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Astronauts

Columbia

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
January 16, 2021

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

3 responses to “Columbia”

  1. Terry Stetler says:
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    Ugh…

    Wife and I were coming out of a local market and heard the news on somone’s car radio. Like Challenger, a kick in the gut that won’t go away. Also, like Challenger, an unnecessary loss. Hubris kills.

    Rest In Peace

  2. Half Moon says:
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    Dear Wayne,
    You are asking if the Agency has forgotten the lessons of Columbia. I am sure no one forgets the events of that tragic day, and many still miss the crew, especially family members and loved ones. I certainly can’t speak for the entire Agency, only myself, and the lesson that I took away from that day is embedded in what the CAIB had to say, and is captured in Chapter 8 of the CAIB report. Below is what they said. I have added the bracketed words, as this is where I see a lesson not just for NASA, but all humanity:

    “… “despite all the post-Challenger changes at NASA [content] and the agency’s notable achievements since, the causes of the institutional failure [context] responsible for Challenger have not been fixed”

    The lesson I take away from the disasters of both Challenger and Columbia, and that the CAIB report is pointing to is that source of both tragic events lives within the domain of context, not the domain of content. The domain of content is where the hardware systems live; NASA scientists and engineers are masters in the domain of content; there is not anything NASA engineers cannot design, build, test and fly.

    The lesson I take away from the CAIB is that context, what is going on in the domain of context, shapes the actions we take, which then produce the results we get or do not get. Context is the domain NASA needs to learn mastery in, as it has in the domain of content.

    I was the project manager of the Goddard Shuttle Small Payloads Project on Feb 1st, 2003. Our project office had the large secondary payload FREESTAR manifested in Columbia’s cargo bay. Like our colleagues within the Shuttle Program, like everyone across America, we grieved the loss of our friends that day. Since then I have been committed to sharing with my NASA colleagues the lesson to consider the power of context as the source of all results, so that we will never experience such a day again. Never.

    Thank you Wayne for reminding me of the commitment I made.

    Gerard Daelemans
    NASA Goddard

  3. Paul Gillett says:
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    Lest We Forget.