This story was updated at 2:14 pm
EST.
The seven astronauts killed during
the 2003 loss of NASA's space shuttle Columbia survived less than a minute
after their spacecraft began breaking apart, according to a new report released
Tuesday that suggests changes to astronaut training and spacecraft cabin
design.
The 400-page "Columbia Crew
Survival Investigation Report" released today states that Columbia's
ill-fated crew had a period of just 40 seconds between the loss of control
of their spacecraft and its lethal depressurization in which to act on Feb. 1,
2003.
The crew's response was hampered by
delays in donning their re-entry pressure suits, which ultimately would not
have saved them during the searing plunge into the atmosphere anyway.
"The
Columbia depressurization event occurred so rapidly that the crew members were
incapacitated within seconds, before they could configure the suit for full
protection from loss of cabin pressure," the report states. "Although
circulatory systems functioned for a brief time, the effects of the
depressurization were severe enough that the crew could not have regained
consciousness. This event was lethal to the crew."
In-depth analysis
Returning
to Earth aboard Columbia were commander Rick
Husband, pilot Willie McCool, mission specialists Kalpana
Chawla, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson, David Brown
and Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut. Exposure to
high altitude and blunt trauma caused their deaths, the report states.
One of Columbia's
STS-107 crew members was not wearing a pressure suit helmet and three
astronauts had not put on their spacesuit gloves, according to the report. At
no point did crew error contribute to the loss of Columbia, which was not a
survivable event, the report states.
The design of Columbia's seats, too,
decreased the crew's chances of survival as their restraints did not lock in
place, subjecting the astronauts to extreme trauma from rotational forces.
Their helmets were not head-conforming, resulting in injuries and lethal
trauma, the report states.
The investigation
"was performed with the belief that a comprehensive, respectful investigation
could provide knowledge that would improve the safety of future space flight
crews and explorers," said the team of astronauts, pilots and engineers that
compiled it.
The report found five separate
lethal events that occurred during Columbia's descent. It calls for enhanced
astronaut training to help spacecraft crews transition
from emergency response to survival mode. It also recommends that NASA design
the seats and pressure suits for future spacecraft with loss of vehicle control
in mind.
Current astronaut pressure suits,
for example, require astronauts to manually deploy their parachute during an
emergency escape. Modifying the system to automatically close visors or deploy a parachute could help
an unconscious astronaut's chances if they survived a spacecraft's catastrophic
descent.
Tragic loss of Columbia
Columbia broke apart during
reentry while returning to Earth after a 16-day science mission. Investigators
later found that a piece of shuttle fuel tank foam insulation punched a hole in
the heat shielding that lined Columbia's left wing edge during its Jan. 16
launch. The damage allowed superheated atmospheric gases to penetrate the
spacecraft's wing during re-entry, destroying the shuttle and killing the crew
16 minutes before their planned landing.
The shuttle was flying about 200,000
feet (nearly 38 miles or 60 km) above Earth at a speed of about 12,500 mph
(20,120 kph) when flight controllers received their
last communications from the shuttle. That call came at about 8:59 a.m. EST
(1359 GMT).
Once the spacecraft's cabin began
breaking apart, Columbia's crew had no protection against the searing heat of
re-entry outside, the report states, adding that the bright orange pressure
suits could not withstand such conditions.
"The
ascent and entry suit had no performance requirements for occupant protection
from thermal events," the report states. "The only known complete protection
from this event would be to prevent its occurrence."
Following
the loss of Columbia, NASA halted shuttle flights for more than two years and
developed new heat shield inspection and repair tools for astronauts in orbit.
NASA
resumed space shuttle flights in 2005 and has since flown 11 missions to the
International Space Station.
The
agency plans to fly nine more shuttle flights before retiring its three-orbiter
fleet in 2010 to make way for its replacement, the capsule-based Orion
spacecraft and its Ares 1 booster. That spacecraft is expected to begin
operational flights in 2015.
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