By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Having survived the initial breakup of the space shuttle Columbia, the astronauts aboard were doomed by failed shoulder harnesses and helmets that allowed too much movement of the head, according to a new report about the 2003 U.S. space disaster released on Tuesday.
But even if the safety gear had worked, the seven astronauts would have died due to the sheering forces in the upper atmosphere, as well as a parachute landing system that needed the crew conscious for manual operation.
So concludes a 400-page Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report, commissioned by NASA in an attempt to boil down the lessons learned from the tragedy so they can be incorporated in better equipment and techniques for future programs.
"Clearly the accident was not survivable under any circumstances, but (the report) will probably help for designing things for future spacecraft -- and maybe even aircraft," said David Mould, NASA's assistant administrator for public affairs.
The analysis is NASA's most complete telling to date of the final minutes of the shuttle mission known as STS-107, which lifted off on January 16, 2003, for a 16-day microgravity research mission that included, for the first time, an Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon.
He and his six crewmates -- commander Rick Husband, pilot William McCool and astronauts Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark -- died aboard Columbia as the shuttle flew back towards the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida for landing after what had been widely regarded as a successful and fairly glitch-free mission.
Unbeknownst to the astronauts or NASA, the shuttle had been critically damaged by a piece of foam debris that fell off its fuel tank during liftoff. The breach allowed superheated atmospheric gases to blast inside one of the wings during the high-speed glide back to Earth, melting the structure from the inside.
Much of what is in the report was discovered by the Columbia accident investigation team, which released a series of findings and highly respected recommendations. The panel advised retiring the space shuttles as soon as NASA finishes using them to complete construction of the International Space Station, a $100 billion project of 16 partner countries that has been under way for more than a decade.
Since the accident, NASA has flown 11 shuttle missions and has nine left in its schedule. A 10th mission to fly a physics experiment to the space station is under consideration.
(Editing by Jane Sutton)
