![]() (Entry Interface plus 000 seconds, written EI+000) over the Pacific Ocean. There were no problems during the burn, after which Husband maneuvered Columbia into a right-side-up, forward-facing position, with the Orbiter’s nose pitched up.Įntry Interface, arbitrarily defined as the point at which the Orbiter enters the discernible atmosphere at 400,000 feet, occurred at 8:44:09 a.m. During the de-orbit burn, the crew felt about 10 percent of the effects of gravity. The de-orbit maneuver was performed on the 255th orbit, and the 2-minute, 38-second burn slowed the Orbiter from 17,500 mph to begin its re-entry into the atmosphere. using Columbia’s two Orbital Maneuvering System engines. Shortly after 8:00 a.m., the Mission Control Center Entry Flight Director polled the Mission Control room for a GO/NO-GO decision for the de-orbit burn, and at 8:10 a.m., the Capsule Communicator notified the crew they were GO for de-orbit burn.Īs the Orbiter flew upside down and tail-first over the Indian Ocean at an altitude of 175 statute miles, Commander Husband and Pilot McCool executed the de-orbit burn at 8:15:30 a.m. At the time of the de-orbit decision, about 20 minutes before the initiation of the de-orbit burn, all weather observations and forecasts were within guidelines set by the flight rules, and all systems were normal. Weather forecasters, with the help of pilots in the Shuttle Training Aircraft, evaluated landing site weather conditions at the Kennedy Space Center. The team worked through the de-orbit preparation checklist and re-entry checklist procedures. In particular, the team indicated no concerns about the debris impact to the left wing during ascent, and treated the re-entry like any other. The Flight Control Team was not working any issues or problems related to the planned de-orbit and re-entry of Columbia. EST on February 1, 2003, the Entry Flight Control Team began duty in the Mission Control Center. According to the CAIB report, the Mission Management Team declared the debris strike a "turnaround" issue and did not pursue a request for imagery ( ).Īt 2:30 a.m. Soon after, there were three separate requests for in-orbit imaging to more precisely determine damage. ![]() The following day, higher-resolution film that had been processed overnight revealed that a piece of insulation foam fell from an external fuel tank 81.9 seconds after launch and appeared to strike the shuttle's left wing near RCC panels 5 through 9. ![]() Video taken during lift-off was routinely reviewed two hours after the launch, which revealed nothing unusual. A well-publicized launch delay due to cracks in the shuttle's propellant system occurred one month before a 19 July, 2002 launch date, but the CAIB determined that this delay had nothing to do with the catastrophic failure 6 months later. STS-107 had been delayed 13 times over the course of two years (despite its designation as the 107th mission, it was actually the 113th mission) from its original launch date of 11 January 2001 to its actual launch date of 16 January, 2003. Columbia lifting-off on its final mission
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