MISSED OPPORTUNITY

¶Reviews of flight-deck footage confirm that on Flight Day One, Mission Specialist David Brown filmed parts of the External Tank separation with a Sony PD-100 Camcorder, and Payload Commander Mike Anderson photographed it with a Nikon F-5 camera with a 400-millimeter lens. Brown later downlinked 35 seconds of this video to the ground as part of his Flight Day One mission summary, but the bipod ramp area had rotated out of view, so no evidence of missing foam was seen when this footage was reviewed during the mission. However, after the Intercenter Photo Working Group caught the debris strike on January 17, ground personnel failed to ask Brown if he had additional footage of External Tank separation. Based on how crews are trained to film External Tank separation, the Board concludes Brown did in fact have more film than the 35 seconds he downlinked. Such footage may have confirmed that foam was missing from the bipod ramp area or could have identified other areas of missing foam. Austinʼs mention of the crewʼs filming of External Tank separation should have prompted someone at the meeting to ask Brown if he had more External Tank separation film, and if so, to downlink it immediately.

Flight Director Steve Stich discussed the debris strike with Phil Engelauf, a member of the Mission Operations Directorate, after Engelauf returned from the Mission Management Team meeting. As written in a timeline Stich composed after the accident, the conversation included the following.

"Phil said the Space Shuttle Program community is not concerned and that Orbiter Project is analyzing ascent debris…relayed that there had been no direction for MOD to ask DOD for any photography of possible damaged tiles" [MOD=Mission Operations Directorate, or Mission Control, DOD=Department of Defense]

"No direction for DOD photography" seems to refer to either a previous discussion of photography with Mission managers or an expectation of future activity. Since the interagency agreement on imaging support stated that the Flight Dynamics Officer is responsible for initiating such a request, Engelaufʼs comments demonstrates that an informal chain of command, in which the Mission Operations Directorate figures prominently, was at work.

About an hour later, Calvin Schomburg, a Johnson Space Center engineer with close connections to Shuttle management, sent the following e-mail to other Johnson engineering managers.

¶-----Original Message----- From: SCHOMBURG, CALVIN (JSC-EA) (NASA) Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 9:26 AM To: SHACK, PAUL E. (JSC-EA42) (NASA); SERIALE-GRUSH, JOYCE M. (JSC-EA) (NASA); HAMILTON, DAVID A. (DAVE) (JSC-EA) (NASA) Subject: FW: STS-107 Post-Launch Film Review - Day 1

¶FYI-TPS took a hit-should not be a problem-status by end of week.

¶[FYI=For Your Information, TPS=Thermal Protection System]

Shuttle Program managers regarded Schomburg as an expert on the Thermal Protection System. His message downplays the possibility that foam damaged the Thermal Protection System. However, the Board notes that Schomburg was not an expert on Reinforced Carbon-Carbon (RCC), which initial debris analysis indicated the foam may have struck. Because neither Schomburg nor Shuttle management rigorously differentiated between tiles and RCC panels, the bounds of Schomburgʼs expertise were never properly qualified or questioned.

Seven minutes later, Paul Shack, Manager of the Shuttle Engineering Office, Johnson Engineering Directorate, e-mailed to Rocha and other Johnson engineering managers information on how previous bipod ramp foam losses were handled.

¶-----Original Message----- From: SHACK, PAUL E. (JSC-EA42) (NASA) Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 9:33 AM To: ROCHA, ALAN R. (RODNEY) (JSC-ES2) (NASA); SERIALE-GRUSH, JOYCE M. (JSC-EA) (NASA) Cc: KRAMER, JULIE A. (JSC-EA4) (NASA); MILLER, GLENN J. (JSC-EA) (NASA); RICKMAN, STEVEN L. (JSC-ES3)