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Plenty of Theories as to What Caused Space Shuttle Disaster
Aired February 10, 2003 - 13:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: One official calls it slow going, but volunteers beating the brush in Texas over the weekend found some really big pieces of the shuttle Columbia, and investigators in Houston are examining data searching for a possible hit by space junk, or even a meteorite.
CNN's Brian Cabell is live at the Johnson Space Center to bring us up to date.
Hi, Brian.
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.
There are plenty of theories out there as to what caused the space shuttle disaster, but NASA officials are warning us not to jump at any conclusions at just this early a point. They remind us back in 1986 with the Challenger disaster, the O-ring was number 10 on that list of possibilities, and that, of course, ultimately proved to be the cause.
That said, let me tell you about the theory they're talking about here the last couple of days, the most prevalent one, and that deals with the possibility of space debris, perhaps having collided with the shuttle Columbia.
About 24 hours after it launched, there was an object spotted moving away from Columbia at about 11 miles an hour. Was it perhaps a piece of debris, was it a piece of the shuttle that had broken off, was it ice? They simply don't know. We can tell you, however, that the space command monitors debris in space, and the shuttle has managed to change course 12 times because of that debris over the last 22 years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: We're constantly tracking space debris and have made adjustments during the course of missions previously as well as on the international space station to adjust what the orbiting pattern will be in order to avoid colliding with any debris. It is a concern, there is no doubt about it. There is nothing you can possibly make that would be invulnerable to the collision of material that's still up there orbiting the Earth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABELL: What's come to light here in the last day or so is a 1997 engineering study that was led by Rick Hoke, a formal shuttle commander. That particular study concluded afterwards about one chance in 200 that there would possibly would be a disastrous collision between the shuttle and between some piece of space junk. And so when we look at it now, we find that the shuttle, this particular shuttle, was number 113.
So again, we have the possibility of some sort of debris colliding with the shuttle and that is a possibility that officials are looking into right now. The other thing they're doing right now, of course, is picking up debris, day and night. They're picking up to 12, 000 pieces in Texas and Louisiana, and now they're going to try to reassemble that in Florida.
Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: Brian Cabell, from the Johnson Space Center, thanks very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Disaster>
Aired February 10, 2003 - 13:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: One official calls it slow going, but volunteers beating the brush in Texas over the weekend found some really big pieces of the shuttle Columbia, and investigators in Houston are examining data searching for a possible hit by space junk, or even a meteorite.
CNN's Brian Cabell is live at the Johnson Space Center to bring us up to date.
Hi, Brian.
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.
There are plenty of theories out there as to what caused the space shuttle disaster, but NASA officials are warning us not to jump at any conclusions at just this early a point. They remind us back in 1986 with the Challenger disaster, the O-ring was number 10 on that list of possibilities, and that, of course, ultimately proved to be the cause.
That said, let me tell you about the theory they're talking about here the last couple of days, the most prevalent one, and that deals with the possibility of space debris, perhaps having collided with the shuttle Columbia.
About 24 hours after it launched, there was an object spotted moving away from Columbia at about 11 miles an hour. Was it perhaps a piece of debris, was it a piece of the shuttle that had broken off, was it ice? They simply don't know. We can tell you, however, that the space command monitors debris in space, and the shuttle has managed to change course 12 times because of that debris over the last 22 years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: We're constantly tracking space debris and have made adjustments during the course of missions previously as well as on the international space station to adjust what the orbiting pattern will be in order to avoid colliding with any debris. It is a concern, there is no doubt about it. There is nothing you can possibly make that would be invulnerable to the collision of material that's still up there orbiting the Earth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABELL: What's come to light here in the last day or so is a 1997 engineering study that was led by Rick Hoke, a formal shuttle commander. That particular study concluded afterwards about one chance in 200 that there would possibly would be a disastrous collision between the shuttle and between some piece of space junk. And so when we look at it now, we find that the shuttle, this particular shuttle, was number 113.
So again, we have the possibility of some sort of debris colliding with the shuttle and that is a possibility that officials are looking into right now. The other thing they're doing right now, of course, is picking up debris, day and night. They're picking up to 12, 000 pieces in Texas and Louisiana, and now they're going to try to reassemble that in Florida.
Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: Brian Cabell, from the Johnson Space Center, thanks very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Disaster>
