-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
that s the stomach punch right there. -and columbia, houston, we see your tire-pressure messages , and we did not copy your last. -roger. -i remember that clipped call that rick had , knowing you can have communications that drop out or are intermittent at that point. -we lost comm with the crew, but that s actually common. i mean, you don t have communications all the way through entry . so that didn t initially get my attention. -good morning to you. i m miles o brien. it is now 9:00 a.m. on the east coast, 6:00 a.m. out west. take a look outside. you should see
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