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  The Last Moments

  Hot gasses started entering through a breach in the left wing at 8:44 a.m., although the crew were unaware until several minutes later. They survived for a minute after their last communication with Mission Control, many minutes after it was obvious to them that something was going seriously wrong. Just like in the Challenger accident, the crew cabin held together. A data recorder called the orbital experiment support systems recorder was recovered from Hemphill in Texas. It had continued to operate until 18 seconds after 9:00 a.m.—almost a minute after Rick Husband’s incomplete last communication. Following this last voice transmission data was lost for 25 seconds, then resumed for two seconds. In those two seconds, data received on the ground indicated that conditions in the cabin were benign and that, possibly, the autopilot had been disengaged.

  The cabin remained intact as Columbia disintegrated. Rick Husband would have worked the hand controller trying to regain some control but the rapid tumbling would have told him, and the rest of the crew, that there was no Shuttle to control. We do not know how long they survived before the cabin itself fragmented about 30 seconds later, but certainly they had time to understand their fate. The investigation concluded that they died of “blunt trauma and hypoxia with no evidence of lethal injury from thermal effects.” Three of the crew were known not to be wearing gloves at the time of the accident and one was not wearing a helmet.

  Searching for Clues

  There were more than 2000 debris fields, including human remains, scattered across Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. A small culture of Caenorhabditis elegans worms were found still alive in petri dishes enclosed in aluminum containers. Among the wreckage was a 13-minute video made by the astronauts during the start of reentry. There is no indication of any problem as the crew go through reentry procedures, joking with each other as they do so. The tape ends four minutes before the accident. That portion of the video was destroyed in the crash.

  An investigation board was established that included Sally Ride, who had also served on the Rogers Commission investigating the Challenger accident. She noted the similarities between the two accidents and asked why the Shuttle was allowed to fly with known problems that were, eventually, catastrophic.

  Throughout the stifled debate about the true extent of the damage caused to Columbia, many NASA managers were convinced nothing could have been done even if the extent of the damage had been known. But that is to ignore NASA’s history. When the lives of astronauts are at stake, remarkable things can be achieved. A spacewalking in-orbit repair might have been possible, or a second Shuttle rushed into space to transfer the crew. Believing that there was no point in further investigation or action ran contrary to the “failure is not an option” attitude of previous space programs. Columbia’s last crew deserved better.

  Henceforth, all Shuttle missions save one—the final refurbishment flight to the Hubble Space Telescope—were to go to the International Space Station where the Shuttle’s tiles and wings could be inspected for problems, and if needed the crew could find a safe haven in the space station.

  Winding Up the Program

  In July 2008 NASA set the dates for the final flights of the Space Shuttle before it is retired in 2010. Seven missions will go to the International Space Station and one to the Hubble Space Telescope. If all goes well, the last flight for Atlantis will be in February 2010; Discovery’s last flight will be in April; and the final flight of all, Endeavor, will be in May. Nevertheless, there has been some recent debate about the wisdom of relying for several years on Russian Soyuz spacecraft as the only manned access to the International Space Station. In the light of this, a campaign is gaining headway to extend the Shuttle’s operating lifetime until 2015.

  Despite this, attention is turning to its successors—the Ares rockets and the Orion crew vehicle.

  TIMELINE

  2003 16 January Space Shuttle Columbia STS-107 is launched from Kennedy Space Center to undertake a series of scientific investigations

  1 February Columbia disintegrates on its reentry, killing all seven crew members

  Largest structure in space

  LIVING IN ORBIT

  THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

  1998–

  Assembly of the International Space Station (ISS) began in 1998, although the project had been off and on for years. Wernher von Braun would not recognize it. In appearance, it is an angular, roughly H-shaped structure consisting of cylindrical modules flanked by arrays of huge, oblong solar panels. The ISS is a research facility, carrying out work in fields such as biology, astronomy, meteorology and physics.

  The largest structure ever built in space, the ISS completes almost 16 orbits a day 217 miles (350 km) above our heads and is easily visible to the naked eye as a bright star-like object moving swiftly across the sky. Anyone with an Internet connection can see and hear what is going on there in real time.

  The ISS has been inhabited continuously since its first crew arrived in November 2000. At present, three can live aboard it long-term. It has been visited by astronauts from 16 countries, and it has also played host to five space tourists—wealthy individuals who purchase training and transport from the Russians for sums upward of $10 million. One resident, Yuri Malenchenko, got married on board the ISS in 2003. His bride was in Texas, and he was flying over New Zealand at the time.

  The ISS must be counted a success, having suffered only minor problems of the sort that are likely to occur when living and working in space. There has been the odd smoke incident, torn solar panels, faulty bearings and a crashed computer, but nothing so far on the scale of previous missions and previous space stations. For the most part, the station operates relatively quietly and efficiently.

  The International Space Station photographed by the Space Shuttle Atlantis in 2002.

  The Soyuz “Shuttle”

  In February 2003, after the Columbia disaster and the suspension of Shuttle flights, two American astronauts found themselves stranded on the ISS with no ride home. Ken Bowersox, on his fifth space mission, and Don Pettit on his first, had expected to return in March 2003 on the Shuttle Atlantis. But then Jefferson Howell, director of the Johnson Space Center, spoke to them on the radio. “I have some bad news,” he told them, “we’ve lost the vehicle.” Instead the astronauts came back in Soyuz TMA-1 in May.

  All crew exchanges between February 2003 and July 2006 were carried out by Soyuz craft. The basic Soyuz design is over 40 years old—Korolev’s ideas live on. It is still designed for small humans, although a little taller than in the days of Yuri Gagarin. Pettit and Bowersox were the first American astronauts to return home on a foreign vessel and the first American astronauts since 1975 to return in a capsule. After suiting up, Soyuz passengers lie on their backs, with their knees pulled up close to their chests. After a long checklist, the commander presses a single button, once, and that is all. The ride home is usually automatic.

  The Chinese in Space

  In October 2003 China sent its first astronaut into orbit using a Shenzhou spacecraft—a design that owes much to the Soyuz—becoming only the third nation to launch its own astronauts. Yang Liwei was 38 at the time. He did not enjoy a comfortable ride into space; the rockets’ vibrations during ascent were hard to endure. He stayed in space for 21 hours. In October 2005 two Chinese astronauts spent five days in space. More will follow. It is thought that the Chinese want to put a human on the Moon. That would be easier today with advanced computers, better materials and the lessons of history to help. The Chinese have also said they want to carry out spacewalking and docking by 2012, and a moonwalk by 2024.

  TIMELINE

  1998 20 November A Russian Proton rocket launches with the first stage of the International Space Station

  4 December Shuttle Endeavor launches, carrying the second component of the ISS

  2000 July Addition of the Service Module, renders the ISS habitable

  2003 3 May Two American astronauts, stranded on the ISS following th
e grounding of the Space Shuttle, are ferried back to Earth aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft

  “The flight was spectacular”

  A TICKET TO RIDE

  SPACESHIPONE

  2004

  In June 2004 the first privately funded spacecraft went into space. It had been designed and developed by Scaled Composites, an adventurous and well-respected aerospace design company that had used the genius of Bert Rutan to conceive many remarkable aircraft.

  SpaceShipOne was taken to an altitude of 15,240 meters (50,000 feet) from where it detached from its carrier aircraft and fired a so-called hybrid rocket motor to take it straight up to an altitude of just over 62 miles (100 km), officially entering space. The pilot, Mike Melvill, 64, became the world’s first commercial astronaut. After touchdown he told the cheering crowd:

  The flight was spectacular. Looking out that window, seeing the white clouds in the LA Basin, it looked like snow on the ground.

  During the dramatic flight, the craft had surprised him with its “little victory roll,” and he had to shut down the engines 11 seconds prematurely:

  Did I plan the roll? I’d like to say I did but I didn’t. You’re extremely busy at that point. Probably I stepped on something too quickly and caused the roll but it’s nice to do a roll at the top of the climb.

  Two others, Peter Siebold and Brian Binnie, have so far also flown SpaceShipOne to space. Others will follow soon, when its successor SpaceShipTwo carries passengers for $150,00 each on a suborbital flight from late 2009. Some 48 years after Alan Shepard rode a Redstone rocket on a suborbital flight to become the first American in space, it is now possible to buy a ticket to do the same thing. By August 2008, a total of 484 people had become astronauts. Soon there will be hundreds more, then thousands.

  SpaceShipOne gliding after having been released at high altitude by its carrier craft, White Knight.

  A New Breed

  In late 2007 NASA issued a request for applications for a new class of astronaut. For the first time in decades the successful candidates will not study to fly aboard the Space Shuttle. Instead they will train, for the first time since the late 1960s, to walk upon the Moon.

  To paraphrase the words of the American poet Walt Whitman, they will venture where mariners have not yet dared to go, and risk the ship, themselves, and all to get there. Like those before them, they will sometimes cheer and sometimes cry. Somewhere, a young child is growing up who will not only become captivated by our future voyages to the Moon but will also cast their imagination even further. At this very moment, the first person to set foot upon Mars is dreaming of astronauts.

  Picture credits

  1 Great Images in NASA; 2 Great Images in NASA; 3 Library of Congress / Science Photo Library; 4 NASA Headquarters—Greatest Images of NASA/Asif Siddiqi; 5 Detlev van Ravenswaay / Science Photo Library; 6 Shutterstock/Dmitry Bodrov; 7 Great Images in NASA; 8 NASA; 9 Ria Novosti /Science Photo Library; 10 NASA Langley Research Center; 11 NASA Headquarters—Greatest Images of NASA/Asif Siddiqi; 12 Ria Novosti /Science Photo Library; 13 Great Images in NASA; 14 Great Images in NASA; 15 Ria Novosti /Science Photo Library; 16 Great Images in NASA; 17 NASA Headquarters—Greatest Images of NASA/Asif Siddiqi; 18 Great Images in NASA; 19 NASA Headquarters—Greatest Images of NASA/Asif Siddiqi; 20 Great Images in NASA; 21 Great Images in NASA; 22 Great Images in NASA; 23 Great Images in NASA; 24 Great Images in NASA; 25 Great Images in NASA; 26 Ria Novosti /Science Photo Library; 27 NASA Headquarters—Greatest Images of NASA/Asif Siddiqi; 28 Great Images in NASA; 29 Soviet Space Program/ USGS/Michael Benson, Kineton Pictures; 30 Great Images in NASA; 31 NASA Headquarters—Greatest Images of NASA; 32 NASA Headquarters—Greatest Images of NASA/Asif Siddiqi; 33 Great Images in NASA; 34 NASA Headquarters—Greatest Images of NASA; 35 Great Images in NASA; 36 NASA Marshall Space Flight Center; 37 Great Images in NASA; 38 Great Images in NASA; 39 Great Images in NASA; 40 Great Images in NASA; 41 NASA; 42 Ria Novosti /Science Photo Library; 43 Great Images in NASA; 44 Great Images in NASA; 45 Great Images in NASA; 46 Great Images in NASA; 47 NASA/ Science Photo Library; 48 Great Images in NASA; 49 Master Sgt. Dave Casey/Department of Defense; 50 Great Images in NASA; 51 Great Images in NASA; 52 Ria Novosti /Science Photo Library; 53 Great Images in NASA; 54 Great Images in NASA; 55 Great Images in NASA; 56 Great Images in NASA; 57 NASA/Space Shuttle Gallery; 58 Scaled Composites/ Science Photo Library.

  Quercus Publishing has made every effort to trace copyright holders of the pictures used in this book. Anyone having claims to ownership not identified above is invited to contact Quercus Publishing.