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Columbia made final effort to steady path: Report
Washington, May 08: Seconds before it disintegrated, space shuttle Columbia did make a final attempt to regain its original path of descent, reveal investigators probing the crash.
Washington, May 08: Seconds before it disintegrated, space shuttle Columbia did make a final attempt to regain its original path of descent, reveal investigators probing the crash.
The spacecraft attempted to steady itself by firing
booster jets situated on the right side of the vehicle minutes
after it sensed an increased drag on its left wing, a
preliminary report of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board
(CAIB) said.
The drag in the left wing of the spacecraft was first felt at 19:22:16 IST on February one, minutes before its scheduled landing at the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral.
Space shuttle Columbia could not salvage itself and broke off mid-air 16 minutes before it was to land, killing India-born US astronaut Kaplana Chawla and six others.
The vehicle easily compensated the initial drag, but could not steady itself in the subsequent damage, which caused another damage in its aerodynamics at 19:29:29 IST.
"Columbia attempted to compensate by firing all four right yaw jets," the report said, but seconds later the mission control centre lost all telemetry data.
The signals to modular auxiliary data system were lost at 19:32:14 IST and the video images showed the aerodynamic break-up happening at 19:32:23 IST, the report said.
CAIB chairman Admiral (Retd) Harold Gehman termed the preliminary report as "working hypothesis."
The investigators now know enough to focus the probe efforts, he said.
Bureau Report
The drag in the left wing of the spacecraft was first felt at 19:22:16 IST on February one, minutes before its scheduled landing at the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral.
Space shuttle Columbia could not salvage itself and broke off mid-air 16 minutes before it was to land, killing India-born US astronaut Kaplana Chawla and six others.
The vehicle easily compensated the initial drag, but could not steady itself in the subsequent damage, which caused another damage in its aerodynamics at 19:29:29 IST.
"Columbia attempted to compensate by firing all four right yaw jets," the report said, but seconds later the mission control centre lost all telemetry data.
The signals to modular auxiliary data system were lost at 19:32:14 IST and the video images showed the aerodynamic break-up happening at 19:32:23 IST, the report said.
CAIB chairman Admiral (Retd) Harold Gehman termed the preliminary report as "working hypothesis."
The investigators now know enough to focus the probe efforts, he said.
Bureau Report