-my wife, laurel, was on the shuttle. she was a scientist primarily involved with life sciences. one day during the mission, i was reviewing the notes, and then here s this foam issue. during launch, a large piece of foam had come off the external tank and impacted the left wing. me and my colleague had this discussion of, hey, you can use a family conference to talk to laurel and find out what she knew. -oh! -you got to remember the hat you re wearing is your flight-surgeon hat, not your family hat. it would have broken protocol for me to bring up an issue to a crew member, even though it s my wife. -i remember a certain sense of relief like, it s almost over. she s almost back. -i didn t talk to laurel about the foam issue. that conference was for iain and laurel, and i was a bystander. -i knew she was going to come back. you know, i never had a question in my mind. -given the fact that you may have lost a little bit of tile during lift-off, i m wondering
i was live on morning tv at that point, so dialled into nasa on a cellphone i had. there was a secret phone number you could dial into and hear the mission audio. the people in the control room were going, are you hearing this? i m, like, nodding. -no further communications with the spacecraft about 8:00 a.m. central time. -hang on. let s listen in. -and no further tracking data from the spacecraft was gained from c band tracking radar at the merritt island tracking station in florida. -my team was in the control room, and they were like, this is serious. we need to get miles off that couch. and as i was making my way across the newsroom to this other set, i literally started heaving. -the console that i was at, we had an off-duty flight director who called our console and said, hey. i m watching the landing on tv, and they re showing this debris in the sky.
But we were getting nothing. You know, the room was just silent. Alright. Miles, back over to you. Alright. Weve got a little problem on the space shuttle columbia. It has been out of communication now for the past 12 minutes. Lets take a look at a live picture of Mission Control in houston. I was live on Morning Tv at that point, so dialled into nasa on a cellphone i had. There was a secret Phone Number you could dial into and hear the mission audio. The people in the Control Room were going, are you hearing this . Im, like, nodding. No further communications with the spacecraft about 8 00 a. M. Central time. Hang on. Lets listen in. And no further Tracking Data from the spacecraft was gained from C Band tracking radar at the Merritt Island Tracking station in florida. My team was in the Control Room, and they were like, this is serious. We need to get miles off that couch. And as i was making my way across the newsroom to this other set, i literally started heaving