What cuased Colombia (space ship) to brake?

Question

Remember the spaceshipe colombia? Well it had a horrible brake down and i want to know what caused it.

Answer 1

The large orange fuel tank holds cryogenic (very cold) fuel and oxidizer for the shuttles main engines. This tank is covered by foam insulation. Even with the foam insulation parts of the very cold tank cause condensation to occur on its surface, and the foam can absorb some of the condensation and freeze. This foam, with absorbed (now frozen) water is very hard.

During the launch phase of Columbia's last flight a briefcase-sized piece of the foam insulation which had frozen water in it shed from part of the tank, and struck the front of the left wing, near where it is attached to the orbiter. When it struck (at about 900 kph) it broke a hole in the forward surface of the wing, which holds critical heat shield material. The hole was so placed that it was not visible to the astronauts.

During re-entry the hole allowed hot gases (over 2500 degrees) to enter the wing, causing the rest of the heat shield, wing surfaces, and finally the whole wing to disintegrate, at which point the orbiter was out of control, tumbled, and fell apart, killing all aboard.

Had the shuttle been on a service mission to the ISS the crew would have found the hole and stayed aboard the ISS, to wait for rescue, and the shuttle would have been abandoned, probably made to re-enter over water. That's why they are not sending the shuttle up any more except to visit the ISS (which is not in an orbit convenient for putting most satellites in orbit). They are planning a servicing mission to the Hubble telescope, but that won't fly until they can have a second shuttle as a rescue craft in case of serious trouble.

Even had the hole in the wing been discovered, it is doubtful if NASA would have been able to formulate a way to save the crew. It was unable to change it's orbit enough to get to the ISS, and no rescue craft were available. The ISS is in an orbit that is very inclined to the equator of the Earth, because that is the type of orbit that both NASA and the Russian Space Agency (RSA) can get to.

Answer 2

Some of the tiles which are supposed to protect it from the heat of re-entering the atmosphere were damaged in the takeoff. No one knew about the damage while they were up there, but on the way back down to the ground, some very hot air got into the wheel wells and then the damage progressed until the thing could not fly.

Some people on the ground said, why couldn't they escape somehow? Well, the shuttle may look kind of like a plane and fly through the same sky, sort of, but it is like 20 times as high and going 30 times as fast as any jet, so those people were doomed by the time they realized something was wrong.

It was pretty serious, and by coincidence it happened very close to the anniversary of the other space shuttle disaster, in late January 1986.

Answer 3

The first answer, and others below, are wrong. The shuttle CHALLENGER had faulty o-rings and crashed in 1986. Columbia was hit by a piece of foam from the fuel tank on lift off. When it reentered the atmosphere, hot gasses from the incredible friction got into the spaceship, melted the structure, and the ship broke up. Try the wikipedia link below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle_Columbia

Also - the answers below about the heat-shield tiles being damaged on liftoff is not true. The tiles were not damaged. A composite panel on the leading edge of the wing - not covered in tiles - had a hole knocked in it.

Answer 4

A spacecraft does not have 'brakes' or 'flaps', it has rocket motors. The directing of high pressure exhaust out of a rocket nozzle forces the spacecraft in the opposite direction in accordance with conservation of momentum. By arranging small rocket nozzles in specific places around the body of the spacecraft you can achieve movement in all three axes, and the main engine can be used for large changes in speed. To slow down you just point your main engine forward and fire it. Turning is also a different problem in space. Because most of the journey is actually accomplished by coasting you can't trn as you do in a car or boat or plane. You can rotate the spacecraft to any orientation you like but you will keep travelling in the same direction. To change direction you need to turn so your main engine is pointing in a specific direction and then fire it for a short time.

Answer 5

Revised, final "individual viewpoint" (latest version, superceding all previous viewpoints posted by me on this site) :

1. One view (possible theory) is that a piece of foam had fallen off a fuel tank and there was sort of a hole at the point where the foam hit (probably on the Columbia shuttle's wing, at one of its leading edge), during lift-off. The larger main fuel tanks are mostly jettisoned, well before descent commences. There is, in this view, NO connection, whatsoever, with the tiles on the thermal shield having come loose on their own. Some o-ring/o-rings (gaskets) might have come loose, causing the foam to come out of the fuel tank, and hit the wing tip of the shuttle at high velocity, probably, causing a hole, near one wing tip of the shuttle, during lift-off. Difficult, if not completely impossible, for anyone to precisely substantiate, the exact cause, after the event. The debris remnants, were scattered widely over the large ocean...possibly covering nearly half the globe!

2. A second, probably "more-of-guesswork" viewpoint, emerged from various "TV news reports." One gathers vaguely, from some such news reports, that some thing which looked like tile/tiles (or a physical portion, not necessarily tiles) in the heat-shielding, insulating material, had come off loose due to the impact of the foam from the fuel tank and, as such, the friction generated, at this slightly "uneven/hole/jutting-out" portion (as it seemed to appear), during re-entry into the atmosphere, because of atmospheric friction, caused "excessive heating" and, subsequently, total explosive-like disintegration (as it appeared, somewhat, to a layman observer, watching TV). The videos were posted on all the famous TV news channels, and showed the unfortunately grievous tragedy, in vivid, yet uncertain, detail.

DISCLAIMER: These are only, my (layman's), "individual" point of view, and should be treated as such, alone. After all, I am NOT an expert on "space technology" and, as such, my opinion cannot be given any technical/official/scientific cognizance.

Answer 6

Some of the ceramic heat shielding tiles broke during takeoff. When it re-entered the atmosphere, these exposed areas became superheated and caused the frame to melt and subsequently cause more tiles to break. This caused the catastrophic burn up of the shuttle.

Answer 7

Good God! Go Google some grammar!

And spelling!

Answer 8

NASA launched when it was too cold and the o-rings on the boosters didnt seal properly which caused rocket fuel to leak and then the big explosion. They were warned and choose to launch anyways tragety

Answer 9

Heheh, uh, the ground. Oh, you mean BREAK!

Answer 10

Why don't you learn about spell check?