Before we schedule the next launch. In other words, again, they were thinking it was more of a turnaround issue. And so, it wasnt preventing Shuttle Flights from going forward. The pressure on the Management Team to stay on schedule and the concept of, its just foam is leading the charge through all of this. So, it wasnt like they werent talking about issues at all, but there certainly was a Big Focus On The on the schedule. Heres an email, its tuesday january 21st, this was sent six days into the columbia mission. This is a private exchange between Linda Ham and ron dittemore, two of the top managers in the program. The rationale for flight for the Sts112 Loss of foam
them. there will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews, and yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. nothing ends here. our hopes and our journeys continue. to honor our fallen, we have to find this and fix it and fly it again. within a matter of days we knew it was a solid rocket booster joint that had failed. the o-ring was a flawed design that had led to the loss of the challenger. during the 30 months since the challenger accident, there have been hundreds of hardware changes not only to the rocket booster but also to the orbiter and the large liquid rocket fuel tank. numerous software changes had been implemented. all had been tested exhaustively. i wanted the opportunity to fly on that first return flight, and i was fortunate, being assigned to that crew.
the artemis rocket uses four rs-25 engines that previously flew on space shuttle missions engine number 3 flew on six shuttle flights. the problem, liquid hydrogen fuel wasn t flowing properly and the engine could not get cold enough, a showstopper. two minutes into the launch window, mission control canceled the attempt. the launch director has called a scrub for today. reporter: for the hundreds of thousands of spectators who packed nearby bridges and beaches to watch, they found disappointment oh, my god. i will try to arrange my schedule to come back here. reporter: but excitement for what s to come. it s still an adventure and it s still going to be really cool. reporter: the next launch window comes friday or monday if engineers can diagnose and fix the engine trouble we ll play all nine innings here, you know, and we re not ready to give up yet reporter: if nasa determines it needs to swap out the problem engine, it would likely have to move
it belongs to the brave. the challenger crew was pulling us into the future and we ll continue to follow them. there will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. nothing ends here. our hopes and our journeys continue. to honor our fallen, we have to find this and fix it and fly it again. within a matter of days, we knew it was the solid rocket booster joint that had failed. the o-ring was a flawed design that had led to the loss of the challenger. during the 30 months since the challenger accident, there had been hundreds of hardware changes to not only the solid rocket booster, but also to the orbiter, the large liquid rocket fuel tank. numerous software changes had been implemented. all had been tested exhaustively. i wanted the opportunity to fly on that first return flight and i was fortunate being