-for the second time in nasa s history, a space shuttle has been lost along with its entire crew. once again, we are asking ourselves, how could this have happened? -do you have any idea how big that piece of foam was that came off? -we d heard some reports that during launch there had been some concerns that some debris hit the wing. is that true and is that any cause of concern and that could have caused today s problems? -it is true. it was judged that, erm , that event did not represent a safety concern. -this happened under my watch, but i didn t have the answers. in every public forum i m gonna have to be in, how am i gonna explain this to anybody? at this time, we have no indication that the mishap was caused by anything or anyone on the ground. -nasa never wants to look stupid. nasa wants to be the agency with the answers. -my thoughts are on what we missed, what i missed to allow this to happen. -but if you overlook something, it will come to bite you one day or anot
-i came to the investigation as a helicopter pilot who knew something about doing accident investigations. i did not come to the investigation as a space shuttle expert. i literally knew nothing about how the shuttle was put together. we needed nasa s help because by definition, everybody who came in as an external part of the investigation team is not a space shuttle expert. there was years of shuttle program knowledge that we needed to learn very quickly. -there s that issue of the falling foam during the launch of space shuttle columbia. -very early on nasa told us that they knew about a foam a debris event. but we didn t even know enough about the shuttle to understand that there was foam on the tanks. the press wants to know what happened and it s like, yep, so do we. -it s a mammoth job for those taking part in a mammoth task.
To barksdale Air Force base. After challenger, nasa had a Contingency Plan in case there was a shuttle accident. I never really imagined that it would happen. With columbia, we had people who had experience with Accident Investigation from the military, navy, and Air Force on the team. I came to the investigation as a Helicopter Pilot who knew something about doing Accident Investigations. I did not come to the investigation as a space shuttle expert. I literally knew nothing about how the shuttle was put together. We needed nasas help because by definition, everybody who came in as an external part of the Investigation Team is not a space shuttle expert. There was years of Shuttle Program Knowledge that we needed to learn very quickly