The Hindu : Disaster in space

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 03, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

Disaster in space

TWO DECADES AFTER her maiden flight into space, NASA's elderly space shuttle — affectionately nicknamed the Old Gray Lady — disintegrated into flames killing all seven on board just minutes before it was scheduled to return to earth. This horrible and unexpected accident, the first during a space shuttle's landing and the third major disaster in the history of space travel, has moved and distressed people all over the world. There is a special poignancy to the tragedy for this country as among the astronauts killed was Kalpana Chawla, the India-born woman who became a source of national pride and who was a striking symbol of the success and achievements of the Indian Diaspora. It is not clear yet what exactly caused Columbia's fiery descent but the loss of key data transmissions before the shuttle disintegrated suggests that the heat shield was breached on the left side of the orbiter. With ludicrous theories of a possible terrorist attack now being virtually ruled out, NASA's task would be to determine if the accident was caused by an inherent structural defect or was related to a specific problem such as the heat-resistant tiles that had suffered damage during take-off about a fortnight ago.

The tragedy has enormous implications not only for the U.S. space programme but for the International Space Station, that large scientific outpost that has been in orbit circling the earth since 1998 — a project in which as many as 16 countries are involved. The loss of Columbia and the suspension of further shuttle flights mean a temporary discontinuance of manned flights to the half-constructed ISS and therefore possible delays in completing the structure. The three astronauts aboard the ISS are in no danger though, having enough supplies to last out until the middle of the year and an escape vehicle to get away in the event of an emergency. Moreover, undeterred by the Columbia disaster, the Russian Space agency has gone ahead with its scheduled launch of an unmanned resupply vessel to the ISS. It is possible that, in the near future, space officials will rely on Soyuz rockets to transport people to and from the space station. Meanwhile, NASA will have to take some tough decisions that balance, on the one hand, the imperative for maintaining the momentum of the space programme and, on the other, ensure the overall safety of further space shuttle missions. Needless to say, much will depend on what caused the Columbia disaster. If the problem was of a generic nature, then NASA may be forced to take a hard look at the three other vehicles in its space shuttle fleet, something that may well result in a major slowdown in further shuttle missions.

The losses also include extremely valuable data from scientific experiments. This is hardly surprising as Columbia's mission, unlike those of other space shuttle flights in recent years, was purely scientific. Columbia was a travelling laboratory with animals on board such as rats, spiders, ants and bees. Some five dozen experiments on subjects such as cell growth, bone loss and limiting soot in combustion, many of them with important implications for science and medicine, may have been affected by the mishap. The fact that space science trials provide few, if any, opportunities to repeat experiments gives some insight into the value of the scientific data lost. Of course, tragedies such as this cannot be measured in terms of scientific setbacks alone and what has moved people all over the world is the fate of the bright young men and women who perished in the tragic accident. India will particularly mourn for Kalpana Chawla, the first woman to earn an aeronautical degree from her engineering college in Punjab and who followed this up with a doctorate in the United States. It was against all odds that Chawla was chosen as an astronaut in 1994. If India mourns for her, it is because she was one of those rare persons who were unafraid to live her dreams and unafraid to die while living them.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

Stories in this Section

Disaster in space

Disturbing signals

The Mahatma that failed?

Disinvestment and Parliament

Tending to the neighbourhood

Lessons for India from the tragedy