Glitches, Close Calls Haunted Columbia

Columbia was called the “first true spaceship,” a winged rocket that would revolutionize space travel and make ferrying humans and equipment into orbit routine and economical.

But from the moment the space shuttle left its Palmdale factory nearly 25 years ago to its catastrophic breakup two weeks ago, it was shadowed by persistent technical problems and a few near-disasters.

Even before its first mission, Columbia lost 4,800 temporary tiles and 200 heat-resistant tiles as it was being transported across the country for its maiden launch in Florida. When it finally reached the launch pad, two men working inside the shuttle’s engine compartment were killed, marking the first deaths aboard the ship.

Several times since then, astronauts have endured missions that could have ended in disaster. In 1999, Columbia spewed explosive hydrogen fuel all the way into space and experienced a separate rocket engine malfunction when an electrical wire short-circuited.

Two years earlier, a fuel-cell malfunction posed the risk of an explosion onboard the shuttle while it was in orbit, forcing the crew to abort the mission and return early.

“I don’t remember any astronaut saying it was a dog, but the reality is that it wasn’t meant to be operational. It was a test model,” said Howard McCurdy, a space policy analyst at American University. “It still had a lot of bugs to work out.”

Investigators are trying to determine the cause of Columbia’s breakup over Texas on Feb. 1, and there is no indication the shuttle’s past technical problems had anything to do with it. NASA officials believe the orbiter’s skin was breached by a still-unknown event.

But a Los Angeles Times review of Columbia’s history shows it has been plagued by a large number of incidents and problems, many of them not revealed until years later and with little public attention.

Experts say they know of no systematic effort to compare Columbia’s reliability record with the three other orbiters. Numerous independent safety boards that investigated the shuttle fleet, for example, never compared the overall rate of problems among the orbiters.

But based on a review of NASA documents, books and interviews with astronauts and former shuttle workers, Columbia seems to have experienced more than its share of problems.

At a minimum, the problems demonstrate what a high-risk endeavor human spaceflight is, something NASA has reiterated time and again. And experts caution that Columbia -- the oldest orbiter in the fleet -- never gained a bad reputation among the astronauts whose lives depended on it.

“It certainly wasn’t a bucket of bolts,” said Jeremiah Pearson, former NASA associate administrator for human spaceflight. “In fact, there was an old wives’ tale among the astronauts that it was the best.”

Columbia was launched 28 times, but more than 70% of the time it was delayed at least once because of technical problems, and in some cases the orbiter was hampered by repeated aborts for weeks at a time, according to NASA reports and flight histories in a book published by the Smithsonian Institution. That launch delay record is the worst among the orbiters.

Even after the delays were overcome, the space shuttle encountered additional problems. In a little-known incident, Columbia tumbled out of control for 20 minutes while astronauts slept in a January 1990 mission. That flight was also marred by false smoke alarms, leaks from a dehumidifier and a computer failure that delayed the shuttle’s return.

All but four of Columbia’s missions were affected by reported malfunctions or other irregularities during launch, in orbit or when landing.

In 1983, inspectors found a charred and blackened rear compartment after Columbia had landed. Highly volatile hydrazine fuel that powered the orbiter’s auxiliary power unit had sprung a leak in orbit and caught fire while Columbia was descending.

In one of the more agonizing launch delays, Columbia sat on the pad for 25 days starting Dec. 18, 1985. It began when NASA officials realized paperwork was not in order, recalled astronaut Robert “Hoot” Gibson, who commanded the mission that carried a seven-man crew, including Bill Nelson, then a Florida congressman.

On the next day, the countdown was stopped with 14 seconds left when an electronics box malfunctioned. NASA tried again Jan. 6 but stopped two minutes short of ignition when sensors detected the engines were too cold.

Officials discovered later that the oxygen tanks had been inadvertently drained during countdown, probably leaving the shuttle without enough fuel to reach orbit.

The flight finally got underway Jan. 12.

“We had one of the more interesting ascents,” Gibson said. “We had a helium tank leaking, and in the midst of working that problem, we had failures of several maneuvering thrusters.”

More problems developed during reentry, Gibson said, when astronauts had to shut down an auxiliary power unit that was being cooled too much by a “water spray boiler.”

Still, Gibson said he doesn’t think the Columbia was trouble-prone, saying the ship’s heavier weight made it feel “rock solid, steady.”

Indeed, Columbia was fundamentally different than later orbiters, having a heavier structure that made it fly differently. It also carried far more heat-resistant tiles.

“It was arguably the strongest of the orbiters, because it was built before we lightened the other ones,” said Dennis R. Jenkins, a former shuttle engineer who wrote a book on the history of the orbiters.

In many ways, NASA over-engineered the 181,000-pound Columbia because it would carry humans on its first try, unlike other manned programs that first involved sending unmanned test vehicles. Engineers placed heavier structural beams and more tiles on surfaces that they later discovered were not necessary.

Gibson, who flew on five shuttle missions, said other orbiters felt lighter and less rigid than Columbia, an opinion shared by other astronauts interviewed by The Times.

“Columbia was the ultimate sport-utility vehicle,” said Charles Bolden, a former Columbia pilot. “It is like comparing a Hummer to a [Dodge] Neon.”

But Columbia also relied on older, outdated technology and increasingly became a guinea pig of sorts for the succeeding orbiters.

First launched in 1981 -- the same year fax machines were introduced -- Columbia is the oldest in the fleet. It was followed by Discovery, which had its first launch in 1984, Atlantis in 1985, and Endeavour in 1992. The Challenger, which exploded during liftoff in 1986, was first launched in 1983.

“We learned a lot from Columbia, which helped modify the other ships,” said John Marcouex, a former shuttle manager, recalling how engineers relied on 30-year-old paper blueprints for repairs.

The Columbia was also the most overhauled in the fleet, having undergone major modifications three times, most recently in 2001. At various times, NASA considered permanently mothballing Columbia because of its age and the cost of updating it. But the needs of the space program kept it in use.

While the structure had remain unchanged, Columbia was outfitted with a new glass-panel cockpit, computers and tiles. Columbia had more than 1,540 modifications since 1988, according to NASA documents.

The last overhaul occurred after the trouble-prone flight in July 1999, when the orbiter’s main engine leaked explosive hydrogen fuel all the way into orbit.

The leak also caused excessive consumption of liquid oxygen, which caused the engines to shut down prematurely, according to a report by the Space Shuttle Independent Assessment Team. Separately, damaged wiring caused an unrelated short that shut down engine control modules on launch.

When the ship returned safely, NASA grounded it and discovered far more wiring problems than on any other orbiter, including burned and frayed insulation throughout the ship.

It was sent to a modification facility in Palmdale for an overhaul. Other space shuttles had an average of about 600 to 700 defects in the wiring, but Columbia showed up at Palmdale with more than 3,000 defects. A shuttle has about 200 miles of wiring.

The extensive wiring problems extended the overhaul from nine months to 17 months and doubled the cost to $145 million. Columbia, which was about the size of a Boeing 737, had 2.5 million parts, 230 miles of wiring and 1,060 pumping valves.

“We went through the Columbia with a fine comb. Everything was double-checked, triple-checked,” Marcouex said. “I would have staked my life on it.”

When Columbia rolled out of the Palmdale facility in February 2001, it was 1,000 pounds lighter and had 5,550 fewer tiles. It flew one successful mission after that, in March 2002.

But McCurdy said the shuttle fleet was designed with a 10-year life span and not expected to undergo continuous upgrades. The design was based on projections that the shuttle would fly every other week and cost $10 million per mission.

So far, the shuttle fleet has flown 113 times since 1981, or about five launches a year. Each launch costs more than $400 million.

The Discovery has flown the most with 30, with Columbia logging the second-most missions. But Columbia had spent far more time in orbit than any other shuttle, or about double the average for the fleet.

“We had a kind of a love affair with Columbia,” said Leroy Cain, NASA’s flight director for the shuttles. NASA considered the ship a workhorse, and even its age became a reason for the agency’s affection.

When President Nixon began the shuttle program in 1972, NASA engineers imagined the shuttle as a cheap, easy way to launch payloads, dubbing it a “space freight truck.”

In the beginning, Columbia was known as OV-102, or orbiter vehicle 102. The shuttle prototype OV-101, or the Enterprise, was built for gliding tests and was never used for an orbital mission.

Columbia’s major components were built by more than 11,000 workers in Downey, home of the Apollo program. The final assembly took place in Palmdale.

To get the Columbia to the launch pad in Florida, NASA would fly it atop a 747 jetliner from its Dryden Flight Research Center, about 39 miles from the Palmdale plant.

It was carried to Dryden in March 1979 by a 93-wheel rig pulled by a truck tractor, which took nine hours. Power lines, poles and traffic signals had to be removed.

Problems developed with the maiden flight, when insulating tape got loose and began “flailing and flapping,” knocking out tiles and leaving gaping holes along the five-story tail. The 747 was forced to return to Dryden, and when it landed, shreds of tape were scattered across the runway, according to newspaper accounts.

Then, on the subsequent flight to Florida, 4,800 temporary test tiles and 200 ceramic tiles flew off the orbiter, confirming that adhesives used to bond the tiles were inadequate and that lengthy repairs would be required.

At Cape Canaveral, Columbia’s first launch dress rehearsal was delayed after rain and high winds damaged insulation on the external fuel tank.

Then disaster struck in March 1981 during another dress rehearsal, when two workers were killed and four injured after they blundered into a tank in the Columbia’s engine compartment that was filled with nitrogen.

After a three-year delay and numerous technical difficulties, Columbia was set to launch on April 9, 1981, only to be aborted nine minutes before liftoff because of a computer glitch.

Finally, on April 13, 1981, Columbia lifted off, becoming the first reusable rocket to reach orbit, but not before losing a dozen tiles from the base of the tail. Shuttle Cmdr. John Young discovered the missing tiles as he panned his movie camera across the cargo bay.

At the request of NASA, Pentagon officials had their spy satellites take pictures of the belly and the wing, which showed no damage.

In January, as Columbia lifted off from Cape Canaveral for the last time, NASA launched a plan to extend the life of the shuttle fleet for another 30 years, and senior engineers were scheduled to spend the next three months reviewing every aspect of the space shuttle program.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The Columbia, mission by mission

A history of space shuttle Columbia’s launches:

1. April 12, 1981 First launch scrubbed nine minutes before liftoff when computer fails. Program three years behind schedule.

2. Nov. 12, 1981 Mission cut short when one of three fuel cells fail.

3. March 22, 1982 Toilet malfunctions. Shuttle forced to land at White Sands, N.M., because Edwards Air Force Base is flooded.

4. June 26 1982 No major irregularities reported.

5. Nov. 11, 1982 First shuttle spacewalk canceled because of spacesuit problem.

6. Nov. 28, 1983 Launch delayed 28 days by rocket nozzle corrosion. An auxilary power unit (APU) catches fire on reentry when hydrazine leaks and blackens rear compartment.

7. Jan. 12, 1986 Shuttle is delayed repeatedly on launch pad for 25 days. During launch, thrusters fail and helium tank leaks. On reentry, APU shuts down because of problem with water spray boiler.

8. Aug. 8, 1989 Short circuit in cable causes sparks and smoke in cockpit.

9. Jan. 9, 1990 Faulty navigation command sends orbiter into a spin while astronauts sleep. Two gallons of water leak from dehumidifier. Deployment of telescope hobbled by computer failure. Landing delayed by computer failure. Defect on engine nozzle discovered after mission.

10. Dec. 2, 1990 Flight delayed six months by fuel leaks and cooling system trouble. Test of telescope hobbled by computer failures.

11. June 5, 1991 Launch delayed 14 days by engine problems and computer glitches.

12. June 25, 1992 No major irregularities reported.

13. Oct. 22, 1992 Launch delayed to replace cracked engine nozzles.

14. April 26, 1993 Launch aborted three seconds before liftoff because of contaminated valve on liquid engines.

15. Oct. 18, 1993 Launch delayed seven days to replace two defective APUs. Launch aborted 31 seconds before liftoff because of computer failure.

16. March 4, 1994 No major irregularities reported.

17. July 8, 1994 Freezing in water dump system noted.

18. Oct. 20, 1995 Six launch attempts scrubbed, tied for worst.

19. Feb. 22, 1996 Metal shavings puncture tether to satellite, causing short circuit and loss of satellite.

20. June 20, 1996 Evidence of damage to thermal barriers that were added to protect O-rings after Challenger loss.

21. Nov. 19, 1996 First Columbia spacewalk canceled when a loose screw jammed the latching mechanism on airlock. Orbiter almost collides with experiment released from payload bay.

22. April 4, 1997 Threat of explosion from a faulty fuel cell cuts the mission 12 days short.

23. July 1, 1997 No major irregularities reported.

24. Nov. 19, 1997 Satellite knocked into a tumble by robot arm.

25. April 13, 1998 Air purification system leaks, but mission is saved by repairs made with aluminum tape.

26. July 23, 1999 Main engine leaks hydrogen all the way into orbit. Damaged wiring causes an unrelated electrical short and shuts down contollers on two engines.

27. March 1, 2002 Launch delayed by ball-bearing failure in landing gear and because of weather.

28. Jan. 16, 2003 On Feb. 1, 16 days after launch, orbiter and crew lost during reentry.