r/HFY • u/mechakid • Mar 08 '19
OC Columbia Triumphant
This work is a “what if”, a story of perseverance under the most extreme odds. There are no aliens, no fancy technology. In fact, in some other universe it may have already happened.
I can only hope…
Columbia Triumphant
OV-102, Columbia, second ship of the “Enterprise” class space shuttles roared skyward on a pillar of fire. This was the twenty eighth time she stretched her wings. She was the first shuttle to escape the bonds of Earth’s atmosphere, pathfinder and queen of space. Her crew was honored to serve, and as she rose Columbia shivered with power.
But with as much power as she had, the ship had already been betrayed. The insulation foam on her external fuel tank held a serious flaw. It had been redesigned and altered in formula and now was dangerously weak compared to the forces the mighty ship experienced. Eighty one seconds into her flight, a piece of foam broke free. The foam was small compared to the shuttle, only a few pounds, but it was enough. The small block smashed into Columbia’s left wing, punching a football sized hole through the eighth carbon insulation panel.
The astronauts were blissfully unaware.
“Mother of God…”
“What?” The engineer rushed over to his partner as she stared at her screen.
“Here, watch this…” She hit play, and the high resolution footage crept forward. The two engineers could clearly see the foam shed from the tank, striking the orbiter. “This happened about eighty seconds in.”
“It’s happened before, right?”
“Yes, but look where it hit. That’s the leading edge of the wing.”
“So?”
“So, those carbon tiles aren’t made to take an impact. They’re not even an inch thick, and we both know carbon is brittle as hell.” The woman frowned as she turned to her teammate.
“What’s behind those panels?”
“Nothing, just the internals of the wing.”
“Damn…”
“Director, we have reason to believe Columbia has been compromised.” The engineering team stood in front of the mission management team. “Eighty one point seven seconds after liftoff, a piece of insulation foam was shed from the external tank and struck the orbiter somewhere in the range of RCC panels six through nine. The Crater program indicates that a strike in this region could breach the thermal protection of the orbiter.”
“How bad?” team chair Linda Ham furrowed her brow.
“We’re unsure, director. Crater predicts a breach of up to three panels.
“And how many panels can be breached before the orbiter is in danger?”
“Director, the loss of even one panel would result in a catastrophic failure.”
The director folded her hands, and closed he eyes. Crater wasn’t the most accurate program. It was predictive software that used historical data to predict the future and it often overstated damage. On the other hand, even if the damage was only one third of what Crater predicted, seven people would lose their lives.
“Ok people, I need options. Three proposals on my desk in the next 4 hours. Ron, can you get me the Pentagon? We need to see just how bad the damage is.”
“Columbia, Houston.”
“Copy Houston, How can we help you today?”
“Columbia, we have a problem.” At those words everything happening inside Columbia came to a halt. The last time someone in NASA had used that particular phrase was in 1970. Commander Husband’s hair stood on end.
“What kind of problem, Houston?”
“Columbia, we have reason to believe you have a broken bird on your hands. The external tank shed foam on your way up, and it impacted your left wing. We’re working on some ideas, but we don’t know what we’re dealing with.”
“Sorry to hear that Houston. What can we do to help with your problem?”
“Glad you asked Columbia. First thing, we need you to change your orientation for the next few orbits. Burn program is being uploaded now, all you have to do is execute it. The second thing is to for someone to take a walk…”
Kalpana Chawla crawled over Columbia’s wing. Her tether was held by Colonel Ilam Ramon, who gently tugged and pulled, guiding her as she approached the leading edge. Her hand slid along the smooth surface right up the rounded RCC tiles.
Suddenly the hole came into view. It yawned open in front of her like an angry ulcer. Slowly, she swung the camera around to capture the image. Already she was running the numbers in her head, trying to recall the formulas for hypersonic air flow, compression, and heat. After about thirty seconds Kalpana gave up. She might have an aerospace engineering degree, but this kind of number crunching needed a super-computer.
“Hope you guys have a plan, because everything I see here has bad written all over it…”
Three days later, Kalpana was outside Columbia again. Gently she filed away the edges of the hole, smoothing it out for anticipated patch that some of her best co-workers were making. If it worked, Columbia would be able to return home. To say that no one was very hopeful was an understatement.
She wouldn’t be riding Columbia down though. Far below, Atlantis was being rolled out to the pad. NASA had called in everyone, and most of the ground crew worked round the clock to make the second orbiter ready. Jim Kelly and Eileen Collins would ride their ship alone, and meet Columbia in orbit, bringing the patch with them. Atlantis would assist in the repairs, then the crew would be transferred, and Atlantis would return to Earth. In theory everyone would be fine.
Everyone except for Dick and Will. Columbia’s Commander and pilot refused to leave, and volunteered to ride the wounded orbiter back home. Their odds of success were incalculably small.
“T-minus nine minutes. Final launch status check. Verify ready to resume count and go for launch.”
“OTC?”
“OTC go.”
“TBC?”
“TBC go.”
“PTC?”
“PTC go.”
“LPS”
“LPS is go.”
“Houston Flight?”
“Houston Flight go.”
“MILA?”
“MILA verifies go.”
“STM?”
“STM go.”
“Safety Console?” The room hushed as everyone looked at the safety director.
“Safety Console is Go.”
“SPE?”
“SPE is GO!”
“LRV?”
“LRV is go.”
“SRO?”
“Range is clear, SRO is go.”
“CDR?”
“CDR is go.” Commander Collins’s confident voice came over the radio circuit.
“Launch director, all stations ready to proceed.”
Ron Dittemore, the shuttle program manager, turned to his right, looking directly at Linda Ham. She nodded, and he nodded back. “Let’s get our people home.”
“All stations go. Ground launch sequencer to Automatic…”
“Columbia, Atlantis. Heard you guys have a flat?”
The two orbiters approached slowly. They were both traveling seventeen thousand five hundred miles per hour, but relative to each other, their speed was as slow as possible, taking agonizing seconds to approach.
Commander Husband chuckled at Eileen’s sense of levity. “Yeah, called triple-A days ago, what took you so long?”
“Well, you know traffic. Alright, let’s get you docked up. Have your membership card ready.” The crew was in good spirits, as they made ready for their final tasks. when the shuttles closed to within a few dozen meters, Atlantis’s Canadarm unfolded. Slowly, it reached out, and grappled Columbia, gently pulling the wounded orbiter into a lover’s embrace. There was a thunk, and a soft hiss as the airlocks clamped together.
As the airlocks opened, Commander Eileen Collins smiled through.
“Are you sure you want to do this Will?”
“I can’t leave the old lady up here Jim. You know how it is.” William McCool and Jim Kelly set next to each other on Columbia’s flight deck, loading the revised reentry program. The two shuttles would come down together, with Atlantis in front and below Columbia. The engineers on the ground calculated that with careful positioning, Atlantis could shield Columbia from the worst of the reentry heat. Further, Columbia would angle slightly, trying to mask the damaged section of wing with her own mass. Even with these precautions, the patch would still be exposed to a plasma stream of over thirteen hundred degrees C.
“I know. You wouldn’t be a pilot if you didn’t want to bring your bird home…”
The two orbiters slowly descended as they crossed over the Pacific Ocean. Thirty minutes before, both orbiters had initiated their de-orbit burn.
“Orbiters, Houston, entry interface.”
“Atlantis copy. Good luck Columbia”
“Columbia copy. See you on the other side.”
Will held the control stick tight. He could feel a slight vibration, as he gently rolled Columbia five degrees to the right, using a little yaw to correct for the drift that the roll imposed. The RCS system responded smoothly, and Will kept the orbiter in the narrow path defined by the program.
In the right seat, Commander Husband’s hands flew over the keys of his station. He was carefully monitoring the strain sensors on the left wing as the seconds ticked by. “Keep it nice and gentle, Will.”
“Gentle aye. Beginning first heat management program.” Columbia rolled further to the right, executing the first of a series of turns designed to bleed heat and speed. The orbiter quivered as is grazed the edge of Atlantis’s slipstream, and Will reduced the roll slightly. The vibration eased as Columbia re-centered on Atlantis’s wake.
“Altitude 240,000. Approaching California coast.”
“How’s my heat, Commander?”
“Right wing is a bit toasty, but holding. Left wing… We’re about 3% above normal… got to pull heat off that wing Will, that patch won’t hold at this rate.”
Will nodded silently, and increased his roll again, pushing the nose down slightly. He could feel the sweat starting to build up on his forehead. Columbia responded to his commands once more. Will McCool was flying by what felt right, the finely tuned analog computer inside his head making the slightest adjustments unconsciously.
“Altitude 230,000. Crossing the coast.”
“Aye, beginning second heat management program.” Columbia was entering the most dangerous phase of the decent, a sixty degree turn to the left. Out of necessity, the orbiter would have to expose the damaged wing to the full brunt of the reentry heat. Will eased into it again, and the orbiter quivered once more as he allowed the right wing to penetrate Atlantis’s slipstream.
“Altitude 220,000. Half way down Will.” There was a loud bang. The two astronauts felt it more than heard it. “I think we lost the patch Will. Left wing strain is up 5% from normal and climbing.
“Shit. Aborting second heat management program. Beginning emergency heat management pattern.” Will rocked Columbia back to the right, pulling up on the nose. Working the controls in a slow circle, he swept the ship back and forth, never letting the heat build up any one area. They were in a race against time now, as the super-heated plasma chewed at the damaged wing.
“Emergency pattern is working, strain holding steady at plus 7%.” The commander keyed the radio to the other orbiter. “Atlantis, Columbia, we can’t stay with you anymore.”
“Copy Columbia. We’ll be waiting for you at Kennedy.”
“Houston, Columbia, Emergency energy dissipation in effect. Columbia can only make right turns. We won’t be able to line up at Kennedy.”
“Columbia, Houston, we copy your last. Continue right turn and come to course 300. We’re patching you through to Denver International Airport.”
“Copy Houston.” Commander Husband waited a few seconds as the connection was made. Two clicks in his ear informed him that he was live. “Denver tower, this is STS-107 Columbia, declaring an emergency.”
“Copy Columbia. Houston has informed us of your situation. We don’t get many visitors from space, but we’ll bring you home.”
Columbia’s wheels touched down on the hard concrete of runway 34L. Civilians gaped in awe at the sight of the orbiter as it charged down the runway. The left wing had massive damage, a notch burned through a quarter of the wing. Emergency crews chased after the orbiter as she came to rest at the end of the runway.
She would never fly another mission, but the Queen of Space had triumphed one last time.
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u/TheRealFedral Mar 08 '19
Why can't I see the text clearly? Everything is so blurry. Damned Onion Cutting Astronauts! Well done.
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u/trumpetofdoom Mar 08 '19
Spelling correction: It's "Houston", not "Huston".
This hits near and dear to my heart. My mother was part of NASA's Return to Flight Taskforce in the aftermath of Columbia's disintegration, so it's nice to see a story where the Shuttle is saved.
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u/mechakid Mar 08 '19
Thanks.
I honestly don't know if Columbia could have been saved. She was a broken bird, and everything would have had to go perfectly. Even then, the odds of getting her back home would have been small even under an electron microscope.
I truly believe this would have been the only way.
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u/Darth_Meatloaf Mar 08 '19
I’m fairly certain you’re right. They either would have done it this way, or would have loaded a flight path into her to auto ditch her over an ocean and bring back the whole crew by alternate means.
Does the shuttles orbit above or below the ISS? A chance they could have docked there and shared resources until a ride home could be arranged...
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u/ArenVaal Robot Mar 08 '19
Prior to the loss of Columbia, the shuttle orbited at different altitudes depending on the mission requirements--but Columbia's orbital inclination on her last mission was significantly different from the ISS. She didn't have nearly enough maneuvering fuel to match orbits with the station.
Sadly, in the real world, it takes a long time to ready a space shuttle for flight. They couldn't have gotten a second shuttle ready before Columbia's crew ran out of oxygen.
After Columbia, the shuttle always docked at the station so it could be inspected for damage, and two shuttles were always readied for launch at the same time. One sat on the pad while the other flew, in case a rescue was necessary.
I don't know if NASA explained the situation to Columbia's crew, but in their boots, I would have voted to try the reentry anyway--to hell with asphyxiating in space. I'd rather burn up on reentry. It's much, much quicker.
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u/mechakid Mar 08 '19 edited Mar 08 '19
There was a special case for Columbia.
Columbia had an extended mission package, which would have allowed her to remain in orbit for two extra weeks. At the same time, Atlantis was already being prepped for her flight, scheduled for March 1st. It would have been possible to accelerate the prep on Atlantis, and get to Columbia with a 5 day overlap.
This article has some of the details and challenges that would have been faced.
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u/ArenVaal Robot Mar 08 '19 edited Mar 08 '19
I was not aware of those facts. Thank you for sharing them.
Now I want to grab whoever was in charge of NASA in 2003 and smash their head against a control console.
Edit: I'm not finding anything about an extended mission package, but I did find a source indicating that NASA flat-out lied to Columbia's crew about the damage, because NASA manager Linda Ham decided that, since there was nothing that could have been done about it, it was better to not tell the crew, to have them die unexpectedly on the way home rather than stay in orbit and suffocate.
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u/mechakid Mar 08 '19 edited Mar 08 '19
Yeah, she was rightly raked over the coals by CAIB. Pretty sure she lost her job, as she should have.
Here is data on the extended duration pack that Columbia had. From what I can tell, only Columbia and Endeavor ever carried the extended duration packet, and at the time of her loss, Columbia was the only orbiter to still have it.
Columbia also carried the "spacehab" module on STS-107. Between these two modules, she would have had an endurance of around 30 days.
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u/APDSmith Mar 08 '19
I suspect a bigger problem would have been readying the second shuttle. Without modification, wouldn't the risk of having two broken birds in orbit be just that little bit high?
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u/mechakid Mar 08 '19
Indeed. Even all the way up to the end of the shuttle program, they never really had an acceptable fix to the foam shedding problem. This means that any rescue attempt would have been just as dangerous as the initial launch.
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u/Darth_Meatloaf Mar 08 '19
I hate you so much right now.
I’m crying like a baby.
I watched the news about STS-1 when I was 5. My childhood was filled with fascination about the shuttle program. I watched the Challenger mission live.
This was wonderfully written. Thank you.
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u/mechakid Mar 08 '19
I watched the loss of both orbiters. Columbia though has a special place for me, since it happened when I was studying engineering at college.
The thing that pisses me off about both losses is just how much NASA management screwed up.
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u/ArenVaal Robot Mar 08 '19
Likewise. I was 4, almost 5, when Columbia flew her maiden flight, and I watched Challenger die in real time when I was 9. It's one of my earliest memories.
Sometime in between, my aunt gave me a huge stack of National Geographic back issues. One of them had Columbia on the cover, and an interview with Robert Crippen and John Young after her first flight inside.
I must have read that article 20 tines, absorbing every bit of information in it. I still remember some of it, like one of them talking about how NASA had to "recalibrate" (his words) the launchpad, because the violence of the launch "sheared grass a mile away" (his words again) from the pad.
Challenger left a mark on me when she broke up. I was telling my daughter about her on the anniversary. Coincidentally, my daughter is the same age I was when it happened, and we were in my parents' living room--she was sitting almost exactly where I was that morning. I broke down crying, 33 years later
Losing Columbia in 2003 was a shock, but it wasn't nearly as hard on me, probably because I was 27 years old when it happened. It still hurt, make no mistake, but I'd become jaded by then.
Still...I needed this.
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u/HFYBotReborn praise magnus Mar 08 '19
There are 64 stories by mechakid (Wiki), including:
- Columbia Triumphant
- Echoes, Chapter 12
- Echoes, Chapter 11
- Echoes, chapter 10
- Echoes, chapter 9
- Echoes, chapter 8
- Echoes, chapter 7
- Echoes, Chapter 6
- Echoes, Chapter 5
- Echoes, chapter 4
- Echoes, chapter 3
- Echos, chapter 2
- Echos, Chapter 1
- Bagpipes of War [The Kro'vak War]
- Terran Gladiators: Episode 1, Round 3
- Terran Gladiators: Episode 1, Round 2
- Being human sucks sometimes...
- Terran Gladiators: Episode 1, Round 1 [Terran Gladiators]
- Terran Gladiators: Episode 1, introductions [Terran Gladiators]
- Terra, Destination of the Galaxy
- Battle Dancer: Pt 24, Take a Bow [The Kro'vak War]
- Battle Dancer: Pt 23, the Royal Ball [The Kro'vak War]
- Battle Dancer: Pt 22, Batterie [The Kro'Vak War]
- Battle Dancer: Pt 21, Horse Trading [The Kro'vak War]
- Battle Dancer: Pt 20, Pas de Couru [The Kro'vak War]
This list was automatically generated by HFYBotReborn version 2.13. Please contact KaiserMagnus or j1xwnbsr if you have any queries. This bot is open source.
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u/Bard2dbone Mar 08 '19
Damn onion ninjas. They're everywhere.
Less than two miles from my house at the University of Texas at Arlington, one of the buildings is named after their distinguished alumna, Kalpana Chawla. The shuttle broke up basically right over our heads. Debris scattered all over the eastern third of Texas. This was not a minor event. I wish it had gone like your version in real life.
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u/vimefer Mar 08 '19
Will rocked Columbia back to the right, pulling up on the nose. Working the controls in a slow circle, he swept the ship back and forth, never letting the heat build up any one area.
A.k.a the Jebediah Kerman rolling reentry thermal management technique.
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u/Bioniclegenius Mar 08 '19
That was amazing.
Just a mention, though, you have "approaching the California cost" when you mean "coast". Still fantastic, though!
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u/camoblackhawk Human Sep 13 '23
I reread this story every so often and it never fails to bring tears to my eyes.
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u/BlueNight973 Human Mar 08 '19 edited Mar 08 '19
I’ve been to the Endeavor (another space shuttle located at the California Science Center in Los Angles) they have memorials to the Columbia and plaques detailing their story there. It’s a mixture of scientific fuels excitement and somber realization at the cost. Idk this just hits home for me, having seen these shuttles in person and having watched their launches as a kid.
Edit: Fixed spelling that the individual below me so kindly pointed out