-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
-there s this big countdown clock. i just remember staring at that clock, like, watching every second go down, like, is it now? is it now? -i don t know what i expected when i saw that clock like, for them to just magically arrive when it reached zero. -iain was very excited. -mom s coming home, and, you know, he s gonna get mom hugs, great meals. you know, life will be back to normal. -somebody from nasa said, you ll see the big kind of parachute that pops out of the back. and i think that s probably what i was most excited about [laughs] was watching the parachute come out. -there was something not right. i remember our capcom, charlie hobaugh, trying to re-establish communications. and he said, over and over again, columbia, houston, comm check.
what looks like a streaking meteor. it s actually the space shuttle columbia coming back. we re watching it. landing about 15 minutes away. -we ve also lost the nose gear down talkback and the right main gear down talkback. -columbia, houston. comm check. -and then everybody started to lose sensors. they were getting no telemetry whatsoever. the screens were just going blank, reading nothing, just turning off. -columbia, houston, uhf, comm check. -there was a tenseness coming into the room. my focus was forward you know, trying to get something to report to flight that was useful.
We lost comm with the crew, but thats actually common. I mean, you dont have communications all the way through entry. So that didnt initially get my attention. Good morning to you. Im miles obrien. It is now 9 00 a. M. On the east coast, 6 00 a. M. Out west. Take a look outside. You should see what looks like a streaking meteor. Its actually the Space Shuttle Columbia coming back. Were watching it. Landing about 15 minutes away. Weve also lost the Nose Gear down talkback and the right main gear down talkback. Columbia, houston. Comm check. And then everybody started to lose sensors. They were getting no telemetry whatsoever. The screens were just going blank, reading nothing, just turning off. Columbia, houston, uhf, comm check
There was a tenseness coming into the room. My focus was forward you know, trying to get something to report to flight that was useful. But there wasnt anything. Milas not reporting any r. F. At this time. Fdo, when are you expecting tracking . One minute ago, flight. Columbia, houston, uhf comm check. He makes the call. We hear nothing