Space Shuttle Columbia Essay

What is a failure, without learning from it? There is very little to learn from success. The Space Shuttle Columbia was a tragedy that occurred February 1, 2003 and cost the lives of loved ones which makes it hard to bring positivity to the event. During the launch of the space shuttle Columbia, specifically about 82 seconds after taking off, a piece of insulating from the the propellant tank came off and hit the shuttles portside wing. Everything seemed fine, the crew member went about researching the effects of zero gravity on cells accordingly. But when Columbia re-entered the earth’s atmosphere the damaged thermal panels created a breach which destroyed the shuttle. Seven astronauts were lost as well as space shuttle operations were delayed

The use of these cameras were present during the launch (as is procedure) and even during post accident investigations. A technician was able to catch the foam hit when rewatching the tape and it was brought to the attention of others. The potential issue was flagged because foam strikes were actually quite common during take off, and it was believed that the foam insulation could not cause significant impact on the carbon fiber tiles. The Space Shuttle Columbia was no stranger to the zero-gravity of outer space, in fact, its first mission was in April of 1981. As a result, the thermal foam design had not been updated for more than twenty years. After about a third of the shuttle was recovered across several states, it was found that the thermal tile and equipment on the portside portrayed indications abnormal directions of plasma flow. Because the strike occurred on the same side, it was reintroduced as plausible source of failure. Using similar motion cameras, full scale impact testing of the external tank foam on RCC tile panel. The moment the test was done and the panel was breached, the cause of the tragedy was known. Because of this failure, more thought was put into designing to prevent accidents in the future. This helped improve not just the physical construction of the design of the shuttle, but also the the procedure and steps taken to before, during, and after launch. The origin of a problem isn’t always in the