SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA DISASTER Seham Binouf Ibrahim
ID: 201210112 Study program: (BSEEE)
Email:
201310112@agu.ae.ac Asmae Bornak
ID: 201310299 Study program: (BSCSE)
Email:
201310299@agu.ae.ac Alaa Samir Halawani
ID: 201310036 Study program :( BSEEE)
Email:
201310036@agu.ae.ac
1. ABSTRACT:
This project is written to discuss the physical reasons and the ethics behind the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia and its seven crew.
2. INTRODUCTION On 16th of January 2003, the Columbia STS-107 mission lifted off. This science mission planned for 16 days in order to feature numerous microgravity experiments . On 1st of February 2003, after reentering the earth atmosphere the space shuttle suffered a calamitous
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Therefore, as NASA knew that the foam was falling off and causing damages, it should had corrected this fault and designed better thermal insulation, instead of misrepresenting that error by assuming that it is a normal phenomena. On the other hand, NASA didn’t find out the mechanisms that caused the foam to shed off. Instead, they assumed that it was an installation mistake from Michoud Assembly Facility employees. NASA blamed them for the Columbia disaster and retrained them. However, in December 2005, x-ray photographs showed that thermal expansion and contraction during filling of the foam tank, caused cracks that led to foam shedding. So, it was not a human error rather than a design error. Although NASA apologized formally to them, they violated the code of ethics which states that “Engineers shouldn’t attempt to injure, falsely or maliciously the professional reputation, practice, prospects, or employment of other