Continued Vigilance Urged on 20th Anniversary of Space Shuttle Columbia Tragedy

Continued Vigilance Urged on 20th Anniversary of Space Shuttle Columbia Tragedy

NASA’s annual Day of Remembrance today honoring astronauts who lost their lives in the pursuit of exploration focused on the Space Shuttle Columbia crew who perished 20 years ago on February 1, 2003.  Current and former officials urged continued vigilance to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana said the purpose of the Day of Remembrance is not only about remembering the astronauts, but the lessons learned from the Apollo 1, Space Shuttle Challenger and Space Shuttle Columbia tragedies.

Cabana spoke in front of the Astronaut Memorial Foundation’s Space Mirror at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex this morning.

2023 Day of Remembrance ceremony at the Astronaut Memorial Foundation’s Space Mirror, Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, January 26, 2023. NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana is seated third from the left. Screengrab.

The mirror is engraved with the names of astronauts lost in spaceflight or in training for a flight including the Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia accidents.

  • On January 27, 1967, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee died when a fire erupted in their Apollo command module during a pre-launch test prior to what would have been the first Apollo launch. A spark from an electrical wire ignited the 100 percent oxygen atmosphere in the module. The hatch was designed to swing inward and they could not open it because of the pressure differential.
  • On January 28, 1986, 19 years and one day later, NASA astronauts Dick Scobee, Mike Smith, Ron McNair, Ellison Onizuka, and Judy Resnik, Teacher-in-Space Christa McAuliffe, and Hughes Aircraft payload specialist Greg Jarvis perished 73 seconds after liftoff. An O-ring in one of Challenger’s two Solid Rocket Boosters failed due to very cold weather at the launch site allowing hot gases to escape from the SRB and causing the subsequent failure of the other SRB and the External Tank. Aerodynamic forces destroyed the vehicle.
  • On February 1, 2003, 17 years and four days later, NASA astronauts Rick Husband, William McCool, David Brown, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla, and Michael Anderson, and Israeli Air Force pilot Ilan Ramon were killed during the reentry of Space Shuttle Columbia after more than two weeks in orbit. Superheated gases (plasma) that surround the shuttle during reentry entered a hole in the wing that had been created during liftoff by foam falling from the External Tank. The wing deformed and aerodynamic forces tore the shuttle apart.

The time intervals between the tragedies is considered an important lesson in itself because the passage of time and changing of the guard may have resulted in reduced vigilance in “listening to the hardware” and to people raising concerns.

Cabana, a former astronaut and former KSC Director, referred to the generational change taking place in the NASA workforce and the need to ensure lessons are not forgotten.

“Why do we do this every year? Why do we have a NASA Day of Remembrance? Obviously it’s to honor our fallen comrades on the Mirror. Those who made the ultimate sacrifice in our quest to explore. But more importantly, it’s so we do not forget the hard lessons learned from Apollo, Challenger, and Columbia. I’m willing to bet half the NASA workforce wasn’t even here when we launched the last shuttle mission. That turnover that we had, it’s so important that they learn these lessons so they are not repeated again.”

Like Cabana, Wayne Hale, a former space shuttle program manager and now chairman of the Human Exploration and Operations Committee of the NASA Advisory Council (NAC), was closely involved in the Columbia mission. He wrote a series of essays on the 10th anniversary of the accident and is reposting them now as reminders of what happened and the urgency to not repeat the same mistakes.

At a NAC meeting earlier this month, Hale pointed out that “the pressures to always achieve schedule and to stay on budget are always with us. It is incumbent upon the leadership of the agency to always remind and train and encourage the workforce to bring forth concerns and issues so they can be dealt with and not steamroller people that have perhaps dissenting opinions.”

Hale told SpacePolicyOnline.com today that the one message he wants to convey on this Day of Remembrance is “that all of the leaders, managers, and supervisors listen carefully and encourage their workers to bring forth concerns.”

Cabana said the same thing. He recounted being at the shuttle landing site where Columbia was supposed to land that day 20 years ago, waiting for the double sonic boom signalling its arrival, and, hearing nothing, realizing the worst had happened. The shuttle had disintegrated over Texas, just 16 minutes from home.

“The process that we went through, what we had to learn through all of that. It was so important, but it was so avoidable. When we look back, why do we have to keep repeating the same hard lessons? This ‘normalization of deviance’ — that you can have something wrong, but as long as nothing bad happens, it’s OK, it’s not very important.

I’ve asked all the NASA team, the Kennedy team, that’s listening today that when they go back to work they ensure that they have created an environment where everybody is heard. Where they can ask questions without fear of retribution. That they get answers to questions. That they feel free to speak up. That when something isn’t right, we take action. And we actually listen to what people are saying and do the right thing. I don’t ever want to have to go through another Columbia.”

NASA released a video this morning narrated by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson showing clips of the Apollo, Challenger and Columbia astronauts in happy times, training for their missions and, for the Columbia crew, during their 16-day flight.

Nelson, Cabana, and NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy — the three top officials at NASA — have all flown in space. Nelson was on the January 1986 shuttle mission immediately before the Challenger accident while a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, before his 18 years as a U.S. Senator. Now in charge of the agency, he says in the video:  “We must always continue to embrace the core value of safety. It’s an institutional and it is an individual responsibility.”

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