When We Left Earth_6of6_Home in Space
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00:00In 1969, a group of astronauts changed the world.
00:13They rode the biggest rocket ever built to the moon.
00:20It was the culmination of more than 10 years of space pioneering and the foundation for
00:27exploring worlds beyond our own.
00:34This is the story of our greatest adventure.
00:47NASA is in trouble.
00:53The multi-billion dollar Hubble Space Telescope is out of focus.
00:58Its power and guidance systems are failing, too.
01:02The public, Congress, I mean, across the board, you know, pictures of Hubble, the technoturkey,
01:09Hubble, one of history's great disasters.
01:13You know, I had neighbors come up to me and, you know, say, you have our sympathy for having
01:18to work on such a national disaster.
01:22People are under enormous pressure to fix it.
01:24If they can't, many fear the agency may not survive.
01:30NASA, if you are unable to meet mission objectives, then there's a good chance that future funding
01:36and support is going to be very difficult to come by.
01:40The future of the space agency is riding on one of the most daring missions ever attempted.
01:46Let's go to work.
01:51NASA assembles a highly experienced crew.
01:55Their training is the most intense for any astronaut since the Apollo flights.
02:02Story Musgrave leads the repair team.
02:05My part was to understand the mechanics down here on Earth and translate them into work
02:11up there.
02:13Musgrave's partner is EVA specialist Jeff Hoffman.
02:17It was the most complex spacewalking mission that NASA had ever undertaken.
02:26It will take five extended EVAs to correct the space telescope's vision.
02:31We couldn't afford unexpected events in the Hubble mission.
02:35It was just too important and too critical that it be done right.
02:39It's hard to hold back good people.
02:41And I can guarantee you the folks that I had on this team, I mean, there was no stopping
02:45them.
02:46The expectation was huge.
02:49The repair mission was very, very high profile.
02:57This is Shuttle Launch Control at T-minus three hours and holding.
03:01We're standing by for live video of the crew donning their flight suits in the crew quarters,
03:06which is located in the Operations and Checkout Building.
03:10This is Kathy Thornton's third shuttle flight and Jeff Hoffman's fourth.
03:15Flight Specialist Jeff Hoffman, his pilot, Ken Bauer socks.
03:25The head of NASA delivers a personal message to the crew.
03:30The message we got, guys, NASA's future is on the line and you're responsible.
03:36You know, what do you say after that, yes sir.
03:40Ten, nine, and we have a go for main engine start, five, four, three, two, one, and we
03:51have liftoff.
03:52Liftoff of the space shuttle Endeavour on an ambitious mission to service the Hubble
04:06I was extremely excited to be able to go up and be one of the people who was going to
04:17rescue Hubble from this disaster.
04:31To rendezvous with Hubble, Endeavour will circle the Earth 16 times a day, raising its
04:37altitude on each orbit.
04:39Hubble is 370 miles above the Earth.
04:43It's the highest the space shuttle can fly, double its normal altitude.
04:52Traveling at 17,500 miles an hour, it takes Endeavour two days to catch up to the space
04:58telescope.
04:59The first view that we get of Hubble is just a point of light, you know, off in the distance.
05:10And in every orbit, it gets brighter and brighter.
05:14I like to use binoculars up there, so I put the binoculars, oh wow, I can really pick
05:19up the solar panels.
05:22Now it's getting bigger and bigger.
05:24Wow, that is big.
05:34Hubble is more than 40 feet long and 14 feet wide, with a mass of 24,000 pounds.
05:43Mission specialist Claude Nicollier extends the shuttle's robotic arm and plucks the massive
05:50telescope out of the sky.
05:51And Endeavour has a firm handshake with Mr. Hubble's telescope.
05:52We copy that, Covey, and there are smiles galore down here.
05:53It's quite a sight.
05:54Great work up there, you guys.
05:55It only gets harder from here.
05:56The repair schedule demands an extended spacewalk every day for the next five days.
05:57Hoffman and Musgrave suit up in the airlock before venturing out into the vacuum of space.
06:25Getting ready for a spacewalk takes a lot of time.
06:29Space is a very, very unforgiving environment.
06:34It's unforgiving of mechanical failures.
06:37It's unforgiving of human error.
06:38I mean, if your space suit springs a leak, you can have a very bad day.
06:44They close the inner airlock hatch, and it's just story and me on our own.
06:52And we're ready to go to work.
06:55You know, it's showtime.
06:57Okay, it's daylight outside, so you might want to put your visors down.
07:02You're walking out of the tunnel onto the playing field.
07:06I think that's the best way I can put it.
07:07You're on the playing field.
07:09As I looked around the team in mission control, there were some locked jaws.
07:14There were some people who were kind of tense.
07:16I mean, you could tell.
07:17I mean, they had their game face on.
07:19You are expected to do certain things.
07:21You've got requirements put on you.
07:23You're not understanding.
07:24You're not expected.
07:26You're doing it.
07:32The first spacewalk targets Hubble's faulty guidance system.
07:36The telescope has six gyroscopes.
07:39Four need to be replaced.
07:41So we have to open up these big doors,
07:46and then Story would actually insert himself underneath the gyroscopes.
07:53It was a fairly tight space.
07:57I could not get in up under there and then move.
08:00There was no room.
08:02And Jeff took me by the boots and he fed me up inside the telescope.
08:08You have to be very careful of debris, contamination.
08:13So there's a lot of constraints on what we're doing.
08:20Some hell or high water.
08:22We had to go get this done.
08:23I did not want to do that first spacewalk and leave anything undone.
08:27And I was basically beating the drum.
08:29You know, let's keep it up. Let's keep going.
08:32Two hours later, the first repair is a success.
08:36Is that Ray Houston?
08:37Go ahead.
08:38Not to get you spun up, but we have six good gyros on the telescope.
08:43All that remained was to close the door.
08:45We had done it, I don't know how many times, in the water.
08:49Nobody had ever thought about having problems with the doors.
08:58Oh.
09:00Now we're in trouble.
09:03Sorry.
09:04Correct.
09:08It's not closing. The doors aren't closing right.
09:10Let's try to get the bottom.
09:12I can't confirm that it really engages.
09:20I could get either the bottom or the top latch closed, but not both.
09:24The bottom is engaged.
09:28I think we got the door closed.
09:30If you can't get the doors closed, you've lost the thermal control and you might have lag leaks.
09:35You basically run a risk of losing the telescope.
09:38Well, you can't leave Hubble up there with open doors. That would be a disaster.
09:42It's a very tense moment, and I think my mind kind of blanks it out.
09:52Don't do it yet.
09:56On each orbit of the Earth, Hoffman and Musgrave pass from daylight into darkness every 45 minutes.
10:04Working in extremes of hot and cold,
10:07they wrestle with a few inexpensive latches that could ruin a multi-million dollar rescue.
10:13Finally, Story and I came up with the idea that if we took a ratcheting strap,
10:19basically to exert the pressure on his bottom part of the door,
10:24he could do that with one hand and hold on and work the latch with the other hand.
10:28But the ratcheting straps could do more harm than good.
10:32The problem was you can exert about 2,000 pounds of force with these things,
10:37enough to crush Hubble.
10:40The team on the ground was conflicted on whether what Story was going to do would be safe or not.
10:46I think they had visions of Hubble collapsing like an aluminum beer can.
10:51Mission control can abandon the spacewalk
10:55or allow the astronauts to improvise on the world's most expensive telescope.
11:02It intends to work the striker plate fluid.
11:06I thought, well, here we go.
11:08We're going to start talking about this and we're going to get behind.
11:11So I made a decision to go ahead and say we're going to do what Story wants to do.
11:15You want to go to do that, Tom?
11:18So putting the come-along on, Jeff up top and me in the bottom.
11:21We held the doors in alignment.
11:26And then I just moved the handle.
11:29So the top is straight.
11:31All right.
11:33Good job, guys.
11:34Story, if you want to grab the PRD and get the TA.
11:37Well, let's move the PRD around.
11:39There's no letup for the crew.
11:41Kathy Thornton prepares for the second EVA.
11:45These were jam-packed spacewalks.
11:48We had a lot we had to get done.
11:50And they were choreographed very precisely.
11:55Hubble's solar panels need to be upgraded.
11:59Thornton has to retract and remove them, then install new ones.
12:05But Hubble isn't cooperating.
12:11One of them did not come all the way in.
12:14We decided we would take it off and throw it away.
12:22I was to hold on to it on the end of the arm until sunrise.
12:25So after we let it go, we would see where it went and be sure we were separating from it.
12:30Once again, they're improvising.
12:33If the release goes wrong, the massive solar panel could smash into the telescope or the orbiter.
12:40When the time came to jettison it...
12:43You ready?
12:44Yeah, I'm ready.
12:45Okay, they say you got to go for release.
12:47All I did was just let go.
12:51Okay, no hands.
12:55Okay.
13:01Claude pulled me back on the arm.
13:04There it goes.
13:06Bye-bye.
13:11Pilot Ken Bowersox fires the shuttle's thrusters to make sure they're clear of the solar panel.
13:19And when that happened, the plume from the orbiter hit the solar array.
13:26The solar array started flapping.
13:32It's good that it's flapping now, huh?
13:35To me, it was like the wings of a gigantic prehistoric bird.
13:39I was awestruck.
13:41It was beautiful. I had the best view in the world on that.
13:49The old solar panel will continue to orbit for years,
13:55slowly dropping toward Earth until it burns up in the atmosphere.
14:00Thornton installs the new solar panels, completing her EVA.
14:05So far, the decision to perform back-to-back spacewalks is working.
14:11As each spacewalk was completed,
14:14as each spacewalk was completed,
14:17little grins began to show up in mission control,
14:21which was kind of cool.
14:24But the next two EVAs are the most critical.
14:28The team will install two huge devices to correct Hubble's vision.
14:34The first is a new super camera, the size of a grand piano called WFPC.
14:40It can see to the end of the universe
14:43and is designed to adjust for Hubble's faulty opticals.
14:48The process of installing WFPC is very, very delicate.
14:52This is a very sensitive optical instrument.
14:55You know, I'm holding on to it.
14:57I'd bang the instrument. I could misalign the optics.
15:01Okay.
15:03Looks like it's in there.
15:04Yeah.
15:05Okay. Are you ready for me to let go?
15:09Mission control runs tests to confirm the camera is working.
15:15We checked all this stuff out as we repaired it.
15:19We ran what we call a liveness check.
15:22They just told us, you're just going to have to wait for a few minutes.
15:28The first signs are good.
15:30The electronics are responding.
15:34On the next EVA, Kathy Thornton installs the most critical optical device called COSTAR.
15:40It redirects the light coming into Hubble to compensate for the flaw in its main mirror.
15:46It just slid right in there, just as smooth as it could be.
15:49And it was incredible.
15:54And it was like, this can't be happening.
15:56I must be dreaming this.
15:57Nothing's going wrong.
15:59This can't be Hubble.
16:02The astronauts complete the most complex repair mission in history.
16:10People have been wondering for years whether we could actually do this mission.
16:17What we had set out to do, we had accomplished.
16:20And boy, it's an incredible feeling.
16:27Hubble can now begin to gaze deep into the universe in perfect focus.
16:33We've done our part.
16:34Now it's going to be up to the astronomers and the scientists to do their part.
16:38I can say unequivocally that if it weren't for the human space program,
16:42Hubble would be a piece of orbiting space junk.
16:47It's really hard to imagine how different the space agency would probably be now
16:53if we hadn't been able to fix Hubble.
16:59Hubble's rescue has saved NASA's reputation.
17:03Now it has the confidence to embark on the most ambitious construction project ever attempted,
17:09the International Space Station.
17:12Hubble showed us that we can do a number of spacewalks during a mission.
17:17We can do more than one at a time.
17:18We can do them back to back.
17:19We can do them with two different crews.
17:21And Hubble was probably the starter,
17:23giving us that extra confidence to go assemble space station.
17:26And so bring it on.
17:43NASA is building the first city in space.
17:48It lays the foundation for a base of operations on the moon and missions to Mars.
17:55Old rivals in the space race pool their resources
18:00for a project too enormous for any one country alone.
18:04The Russians had a long history of long-duration flight under their belt.
18:08We did not.
18:09And so we hope to learn some of the things from the Russians.
18:12U.S. astronauts must learn to fly their rockets
18:16and work with totally different space technology.
18:19I'd look across the table at one of my classmates
18:22who was, say, a fighter pilot in the Russian Air Force.
18:26And we trained just several years prior to shoot each other down.
18:33Now the level of cooperation is unprecedented.
18:37Interlocking components are being built on different sides of the world.
18:43Every measurement requires extraordinary precision.
18:49It's very difficult to build pieces of hardware,
18:52modules, capsules, space shuttles in different parts of the world
18:56and then have them meet for the very first time on orbit.
19:00In November 1998, a Russian rocket blasts off
19:04with the first section of the space station, weighing 21 tons.
19:14One month later, the shuttle Endeavour carries up the first section
19:18built by NASA, called Unity.
19:21Endeavour carries up the first section built by NASA, called Unity.
19:47250 miles above the Earth,
19:50mission specialist Nancy Curry uses the shuttle's robotic arm
19:54to bring the two sections together.
19:57It's the first time they've ever been connected.
20:02Houston, Endeavour, we have capture of Zarya.
20:07But the space station has a long way to go.
20:13It's just a 30-ton metal shell.
20:17Pilot Scott Altman's crew carries up fixtures for the interior
20:21to turn it into a home for astronauts.
20:26First, they have to rendezvous and dock
20:29with the rapidly expanding space station.
20:36It starts out a point of light in the distance
20:39and you think, it's another star.
20:41It doesn't look any different than everything else that's out there.
20:44But as you get closer and closer, you start to be able to break out detail
20:48and you realize it's a place.
20:53The space station is already the size of a 10-story building.
20:57Docking the shuttle is too precise a maneuver for its automatic pilot.
21:02It takes an astronaut's skill.
21:06Everything is going so slow, it seems like for a while,
21:09but the gains go up and it feels like the speed goes up,
21:12your heart rate goes up as you're coming in close
21:15and critical firings until you get that final contact
21:18and the two vehicles kind of brush into each other
21:21and you see one of your crewmates call, contact.
21:26Houston, we have a capture light.
21:31Altman and his crew outfit the space station's interior.
21:36We were like the finished carpenters for a house
21:39where you go up and you do all the final work to make it ready for human habitation.
21:43We ran electrical lines, we turned on the lights,
21:46I installed the toilet, very glamorous things like that.
21:52When complete, there will be 15 pressurized modules for living and working
21:57and an observation area with seven large windows.
22:02On the shuttle's next mission,
22:04Mike Lopez-Alegria test drives a jet pack
22:07that will enable residents to work safely outside the station.
22:14You open the hatch and the planet Earth is going by your feet at five miles a second.
22:22In the middle of a spacewalk,
22:24flying around at 17,500 miles an hour or 28,000 kilometers an hour
22:30and let go of the spacecraft and just fly along with it,
22:37it's beautiful.
22:48With no sensation of speed in the vacuum of space,
22:52Mike LA drifts away from the shuttle 250 miles above the Florida Keys.
22:58I think the first instinct is amazing, massive, yet fragile.
23:04The thing that you're flying around, that's where you just came from.
23:08That's where everything that you know about, that you've ever experienced, all lives.
23:13And you're not there anymore.
23:18The jet pack is a success.
23:20It shows how far the art of spacewalking has come
23:24since Ed White and Gene Cernan first left their Gemini capsules.
23:29Today I watch these kids flying EVAs and they get out there.
23:32That's part of their repertoire.
23:34They'll do it five, six, seven hours at a time.
23:37I was just glad to get 20 minutes.
23:47Just two weeks after Mike LA's extraordinary spacewalk,
23:51astronaut Bill Shepard and two Russian cosmonauts prepare for the next mission.
23:57They will be the first crew to live long-term on the space station.
24:13The Soyuz spacecraft has none of the comforts of the shuttle.
24:17Unlike the shuttle, it can only fly once.
24:25Every day in orbit they fly the distance of a trip to the Moon.
24:34The International Space Station is starting to take shape inside and out.
24:39Projected to cost 157 billion dollars,
24:42it's the most expensive object ever built by man.
24:48A new crew takes up residence every three to four months.
24:52Each brings more building blocks and more supplies.
24:59There's stuff everywhere.
25:00There are experiments on laptops and tethers and electrical cords and Velcro patches.
25:06A wonderful place to live and work.
25:10Throughout 2002, the pace of construction speeds up.
25:14Commander Ken Bowersox and his crew will install a central truss.
25:18It's the foundation for all future expansion of the space station.
25:23Now it's real.
25:24It's not just training anymore.
25:26This is a real mission.
25:27It's a real flight.
25:297, 6, go for main engine start.
25:34That's the preliminary signal that something really great is about to happen.
25:38But the best one is when the solid rocket boosters light.
25:45You feel this kick in your back that the vehicle has jumped off the pad.
25:54Liftoff of Space Shuttle Adepto,
25:56another building block for the foundation of the International Space Station.
26:02And off you go into space.
26:09Welcome to station.
26:12Welcome to station.
26:14Good to hear you.
26:15Great job. Congratulations.
26:17Thank you.
26:18Very nice talking with you.
26:20Beautiful.
26:21Good to hear you.
26:24Come in.
26:25All right.
26:27Let's go in.
26:36Bowersox and his crew load in their gear and supplies.
26:41The current crew will head home on the same shuttle.
26:45This is a very important day in the life of the station
26:48and in the lives of all the crew members here.
26:53The Expedition 5 crew has done tremendous work.
26:56I only hope that my crew, Don, Nikolai and I will be able to work as well
27:02over the next however many months we end up living on station.
27:08Hopefully more than four.
27:10When Endeavour leaves, the Bowersox crew is alone in space
27:13until the next shuttle arrives to take them home.
27:17Houston, physical separation.
27:22Endeavour departing.
27:24We wish you a safe landing.
27:28Endeavour, Houston, you are on glide slope on center line.
27:32Roger.
27:40One thousand miles now.
27:42We're at 34 feet.
27:49Main gear touchdown.
27:55We're rolling out on Runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center,
27:58wrapping up a 5.7 million mile mission,
28:01bringing home the Expedition 5 crew after more than a half year in space.
28:09With Ken Bowersox on the space station,
28:112003 is scheduled to be the shuttle's busiest year yet.
28:16But first, Columbia flies a special science mission.
28:20Unlike the majority of space shuttle missions now,
28:23which are space station assembly,
28:25where they're doing essentially heavy construction,
28:27Columbia STS-107 mission was a dedicated science mission.
28:32Laurel Clark, mission specialist, on her first flight.
28:37I'd seen other shuttle launches, but it was a personal launch,
28:40because my wife was on it.
28:44A few days before launch, Laurel Clark makes a home movie for their son, Ian.
28:49Say hi.
28:50Hi, Ian Blair. I love you. I'll see you soon. It won't be that long.
28:54Here you can actually see Columbia on the side of the vehicle.
28:57Well, Laurel's role on this mission was a mission specialist,
29:00and their job is basically to run the experiments.
29:03They're streaming past the commander and the pilot.
29:08Whoever else is watching this, this is the external tank back here.
29:12The main engines are way down.
29:14You can't see them, but that's where the lines go into.
29:16Oh, my gosh.
29:20Columbia's commander is Rick Husband.
29:23The commander's role is to be the leader of the crew,
29:26but it's also one that facilitates the cohesion of the group.
29:30And our astronaut's coming out now.
29:32I talked to him on the phone the morning of the mission, and he was very excited.
29:37The weather was absolutely beautiful and perfect.
29:40Commander Rick Husband and Mission Specialist Laurel Clark.
29:44And you can see Husband climbing in somewhat difficult, cramped quarters there.
29:53David Brown and Laurel Clark as they await their turn to get on the vehicle.
29:57Welcome aboard, Rick.
29:58Thank you very much. Good morning, gentlemen.
30:01Nine, eight, seven.
30:03We're going to go to manage and start.
30:05Five, four, three, two, one.
30:10We have booster ignition and liftoff of Space Shuttle Columbia
30:14with a multitude of national and international space research experiments.
30:19Houston now controlling the flight of Columbia,
30:21and the international research mission finally underway.
30:25Roger, roll, Columbia.
30:27I was not nearly as anxious watching Rick launch into space the second time
30:31because it was an experience I had already had,
30:34but I was very keenly aware at the exact moment when Challenger broke apart.
30:39Columbia, Houston, you're go at the throttle up.
30:45You know, that time frame is forever embedded in people's memories.
30:49The throttle up call acknowledged by Commander Rick Husband.
30:52And even now there's a sense of relief when you get past that point,
30:55but people need to understand that spaceflight is a risky business.
31:03That's approved.
31:05On staging.
31:19I was very excited for Rick and also knew that he would orbit the Earth
31:22at least once before we would get back to our hotel.
31:31The entire cargo bay is filled with one large work area,
31:35outfitted as a laboratory in space.
31:38STS-107 will conduct over 30 basic experiments only possible in space.
31:46The mission was a science mission.
31:48They had the Earth science and the physical science and they had life sciences,
31:53growing cells and testing various things on them.
31:59My wife's involvement was with the cancer cell growth.
32:05Each of the crew that had one of these experiments to be responsible for,
32:09I was very excited about that.
32:21I'm in a unique position because I work both as a flight surgeon and as a spouse.
32:26One week before the landing I worked a shift on Saturday morning
32:30and I remember going through the log books and seeing all these concerns about a foam strike.
32:40It's standard procedure to film every shuttle launch with high-speed cameras.
32:53Two cameras picked up images that looked very suspicious.
32:57There was an object that came off.
32:59The vehicle struck it and there was a plume that was generated.
33:07Some people said, oh, it's probably just foam.
33:10How bad is foam? It wouldn't be that much of a concern.
33:15Much like you hit a styrofoam block on the highway.
33:20The crew is told the foam strike is not a cause for concern.
33:24Life goes on aboard Columbia.
33:28Orbiting 100 miles above them,
33:30Ken Bowersox is entering his 14th week living on the International Space Station.
33:36We'd already been there a couple months.
33:39The atmosphere got very quiet aboard the station
33:42because you could tell that the ground was focusing on Columbia
33:46and not really thinking as much about the space station.
33:52We knew that as soon as Columbia was finished,
33:55the spotlight was going to swing back to space station
33:58and things were going to get very busy as we prepared for the next few weeks
34:02for the upcoming shuttle flight that was supposed to bring us home.
34:15We did have one chance to make radio contact with the Columbia crew
34:20and that was really great.
34:22We were able to talk with the crew that was up at the time.
34:25That was Rick Husband and Laurel Clark.
34:28We were talking business and science experiments
34:30and Laurel said, we don't want to talk about that.
34:32Let's talk about families. How are they doing?
34:37After 16 days in space,
34:39the crew on Columbia finishes up their experiments and prepares to come home.
34:44The mission had been an incredible success.
34:47They had achieved every experiment, every task that had been given them.
34:51Everything went extremely well.
34:54So we're incredibly proud of them, very excited.
34:57We're showing cells on PJ-1-19.
35:00Once we get all those done with the orbit prep.
35:03Hey Rick, thanks for that tag up and we concur with all.
35:07It takes a lot of time to get the space shuttle ready to come down.
35:10There's a three-hour time period after we first wake up
35:13that's just involved with housekeeping, cleaning up everything,
35:16having breakfast, having some coffee and all of those kinds of things.
35:19Meanwhile, you're hoping that the weather down at your landing site
35:23is going to be suitable to let you come in and land that day.
35:31For every launch and every landing,
35:33we fly the T-38 and just check real time with the weather
35:37so that they know, here's what you can expect for a landing.
35:42The good news about this flight was that the landing and the launch
35:45were at reasonable times.
35:48Columbia, Houston. Good burn. No trim required.
35:52Leroy Cain is the flight director in mission control.
35:56No problem.
35:59You want the whole thing or just the jet?
36:02Inside Columbia, Laurel Clark films the crew
36:05as the orbiter slows down for re-entry.
36:09So you're going to hit the air going 17,500 miles an hour.
36:17You cannot believe the speed out the window.
36:22It's fantastically fast.
36:24You cannot have a bumpy ride in this shuttle.
36:26It cannot do that. It'll lose control.
36:28See, the shuttle cannot be bumpy.
36:30Just go ahead and make sure you check your seat pressure integrity too.
36:34I don't have my gloves on yet.
36:37And you can tell when you start hitting the Earth's atmosphere
36:41because you'll start to see a little bit of a glow outside your window.
36:45It's white hot outside. It's just as bright as day.
36:49And the air outside is 9,000 degrees.
36:53Well, that's hotter than the surface of the sun.
36:55Peak temperatures last about 10 minutes.
36:59Unlike earlier NASA spacecraft,
37:01satellites relay communications to the ground
37:04so the shuttle doesn't experience radio blackout during re-entry.
37:09And as the clock counted down the minutes,
37:12we began to anticipate what direction the shuttle was going.
37:17And we were able to get a pretty good idea of where it was going.
37:22We began to anticipate what direction the shuttle was going to land.
37:26Columbia is right on track toward a landing at the Kennedy Space Center
37:29at 816 a.m. Central.
37:32There's actually a lot of just, you know, excitement
37:35and gosh, we can hardly wait to be with our loved ones.
37:45Houston, we'll get to 304 in five minutes.
37:48We're ready for Ops 304.
37:52Ops 304
37:57Everything appears routine
38:00until about 17 minutes before landing.
38:07ECOM.
38:08FYI, I've just lost four separate temperature transducers
38:13on the left side of the vehicle.
38:15Hydraulic return temperature.
38:17And then all of a sudden you're getting
38:19communication that I'd never heard before.
38:21And Columbia, Houston, we see your tire pressure messages
38:24and we did not...
38:25Is it instrumentation, Max?
38:33I knew right away there was something unusual about it.
38:36The communication that said the tire pressure alarm had gone off.
38:39Flight, ECOM.
38:40ECOM.
38:41I've got four temperature sensors on the bottom line data that are all scale O.
38:46We train for low tire pressure
38:48over and over again in the simulators.
38:50We train for these contingencies.
38:54Columbia, Houston, UHF comm check.
38:59Then the CAPCOM trying to call the shuttle
39:03and all you heard was comm check, comm check.
39:06Columbia, Houston, comm check.
39:09Flight final.
39:10Go.
39:12Twelve and a half minutes to touchdown
39:14according to clocks and mission control.
39:17And I remember watching the clock count down to zero.
39:21There was no sonic boom.
39:24No landing.
39:25And we all stood there in absolute sickening, surreal silence
39:30knowing that something was wrong.
39:33Flight, I'd like to stay where we're at.
39:37I see them go erratic for a little bit before they went away
39:39so I do believe it's instrumentation.
39:41Okay.
39:43Flight, when are you expecting tracking?
39:45One minute to go, flight.
39:48You know, I can remember just getting that kind of shaking oh no feeling.
39:54But also the first thing that went through my mind
39:57was, you know, a flashback to Challenger.
40:01We do not have any balance data.
40:07Okay.
40:08Okay.
40:13I had a key to the flight surgeon office and I turned the TV on
40:18and of course there was a Dallas TV station that had video footage
40:22I mean almost instantly.
40:27And you can see the streak and then multiple streaks
40:30and then like a starburst.
40:38Okay, no more false hope, no more wishful thinking.
40:42This is over.
40:53GC, flight.
40:55Flight, GC.
40:56Lock the doors.
40:57Copy.
40:58No phone calls, off-site, outside of this room.
41:02Our discussions are on these loops, on the recorded DVS loops only.
41:08NASA's investigation concludes the phone strike is the cause.
41:14Wreckage from Columbia is found in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas.
41:21NASA's investigation concludes the phone strike is the cause.
41:31It knocked a hole in it as big as a bowling ball.
41:36The only thing that would have saved Columbia
41:39is someone looking at the strike and saying something got hurt.
41:44For 16 days they stayed in space going around and around
41:48with this huge hole in their wing.
41:51These people had no chance.
41:55The shuttle is grounded during NASA's investigation.
41:59Ken Bowersox and his crew remain on the space station
42:02until the Russians can launch a rescue mission.
42:07We needed to come home aboard a Russian Soyuz space capsule
42:11rather than coming home aboard the shuttle.
42:14The hardest thing was the physical part of grieving.
42:17It just takes a while to work through everything that you need to work through.
42:21It's two and a half years before the shuttle returns to space.
42:27Eileen Collins is the commander of Discovery for STS-114.
42:33This is shuttle launch control where we see the STS-114 astronauts.
42:37We lost seven of our dear friends.
42:39Terrible tragedy. It's very hard for me to go back and relive it.
42:43It's a terrible tragedy.
42:45We lost seven of our dear friends.
42:47Terrible tragedy. It's very hard for me to go back and relive it.
42:52Some people said, we don't want to risk astronauts' lives anymore.
42:55We need to stop doing this.
42:57The astronauts don't feel that way.
42:59On behalf of the many millions of people who believe so deeply in what we do,
43:02good luck, Godspeed, and have a little fun out there.
43:06We fly for our country. We fly for humanity.
43:09We fly for exploration. We fly for a variety of reasons.
43:12And we don't stop flying because we have accidents.
43:15Liftoff of Space Shuttle Discovery, beginning America's new journey to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
43:46The Columbia disaster adds a new procedure to the shuttle flight plan.
43:54Discovery flips 360 degrees, allowing the crew and the space station to inspect for damaged tiles.
44:03I did think about the Columbia crew.
44:06Every single day, we flew their crew picture on our flight deck during the mission.
44:11With the shuttle flying again, the space station can fulfill its original promise, a city in space.
44:18I'm really, really excited about completing the International Space Station because it's a fabulous place.
44:25And it is a huge stepping stone to going back to the Moon for a long duration and then on to Mars.
44:32We have learned so much about our space environment by flying the shuttle.
44:37And now it's time to go farther.
44:42But those are journeys for the future.
44:47When we left Earth, it changed our world.
44:52It's a legacy of small steps and great adventure.
45:00From the first attempts to send rockets beyond the bounds of Earth's atmosphere to the selection of the first astronauts.
45:08Ladies and gentlemen, these are the nation's Mercury astronauts.
45:15I think now I really see how complex their job really was and how brave they were.
45:22Either that or they were crazy.
45:24Project Mercury proves astronauts can survive riding a rocket into the vacuum of space.
45:31But those small steps are only the beginning.
45:34We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things.
45:38Not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
45:44In Project Gemini, each mission tackles another critical procedure from the Apollo flight plan.
45:53Astronauts learn how to fly to the Moon.
45:56By the time we finished the Gemini program, we had a solid foundation in technology now to take the step and go to the Moon.
46:07To get there, three men ride a rocket the size of a skyscraper.
46:13It's the most powerful machine ever built.
46:16We just hoped it wouldn't blow up.
46:19Okay, guys, it's now time to get down to business.
46:22We're about ready to land on a man in the Moon.
46:27The descent was very tricky business.
46:33We copy you down, Eagle.
46:35Technology base here, the Eagle has landed.
46:38You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again.
46:43Oh, spectacular. Just spectacular.
46:46Just 12 astronauts walk on the surface of the Moon.
46:50This is going to be a good day, Charlie.
46:53I'm going to be out of breath.
46:54Just a little bit.
46:56Just a little bit.
46:58Just a little bit.
46:59...as 12 astronauts walk on the surface of the Moon.
47:03This is going to be a good day, Charlie.
47:06And here we go.
47:14From the dawn of the space age...
47:16...pioneers on rockets explore new frontiers...
47:20...and fulfill the age-old dream of traveling to other worlds.
47:26Curiosity is the essence of human existence.
47:32It brings about innovation, imagination.
47:36It stimulates the entire society.
47:39Roger roll, Discovery.
47:40It's something almost inherent in us, I believe, to explore.
47:43And that's what the space program's about.
47:49Our space was to raise our aspirations...
47:53...to those things that are possible if we will commit.
48:00The most important thing that we have to pass on to our younger people...
48:03...is that the word impossible doesn't exist.
48:08Given the desire to do it, humans can accomplish almost anything.
48:14We have to continue to move forward.
48:16To stop in space is to surrender.
48:23NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology