from space shuttle columbia as columbia continues to orbit the earth at an altitude of about 150 statute miles. columbia, houston, laurel, you re loud and clear on air to ground one. -the second day, i drive in to work kind of euphoric because another launch, another successful launch. you know, the flight director s office and the mission control center in houston is working with them. they re everything s good. i walked into the analysis lab to start reviewing film from the launch. we started the film at the beginning. [ rockets roaring ] we re watching this liftoff. you see the roll maneuvers, beautiful blue sky. we do the normal review, and we start pointing out all the things that we normally see. and we got to 81 seconds, and then we see this object come off of the external tank area. it moved down, and then striked the vehicle and explode into a white cloud. my reaction was, oh, shit. - you ll always find me sunny side up you ll always find me sunny side
-a special team was forming, and i was told that i would be on it. the mission management wanted to know how bad is it no damage, minimal damage or grave damage. in that room on the first meeting, there were probably 12 to 15 people. they were the best experts in different fields, but all we knew was this was foam and it hit the left wing. but where on the left wing. we did not know. this is why we naturally came to the conclusion we cannot initiate a credible analysis until we know the damage location and extent of damage. we must have another piece of data, another image.
We did not know. This is why we naturally came to the conclusion we cannot initiate a credible analysis until we know the Damage Location and extent of damage. We must have another piece of data, another image. I knew that the military satellites at that time were extremely good. There were stories like they could read License Plates from space. We have quite a fleet of Spy Satellites out there, and mostly are trying to, at that time, chase down terrorists in Afghanistan And Iraq or whatever. Aiming it at the shuttle was a possibility. Thats why the whole group thought it was a good idea. Lets ask for military assets. The meeting participants all agreed