Dec 30, 2008 1:11 pm US/Eastern
New Report Details Shuttle Columbia Tragedy
WASHINGTON (CBS4) ―
Taking a lesson from the past, NASA hopes a new report on the 2003 Columbia shuttle tragedy will help them design a new shuttle replacement capsule more that is more likely to survive an accident.
In the graphic 400 page, investigators concluded that the seat restraints, suits and helmets used by the shuttle's didn't work well and led to "lethal trauma" as the out-of-control ship broke apart, killing all seven astronauts.
The cause of the accident was a hole in the shuttle's left wing that occurred during launch. Columbia disintegrated over Texas on its return to Earth.
The report states that the astronauts died either from lack of oxygen during depressurization or from hitting something as the spacecraft spun violently out of control; it wasn't clear which of those events killed them.
And in the case of the helmets and other gear, three crew members weren't wearing gloves, which provide crucial protection from depressurization. One wasn't in the seat, one wasn't wearing a helmet and several were not fully strapped in. The gloves were off because they are too bulky to do certain tasks and there is too little time to prepare for re-entry, the report notes.
Had all those procedures been followed, the astronauts might have lived longer and been able to take more actions, but they still wouldn't have survived, the report says.
The report detailed five "events" that were potentially lethal to the crew.
Killed in the disaster were Commander Rick Husband, pilot William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, and Ilan Ramon of Israel.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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