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Board Investigating Columbia Crash Conducts Tests

Aired June 06, 2003 - 15:43   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The independent board investigating the loss of the space shuttle Columbia on February 1, killing the crew of seven, is holding perhaps its most crucial test today. As a matter of fact, just did a few moments ago in San Antonio, Texas. Specifically, what they're doing is firing a piece of foam at a mock- up of a space shuttle wing involving the real materials on a space shuttle wing to see if foam falling on the leading edge of the wing could have caused a breach which ultimately would have caused the disaster two weeks after the launch of the space shuttle Columbia.
Space producer Dave Santucci is on the scene now, and is here to give us a quick report on what happened. Dave, I'm going to roll pictures of a previous test involving fiberglass material used in the leading edge. The real stuff is a composite material called reinforced carbon carbon. But as people watched this previous test, how much did what you just witness differ, or how much was it the same as what we've seen?

DAVE SANTUCCI, CNN SPACE PRODUCER: Miles, I'm at the ballistics test range here, and they did just fire it about 20 minutes ago. And basically they hit their target. It appeared that the foam came out at over 500 miles an hour, can't quite say. The foam was obliterated, basically blowing into pieces like we saw in the video from Columbia, 81 seconds in flight when that foam did fall off of the external tank and hit the left wing.

But versus last week, they're not quite seeing the increased expectation of damage they were expecting. There is foam stuck in between the t-seal (ph) that goes between the RCCs, and there was some damage but nothing very visible from this flight. There is some separation, I think, between the t-seal (ph) and the RCC.

O'BRIEN: All right, now, those t-seals (ph) are just essentially a joint which goes between those reinforced carbon carbon panels. And what happened on that previous test, as you look at the launch of the space shuttle Columbia back in mid-January, and if you look very closely, you hear that piece of foam right about there hits the leading edge of the wing. There you see it exploding.

According to that previous test we've been showing a video of on the fiberglass, opened up just enough of a seam to allow very hot plasma to enter into the aluminum infrastructure of that wing on re- entry, some two weeks later. It was certainly enough of a breach. So remains to be seen what sort of a breach was caused by the foam hitting the reinforced carbon carbon. But clearly, as Dave Santucci reports, if there was foam lodged in that seam, that implies an opening. And therefore, you can make the assumption that this test sort of bears out their theory that foam striking that leading edge of the wing is the root cause of what happened. What's next, Dave?

SANTUCCI: Well, they're taking a look to see if the tests did go off correctly, that the foam did come out at over 500 miles an hour as expected. They will look at the interior of the structure to see if damage is done to the inside. They didn't quite get the damage that, I guess, they were hoping for, just to sort of conclude this investigation. There's no clear visible crack on the surface.

O'BRIEN: OK. Interesting. Dave Santucci, there on the scene in San Antonio. We expect to see some video of that test very shortly. He's not in a position where we can bring it to you live. Whether it's hoping or dreading, either way, investigators could very well be much closer to coming up with some definitive answers on what caused the loss of the space shuttle Columbia. Dave Santucci in San Antonio, we'll be checking back with him later.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired June 6, 2003 - 15:43   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The independent board investigating the loss of the space shuttle Columbia on February 1, killing the crew of seven, is holding perhaps its most crucial test today. As a matter of fact, just did a few moments ago in San Antonio, Texas. Specifically, what they're doing is firing a piece of foam at a mock- up of a space shuttle wing involving the real materials on a space shuttle wing to see if foam falling on the leading edge of the wing could have caused a breach which ultimately would have caused the disaster two weeks after the launch of the space shuttle Columbia.
Space producer Dave Santucci is on the scene now, and is here to give us a quick report on what happened. Dave, I'm going to roll pictures of a previous test involving fiberglass material used in the leading edge. The real stuff is a composite material called reinforced carbon carbon. But as people watched this previous test, how much did what you just witness differ, or how much was it the same as what we've seen?

DAVE SANTUCCI, CNN SPACE PRODUCER: Miles, I'm at the ballistics test range here, and they did just fire it about 20 minutes ago. And basically they hit their target. It appeared that the foam came out at over 500 miles an hour, can't quite say. The foam was obliterated, basically blowing into pieces like we saw in the video from Columbia, 81 seconds in flight when that foam did fall off of the external tank and hit the left wing.

But versus last week, they're not quite seeing the increased expectation of damage they were expecting. There is foam stuck in between the t-seal (ph) that goes between the RCCs, and there was some damage but nothing very visible from this flight. There is some separation, I think, between the t-seal (ph) and the RCC.

O'BRIEN: All right, now, those t-seals (ph) are just essentially a joint which goes between those reinforced carbon carbon panels. And what happened on that previous test, as you look at the launch of the space shuttle Columbia back in mid-January, and if you look very closely, you hear that piece of foam right about there hits the leading edge of the wing. There you see it exploding.

According to that previous test we've been showing a video of on the fiberglass, opened up just enough of a seam to allow very hot plasma to enter into the aluminum infrastructure of that wing on re- entry, some two weeks later. It was certainly enough of a breach. So remains to be seen what sort of a breach was caused by the foam hitting the reinforced carbon carbon. But clearly, as Dave Santucci reports, if there was foam lodged in that seam, that implies an opening. And therefore, you can make the assumption that this test sort of bears out their theory that foam striking that leading edge of the wing is the root cause of what happened. What's next, Dave?

SANTUCCI: Well, they're taking a look to see if the tests did go off correctly, that the foam did come out at over 500 miles an hour as expected. They will look at the interior of the structure to see if damage is done to the inside. They didn't quite get the damage that, I guess, they were hoping for, just to sort of conclude this investigation. There's no clear visible crack on the surface.

O'BRIEN: OK. Interesting. Dave Santucci, there on the scene in San Antonio. We expect to see some video of that test very shortly. He's not in a position where we can bring it to you live. Whether it's hoping or dreading, either way, investigators could very well be much closer to coming up with some definitive answers on what caused the loss of the space shuttle Columbia. Dave Santucci in San Antonio, we'll be checking back with him later.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com