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ZS6FB > SAT 25.03.03 07:20l 43 Lines 1412 Bytes #999 (0) @ AMSAT
BID : ANS-082.01A
Read: DB0FHN GUEST
Subj: Shuttle Columbia's flight data recorder found
Path: DB0FHN<DB0RGB<DB0SL<DB0FSG<I4UKI<IK5CKL<IK1ZNW<RZ6HWL<RZ6HW<RA9XF<
RN6AM<UA6ADV<ZS6FB
Sent: 030324/2056Z @:ZS6FB.MPU.ZAF.AF #:61535 PACTOR-2: XFBB7.04 $:ANS-082.01A
From: ZS6FB@ZS6FB.MPU.ZAF.AF
To : SAT@AMSAT
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 082.01 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD. March 23, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-082.01
Columbia accident investigators found a key flight
data recorder Wednesday near Hemphill, Texas. The
device could shed new light on what was happening
to the spacecraft before it disintegrated over east
Texas on Feb. 1. Seven astronauts, 3 of them amateur
radio operators, were lost in the accident.
About the size of a bread box, the instrument uses
magnetic tape to record data such as temperatures,
pressures, vibrations, acceleration, electrical
currents and strains on the vehicle. The recorder
was recovered intact and taken to Johnson Space Center,
where it must be cleaned up before determining how
to get to the data without damaging it.
The recorder starts up about 10 minutes before the
shuttle reaches the first traces of the upper
atmosphere. Investigators believe it would have continued
to run until the vehicle broke up.
To date, investigators have been forced to rely
on telemetry data beamed back from the shuttle,
video and photographs in attempt to piece together what
destroyed the Columbia.
That information has helped NASA build a timeline
of events as the orbiter crossed the southwestern
United States on way to a planned landing at
Kennedy Space Center.
[ANS thanks Florida Today for the above information.]
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