Spring 2003 Issue

By Kent Britain, WA5VJB

Breakup of the shuttle Columbia over the Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas area.  (Photo by Ricky Stroud)

The space program events of February this year certainly hit a personal note for me (photo A). First, as an employee of Vought Aircraft, I worked on various parts of the shuttles back in the early 1980s. The nose, leading edges, heat-rejection system, and parts of the drop tank all were built at LTV Aerospace here in Grand Prairie, Texas.

Photo B shows a piece of space shuttle. There is no need to call the FBI, because while this is a piece of a space shuttle, it’s not a piece of the Columbia. This test coupon has never flown in space. When the RCC (Reinforced Carbon Carbon) sections of the nose and leading edges are made, small coupons are made of the same materials and go through the same processes. These coupons can be tested useing destruction methods to verify the strength of the materials. This coupon from the nose cap was then cracked in the name of quality control. Years later it was sold in a load of scrap, which I rescued from a surplus dealer.

The RCC is graphite fiber held in place with sintered carbon. It is quite strong and can be spotted as the lighter gray area of the space shuttles.

I actually watched the events of February 1st. I knew that a landing was planned for that morning, and I had hoped to watch it go by. Normally it’s just a distant fuzzy dot in daylight, although the pre-dawn passes can be spectacular as it passes over north Texas, headed for Florida. This time I saw a contrail.

Altogether I spent 15 years working for Vought Aircraft. As I mentioned above, we built parts for the shuttle. We also built the heat-rejection system for the International Space Station.
Because the return flight path for shuttles returning to Florida usually was over the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, I often enjoyed watching our handiwork pass by on such occasions. Initially February 1, 2003 seemed to be no exception. My assumption this time would be so very wrong.

“Odd.” I thought, “It usually doesn’t leave a contrail.” It was quite a show, however! I also thought it was interesting that they were not headed toward Florida! They were approximately ten degrees too far south, and some of that apparent angle was amplified by the unusually steep decent angle. Twenty seconds later I saw a bright dot separate away. Strange, as I didn’t know of anything they could jettison.

Then they passed below the buildings in downtown Dallas. Minutes later I heard that NASA had lost contact, and I had witnessed the breakup of Columbia.

I realized immediately that the angle and speed meant they had lost control of Columbia well before I saw the first streak of that contrail. Only then would they have plunged that steeply into the atmosphere. The debris trail passed about 50 miles south of my QTH.
 

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