Dec 30 2008

From The Space Library

Jump to: navigation, search

The Spacecraft Crew Survival Integrated Investigation Team, a multidisciplinary team based at NASA’s JSC, issued an in-depth study of the safety equipment and safety procedures that the crew of Columbia had used during the Columbia disaster. The study, the first comprehensive report on crew survival in a spaceflight accident, detailed five lethal events that had occurred during the breakup of Columbia. The team determined that, even with better cabin equipment, hypersonic-entry conditions would have prevented crew survival. The report issued 30 recommendations to improve crew safety and vehicle design, covering topics such as crew training, individual safety equipment, procedures, restraints, spacecraft design, and future accident investigations. NASA had already implemented some of the recommendations, and NASA officials were assessing others.

NASA, “NASA Report Reviews Crew Safety Measures During Columbia Accident, Recommends Improvements,” news release M08-269, 30 December 2008, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/dec/HQ_M08269_Crew_Safety.html (accessed 22 August 2011); John Schwartz, “Report on Columbia Details How Astronauts Died,” New York Times, 31 December 2008; see also NASA, “Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report” (report no. NASA/SP-2008-565, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, December 2008), http://history.nasa.gov/Columbia/Columbiacrewsurvival.pdf (accessed 1 September 2011).

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31