The NASA Columbia Space Shuttle crashed on February 1, 2003 during its return to Earth after spending 2 weeks in space. The astronauts were preparing for re-entry when communication was suddenly cut off and there was an explosion in the shuttle. One of the astronauts, Kalpana Chawla, was born in India and faced challenges in pursuing her career in aeronautical engineering due to societal pressures. Despite these obstacles, she became the first South Asian-American woman to go to space and conducted experiments in microgravity. The catastrophic event caused the shuttle's loss of 7 lives and led to a 2.5-year suspension of the space shuttle program. NASA has recognized Chawla's contributions to science education and has named an asteroid in the solar system after her.
In this section of the video, it is discussed how the NASA Columbia Space Shuttle crashed on 1st February, 2003 while returning to Earth after spending 2 weeks in space. The astronauts were waiting for their loved ones, but for NASA, it was a routine flight as this was the 28th flight of the Space Mission Columbia program. During the entry, space shuttle re-entered Earth's atmosphere and everything seemed normal, but minutes later, the mission commander Rick Husband's answer was cut off. Charlie Hobaugh, the Capsule Communicator, tried to establish communication again but there was no answer. Ten minutes later, the NASA team in the Space Center became aware that there was an explosion in the Columbia Space Shuttle. The video then discusses the background of Kalpana Chawla, one of the astronauts on the shuttle. She was born in Karnal, Haryana, in a conservative family and faced struggles with society, particularly with the preference for male children in India. Despite this, she developed an interest in space and pursued a career in aeronautical engineering.
In this section of the video, the story of Kalpana Chawla, an Indian-American astronaut who became the first South Asian-American woman to go to space, is discussed. Chawla's journey began in India, where her father was disapproving of her decision to study abroad. Despite this, she pursued a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado and later worked at NASA's Ames Research Center as a Specialist in Fluid Dynamics Aircraft. After 3 years of training, Chawla went on her first flight into space on the Columbia program flight STS-87, where she orbits the Earth more than 250 times and remained in space for 2 weeks. Despite a minor setback on her first flight, Chawla became the first Indian-American woman to go into space and remained the only woman to have died in a NASA space mission.
In this section of the video, NASA's Columbia Space Disaster is discussed, and the crew of the mission is introduced. The Payload Commander, Michael Anderson, was one of three Mission Specialists, including Kalpana Chawla, who was focusing on microgravity experiments. The Pilots were William McCool and Ilan Ramon. The mission involved conducting experiments for 24 hours in a non-stop fashion, which meant working in shifts. There were around 80 experiments carried out over 16 days in life sciences, material science, and fluid physics. Kalpana Chawla's experiments were focused on combustion, crystal growth, and prostate cancer in space. Interestingly, cells grow in 3D shapes in space as opposed to 2D mono-layers in culture dishes on Earth, which helped researchers better understand tumor behavior, including cancer cell growth and prostate cancer in space. The experiments both valuable and plentiful knowledge to scientific research. The video also highlights the fact that the spider, silkworms, organic crystals, fishes, bees, ants experiments were conducted to understand how these species react to space. The smell of flowers changes in space due to data being constantly transmitted to Earth, which was recorded and sent back to children who had chosen the experiments. However, over 40 experiments did not provide any data due to the disaster. It is also noted that data has become increasingly important today and is often used to track individuals online. The best way to protect oneself from online tracking is through the use of a VPN, with NordVPN being one of the best options. The video also reveals that a live roundworm colony survived the disaster with minor heat damage and were kept in aluminum canisters. The broken pieces of the spaceship, which were recovered among them were 5-6 cans, and in whose Petri dishes these roundworms were still alive. The second last mission of the STS program, Space Shuttle Endeavour, had descendants of these roundworms sent on that mission. However, the major question is what caused the disaster? None of the seven astronauts made any mistake, and even three to four minutes before the accident, none of them had any idea about what was going to happen, so the video explains the tragic event, but the question is what was the reason behind it?
In this section, the excerpt discusses the events leading up to and during the NASA Columbia Space Disaster in 2003. It is revealed that NASA was aware of a problem with the shuttle's backup flight software a minute before it lost communication with Earth. This problem was with four wheels on the left side of the space shuttle losing pressure, which caused a warning message to be displayed on the CAPCOM's display. However, NASA failed to use their available resources such as spy satellites to investigate the damage caused to the shuttle. The report released by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) in August 2003 noted that NASA's human spaceflight chief William Readdy's failure to use spy satellites to monitor the damage caused to the shuttle. The CAIB also highlighted that the small piece of foam that hit the left wing with a high velocity caused a significant portion of the spacecraft to be exposed to external fire and gases, leading to the tragic loss of 7 lives. The report also noted that such foam strikes happen regularly during space shuttle launches, but the problematic part about this foam strike was that it happened at the wrong time and place. However, the investigation concluded that it was not survivable by any currently existing capability. After the incident, NASA stopped the space shuttle program for 2.5 years and also changed the design of the foam ramp. The cool part is that NASA has not experienced such an incident again even 20 years later.
In this section, the speaker discusses the Space Shuttle program, which ran for 30 years and resulted in the loss of life of 14 astronauts, including Kalpana Chawla. The speaker highlights Chawla's impact on science education and her dedication to ensuring that every girl in India received an education in this field. She also discusses Chawla's connection to NASA and her impact on the lives of millions of people, both directly and indirectly. The speaker concludes by mentioning that NASA has paid tributes to Chawla and other crew members, and that there is an asteroid in the solar system named after her.
