston.

-Turned off?

-Hey, good morning to all,

And a special good morning
to my wife, rona,

The love of my life.

- I remember myself
going to sleep and imagining

Where he is right now.

"I wonder where he is right now.

He's somewhere over us,

Maybe going around in the
circles around the earth."

♪

[ laughter ]

It's surreal.

These seven people who are,

You know, living in space.

Eating and working and...

Going to the bathroom and...

♪

Seeing earth from space.

♪

- Well, actually,
things are going really well.

And, uh, things
have been working well.

Columbia is in great shape

And working
absolutely perfectly.

We had a great ride to orbit.

- After the launch, we came
home for the next 16 days.

We knew that the crew
was going to be in space.

By that point, I mean,
I turned on nasa tv here

And just started
watching the mission.

♪

-Next up for the blue shift

Was a blood draw
experiment here.

Here, laurel is telling mike

That this isn't going to
hurt her a bit.

-I was just thrilled for them.

They were...
They were doing great.

There's pride, excitement.

But more than anything, I just
loved listening to rick's voice.

I loved listening to him
talk back and forth

With mission control.

♪

- As a kid,
it mostly just felt...

Exciting and new
and just kind of made your world

Feel more magical and bigger.

I was just like, "yeah,
that's just awesome.

Space is so cool."

♪

-All of us as a group

Were extremely concerned
about what we had just seen.

Looking at that film,
we were all discussing

How big are we talking
about a problem?

How much damage
are we talking about?

Worst case would have been

Damage all the way down
to the skin of the vehicle.

♪

That would have given us
a problem during landing.

Well, that probably would
have been loss of vehicle

And loss of crew.

♪

So I went to see wayne, my boss.

♪

- Based on my 20-plus years
of experience,

I can tell you every shuttle
flight that flew had issues.

People came to me
as a flight director

Or as manager every day.

In this case, bob page
knocked on my door,

Came in my office, and said...
- "we've got a problem.

This is the largest strike
of the vehicle

That we have ever seen."

- He's a little bit
of a high-energy guy,

So it wasn't unusual,
I didn't think.

But he had a little video clip
that he showed me.

It's really hard to tell
if anything bad had happened.

I mean, this is insulating foam.
It's lightweight.

- So the orange, um,
is the external tank

Which is covered in foam
on the outside.

- It's carrying cryogenically
cold liquid oxygen and hydrogen,

And it's going to sit out
on the launch pad

In the sunshine in florida.

You don't want that
to start boiling off,

So over the outside of the tank

There is this spray-on
insulating foam.

Cheap, very effective.

But it's got this property

That, as you go through
supersonic flight

In the atmosphere,
bits of it come.

- The question is how bad
of shape is the orbiter in?

- And bob said, "I really wish
there was some way

To get more information."

- I knew this mission
passed over places

Where there were some
high-altitude telescopes.

These are looking at stars.

So if you want to look
at the orbiter,

You could probably get
the entire orbiter

Fit in the field of view

And have extremely
good resolution.

-And I said, "well,

I don't really know
much about that, bob.

We'll have to check."

- And so I got the assurance
from wayne that, um,

He would make some calls
and he would see what...

What could be done, and, um,
things were put into motion.

♪

No. You don't want to alarm
the crew that early.

They had just gotten onto orbit.
They have a job to do.

When we have the complete story,

Then that's when we pass it
on to them.

And we did not know
what the problem was.

♪

♪

[ radio crackling ]

-Mom? Mom?

I miss you.

-Hi.

-We talked using the early

Tele-video conferencing
capability

And super low-tech bandwidth.

It's ratty comm,
but it's a very special time.

-Mom?

- It was a huge relief
being able to...

See her again.

[ giggles ]

[ laughs ]

I really couldn't comprehend
that she was in space.

Like, it didn't...
Make sense to me at all.

[ laughs ]

♪

It felt like...

Counting down to christmas
waiting for her to get back.

♪

♪

♪

- The second day of the mission
was just an ordinary day for me.

I was ready to go home about
5:00 on a Friday evening...

[ telephone ringing ]

And then I got a call
from my manager.

She said, "rodney,

Do you know that a large piece
of foam hit the left wing?"

And I think I gasp
and I said "ooh" or "ahh."

I made some exclamation.
"no, I did not hear that."

And she said, "they have
just released a video."

♪

Every time I watched the video,

I'm looking at portions
of the video or a sector of it,

Just to see if I can glean one
more piece of detail out of it.

And the question I had,

"what is that cloud
of expanding white stuff?"

One can't help but ask,

Is that part of the wing
coming apart?

♪

[ upbeat music
playing on radio ]

♪

♪

♪

I was thinking about
this foam strike all weekend.

And I thought,
"can't we get the astronauts

To look through
this side hatch window?"

There's a little window
right here.

This little dark circle.

Could they have looked back
to this area in here to see

If there's any damage...
Debris, residue, anything?

What I was expecting is
you first look with your eyes.

Just look.

♪

- So let's see.
Rodney sent me an e-mail.

"we know that the remote
manipulator system arm

And cameras are not available,

But what about the left side
hatch window?"

Uh, he's questioning whether
there's been any action,

Uh, to ask the crew
to look for damage.

Uh, no.

The area that was struck was not
visible from the orbiter cabin.

♪

- Okay, well, good morning or
good evening as the case goes

For all you guys
working around the clock

There in houston.

- You have to understand...
Nasa works on procedures.

We have a mission plan.
- Red shift is

Just finishing up their day.

- Any deviation needs to be
evaluated and assessed

On how it will
impact everything.

-Laurel, just to be advised,

You have about
two minutes of video.

- To deviate from the processes
and the procedures,

You need to have a reason,

And the reason needs data.

It's not just "I have
a bad feeling about this."

- And I got no reply
to my e-mail.

My request was never answered.

- Columbia, this is cnn.
How do you read me?

- Hey, cnn.
We've got you loud and clear.

- Stand by, and we'll have you
on the tele here very shortly.

Say hello to the crew
of the space shuttle columbia,

Now traveling above the pacific
at 17,300 miles an hour,

150 miles above us,
waving to us.

Let's give you an idea
of who's who.

I remember interviewing
the crew in space.

Rick husband, the commander,
second mission.

Laurel clark...

Prepping for that interview,
I thought about

The foam strike
and how to handle it.

But on launch day,
when I saw that... Footage,

I wasn't sure
what to think about it.

I'm not a rocket scientist,
so I called to somebody

Who I know...
Knew very well at nasa.

I said, "help me understand how
worried I should be for this."

And he said, "oh, it's foam.
It's very light material.

Probably doesn't cause
any damage."

But it nagged me
the whole mission.

Colonel ramon, um, I'm curious,

Was the launch
what you expected?

I was thinking about the foam.

I just didn't know how to,
in a five-minute interview,

Set that up.

Are all these experiments
working?

They couldn't all be working
as planned.

- Well, things are going
very smoothly.

As expected,
there's some minor glitches.

- I had gone through this
process of convincing myself

That it was going to be okay.

Alright. We're going to
have to leave it at that.

But I had this sinking feeling.

Didn't feel right.

♪

♪

- We spent the weekend
analyzing this film.

We estimated the size
of the foam 16 inches across,

18 inches long... suitcase size.

So it's a big chunk of foam
moving at 750 miles an hour.

But in the end,
what we did not know

Was the condition
of the vehicle post-strike.

♪

-Returning from space,

A craft that is going
17,500 miles an hour

Heats up gases,

And very hot gases
become something we call plasma.

The shuttle is enveloped
in this inferno,

And it's kind of beautiful.

But obviously you want
to be protected from it.

- Well, they came
to the conclusion

That the best way
to deal with that

Was to arrange a system of tiles
to cover the shuttle.

- All of the black here
shown is all tiles.

- And these tiles are made
of a silica fiber material

Which is very heat-resistant.

- I can show you.
This is a test tile.

- There are about 31,000
of them all together,

And we hope those tiles
will stay on

When the orbiter comes
back into the atmosphere,

Because otherwise the craft
itself could be damaged.

- During the development of
the space shuttle in the 1970s,

There was quite an effort
to develop a way

To repair
damaged tiles on orbit.

It was a huge effort...

And it was an utter failure.

They could not develop anything,

And that was one of
the "accepted risks"

Of flying in space.

♪

- Okay. Good morning.
We're ready for roll.

- In a meeting, there's 20,
30 people in the room.

There's people
joining from kennedy.

There's people from
huntington beach, california,

Representative from engineering,
a representative from the crew.

The chairman of the meeting
was linda ham.

-She basically ran this mission.

- If there were going
to be any changes,

She headed up this team

That would have to approve
any changes.

- She was effectively
the deputy to ron dittemore,

The program manager
in those days.

Linda has excellent judgment,

Can grasp complicated problems
very quickly.

She was the first woman to be
certified as a flight director.

Linda was recalling sts-112,
a flight two flights before.

-[ indistinct ]

-Main engine start.

Two... One...

We got booster ignition
and liftoff

Of the space shuttle atlantis.

- Sts-112 had a very similar
piece of foam come off

From almost the same location,

But in that case, the foam
hit solid rocket booster

And put a dent in it.

- The foam traveled...
Traveled down.

It struck right here,
these three lines.

- It didn't hit the orbiter,
so it was no effect

To the flight.

The management team,
they analyzed it

And came up with the conclusion

That no safety of flight issue
existed.

- We dodged a bullet
on that one.

Here's your warning,
and you only get one.

♪

-A special team was forming,

And I was told
that I would be on it.

The mission management
wanted to know how bad is it...

No damage, minimal damage
or grave damage.

In that room
on the first meeting,

There were probably
12 to 15 people.

They were the best experts
in different fields,

But all we knew
was this was foam

And it hit the left wing.

But where on the left wing...

We did not know.

♪

This is why we naturally
came to the conclusion

We cannot initiate
a credible analysis

Until we know the damage
location and extent of damage.

We must have
another piece of data,

Another image.

I knew that the military
satellites at that time

Were extremely good.

There were stories like

They could read license plates
from space.

- We have quite a fleet
of spy satellites out there,

And mostly are trying to,
at that time,

Chase down terrorists
in afghanistan

And iraq or whatever.

Aiming it at the shuttle
was a possibility.

- That's why the whole group
thought it was a good idea.

Let's ask for military assets.

The meeting participants
all agreed.

"we will always have
big uncertainties

Until we get definitive, better,

Clearer photos of the wing
and body underside."

So, in boldface, I put,
"can we petition,

Beg for outside agency
assistance?"

♪

♪

-Good morning, blue.

-You know, as a kid,

Your imagination just like,
runs wild.

And I'm like,
do they just float and sleep

Or, you know, does he get
to go out in actual space?

Did he see aliens?

Mostly just thought, like,
he was an explorer.

Kind of like, I don't know,
like a space indiana jones.

- You know, we make it a point
to get out and go to schools

And talk to kids all the time.

And when I do that,
I really try to let them know

What it was like for me
when I was a kid growing up,

And how I had this dream
of one day

Becoming an astronaut,
and that really,

If you work hard
and you're always persistent,

You can really make
those dreams come true.

- He wanted to always
be involved in something

That was kind of bigger
than him,

That contributed to to society,
that had a purpose.

It was fun to watch him.

He looked like
he was enjoying himself.

The crew looked like
they were doing

What they needed to be doing,

And everything was
going off really well.

And I didn't know
at that time that...

Anything concerning
had happened.

There were people
that did, though,

But I wasn't one of them.

♪

♪

-I was in my office in florida,

And I got a phone call
from the head

Of what we call
systems integrations.

He's an engineer
who I respect very highly,

But he said, "hey, we really
don't have all the information

We'd like to have
on this debris strike.

Do you know of anybody
that's got a way

To get better pictures?"

Now, I had this engineer
as well as bob,

Asking me to see if I could
find out some more information.

Nasa does not own
any military satellites,

But at that time we had
a close working relationship

With the patrick air force base,
so I put in a request with them.

- There's a lot of work
to get a photo.

One would have to
interrupt the mission

To get the right lighting,
to make sure you're over,

The right satellite
is in position.

And then now you have an army
of people on the ground.

We have to reorient the shuttle

For the proper exposure angles
and all that.

And to do that means
they may have to terminate

Their science experiments.

In a program manager's mind,

That's responsible for getting
shuttles up there on schedule,

If you interrupt
the science mission,

You have the ire
of all the people

And the science objectives
were now ruined.

And that looks badly on nasa.

-A little bit later in the day,

In the afternoon,
I got a call from linda,

And she said, "hey, I heard

That you were trying
to get some better pictures."

And she said that she had talked
to all the appropriate managers

And no one had a requirement
for any more information.

They had what they needed
to do the analysis.

She said, "I want you
to turn this off

Because we don't need
to bother those other people."

- How did you feel
when she said that?

-I was mad

Because I don't like
to be overruled.

I'd been, you know, trying
to act within my authority,

And I'd been countermanded
by my boss.

- Linda ham knew
that nasa's history

With the department of defense

And using spy satellites
was a little bit checkered.

- There had been
a previous mission

Where the landing parachute door
came off on launch,

So the orbiter was flying with
the parachute without its door.

Nasa made a request
to get some imagery.

However, the photos
didn't help much.

- So, even if you
can get photographs,

It doesn't mean they'll
necessarily show anything.

- I think they were a little
bit embarrassed

In the end about asking.

And nasa never wants
to look stupid.

Nasa wants to be the agency
with the answers.

-If you'd have said, "linda,

Two different people
need this information.

Their departments
are both asking.

Are you aware?"

That may have changed
the course of events.

- Could I have argued with her?
Maybe.

But did I get the impression
that her mind was made up

And, you know,
that was the end of that?

That's kind of where I was.

And you can say, "well,
you should have argued more."

Well, that would that's nice of
you to say that, but I didn't.

I was going to be
a good soldier.

So I called air force base
and said,

"I know I made this request.
Um, turns out we don't need it.

Forget I asked about it."

♪

- I was told that we would
not be getting images.

When I read it,
I got angry and confused.

What does this mean?

So, I e-mailed paul shack.

I e-mailed, "why?
Did you do anything about it?"

No reply, no reply, no reply.
Quiet.

So I called him, and I got him.

- He was shouting at me.
[ chuckles ]

Can't call it an argument

Because an argument
takes two people shouting,

And just one was shouting
in this case.

- I asked him,
"why are you ignoring?

You didn't reply
to my e-mail. Why?"

I was asking why
you didn't respond.

Now I have you.

-Well, I got sarcastic.

I said, "don't be
a chicken little."

- Paul shack treated me as
if I were the well-intentioned

But silly chicken.

And the lesson is chicken little
is not to be trusted.

Chicken little always
gets excited.

I was very upset and angry
and disappointed

With my engineering
organizations, top to bottom.

There's a ticking clock.
We were losing time.

This is an e-mail I drafted.

"in my humble technical opinion,

This is the wrong and bordering
on irresponsible answer,

Not to request additional
imaging help

From any outside source.

Remember this,
nasa safety posters

Everywhere around stating
'if it's not safe, say so.'

Yes, it's that serious."

I felt the need
to draft that e-mail

With that strong language.

And the strongest word in there
is accusatory, "irresponsible."

But I struggled on sending it
or not sending it.

I was afraid
about my future career.

I was married,
and we had a child,

Had a home, had a mortgage.

And I did not send it
in the end.

- I remember that
Wednesday night

When I came home from work,

He showed me the e-mail
that he had not sent.

He was very agitated,
very frustrated

Because he wasn't sure
what to do.

The thrust was
finish the analysis,

Even though you have
no information

On which to base your analysis.

And if it's bad,
then we'll try to do something.

He said, "it's like being asked
to analyze a car accident

That has just happened outside,

But you're not allowed
to look out the window."

- But the total denial forced us

Into the rock and a hard place.

We have to produce an analysis
anyway, without a photo.

♪

- Alright.
Now we play volleyball.

[ laughs ]

Football.

Bicycle kick.

[ laughter ]

- Okay, so this is the e-mail
that was sent to the crew.

"you guys are doing a fantastic
job staying on timeline

And accomplishing great science.

There is one item that I would
like to make you aware of.

This item is not even
worth mentioning,

Other than wanting to make sure

That you are not surprised by it

In a question from a reporter.

During ascent,
at approximately 80 seconds,

Some debris came loose

And subsequently
impacted the orbiter left wing.

Experts have reviewed
the high-speed photography,

And there is no concern
for rcc or tile damage.

We have seen
this same phenomenon

On several other flights

And there's absolutely
no concern for entry.

That is all for now

It is a pleasure working
with you every day."

So, they saw something.
They're taking care of it.

This e-mail was too short,
too sweet, too easy.

- Okay. Good morning
and welcome to the mmt.

- Day nine. Rodney's team
presented their analysis.

- I wasn't presenting
the results of our analysis.

The protocol was that
a senior engineer

Would present on our behalf.

- We all knew that
if the engineers find out

That this is bad,
there is nothing we can do.

If your heat shield was lost,
that was just the end game.

- The presentation showed
five scenarios

That we were analyzing
over the past few days.

- Rodney's concern
was uncertainty

In where the damage was.

The way they compensated
for that

Was to analyze multiple
possible locations.

Instead of analyzing this area,

We're going to analyze
this area.

"it would cause
localized heating,

But no burn through,"

I believe were the words
that they used.

- When we completed
the analysis,

None of the scenario
showed a fatal outcome.

-I felt some relief.

I thought we were in good shape,
I believed him.

-That's what you want to hear.

You don't want to hear,

"we're going to lose
the vehicle."

- What's missing in that
is we should have had

In boldface
at the very beginning,

"these are engineering
assumption cases.

We do not know
without extra data

Whether these are actual
representations of reality.

A turnaround issue, what they
meant was some level of repair.

-So when columbia comes back?

- When it comes back,
but nothing really bad.

That bad. Just local repair.

Patch it up and let's go again.

- And that's what was
being communicated to linda...

- Yes. Yes, yes.
- Okay.

Even though you all sat there...

- Yes.
- And thought it wasn't okay.

What?
You didn't... you didn't...

She was in the room with you.

- She was in the room with us.
- So what...

What prevented you
from going to talk to her?

-The chain of command protocol.

You don't approach
managers directly.

- You're, you know,
you're a grown man

And you're in the room
of only 12...

- I'm a grown man with grown
men telling me not to do that.

There are other grown men
with power and authority saying,

"don't do that."

- What would have been
the repercussions of talking

To her in that room?

-I don't know if, uh...

I don't know.

♪

♪

- I really love seeing a team
come together,

And the bigger team who makes
this entire mission possible

Is the team on the ground,

And all the folks
who work in mission control,

And all the folks who work
at the different nasa centers.

It's just such a great
feeling for me to...

To see everybody
working together as a team

Like that, and even
getting up here

And hearing their familiar
voices on the on the radio,

It's just a great feeling.

- We are supposed to do
everything we can for the crew.

They trust us, they have
their training and expertise,

But they want to believe
and pull full faith

That we're doing
the very best for them.

-In the nasa world,

People don't talk in terms
of "it's life or death."

You use the terms "threat
to the vehicle and crew,"

Or "risk to the vehicle
and crew."

It might have more power
or more punch

If we talk life and death,
but we don't.

♪

♪

- Okay, well, then,
we've got, uh,

An announcement
that we'd like to make

On behalf of the sts-107 crew.

It is today that we remember
and honor

The crews of apollo 1
and challenger.

They made
the ultimate sacrifice,

Giving their lives and service
to their country

And for all mankind.

Their dedication and devotion

To the exploration of space
was an inspiration

To each of us,
and still motivates people

Around the world
to achieve great things

In service to others.

As we orbit the earth,

We will join
the entire nasa family

For a moment of silence
in their memory.

Our thoughts and prayers
go to their families as well.

-Here we go.

- We went to nasa and did what
they called a teleconference.

Yeah, I remember being excited.

-He did all these

What he would call
stupid astronaut tricks.

I think he did different flips
and, like, would poke

His head out from different
angles to make us laugh.

And also just to play around
with weightlessness.

When else are you going
to be able to float on camera?

So... [ chuckles ]

It was really cool to see.

-It was our dating anniversary.

It was also the anniversary
of challenger.

We had about 20 or 25 minutes

And he shared how
the mission was going.

- It was so nice to be able
to see him, talk to him.

And he was having a blast.

- I just kept telling him
how much I loved him

And he said,
"I love you guys so much."

He goes, "evelyn,
I love you so much."

And just kept saying that.

Those are our last words ever.

That was it.

- I got a really nice note
from evelyn husband

And she just said,
"I just want you to know

How much we at nasa
appreciate how you cover space."

I was worried about her
and her kids.

Anytime a shuttle is going to
come to earth, I'd be worried.

In this case,
I had a little more worry.

♪

- Columbia, houston,
good morning,

And we're looking forward to

Our last day on orbit with you.

♪