Linda Ham - Columbia Disaster and Investigation Report

Columbia Disaster and Investigation Report

Further information: Space Shuttle Columbia disaster

Mission STS-107, the 113th mission of the space shuttle program and the 28th flight of Space Shuttle Columbia, lifted off January 16, 2003, from the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a 16-day, dedicated science mission. A large piece of insulating foam separated from the shuttle's external tank left bipod ramp area 82 seconds after launch and struck Columbia on the leading edge of the left wing. Two days later, after reviewing film of the launch and detecting the foam impact on the left wing, NASA engineers made a request to Space Shuttle Program managers for an in-orbit, high-resolution image of the shuttle's left wing to check for damage. The shuttle program managers declined the engineers' request to image the shuttle's wing before reentry.

At 9:00:18 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on February 1, 2003, during reentry, Columbia disintegrated over Texas, killing all seven members of the shuttle's crew. In total there were three requests for imagery of Columbia in-orbit during the 16 days mission, to search for potential damage on the wing, that were rejected, according to the same source. In addition, the Board identified 8 missed opportunities to determine the extent of the damage that got no response from the mission management or no action was taken. The first of these was an inquiry on the day 4 of flight, by the chief engineer of Thermal Protection Systems, if the crew had been asked to inspect the damage, they never received an answer. The opinion of the program managers that the debris strike was only a maintenance-level concern was established early in the mission, making it increasingly difficult for concerned engineers to be heard by those with decision-making authority. As mentioned in the Report: In the face of Mission managers' low level of concern and desire to get on with the mission ... the engineers found themselves in the unusual position of having to prove that the situation was unsafe - a reversal of the usual requirement to prove that a situation is safe.

The Columbia Accident Investigation Board commissioned to investigate the disaster determined, in a report released August 26, 2003, that the physical cause of the destruction of Columbia was damage to the shuttle's left wing caused by the foam strike during launch. The board also determined that several organizational and human factors contributed to the disaster. These included:

Reliance on past success as substitute for sound engineering practices; organizational barriers that prevented effective communication of critical safety information and stifled professional differences of opinion; lack of integrated management across program elements; and the evolution of an informal chain of command and decision-making processes that operated outside the organization's rules.

It was in the context of these organizational factors that the CAIB discussed the role of decisions made by Linda Ham, as well as by other NASA managers, in contributing to the disaster.

According to the book "Comm Check..." by William Harwood and Michael Cabbage, Linda Ham squelched requests for external photos to be taken after the requests had been sent by two individual departments at NASA. Engineers in these departments were concerned that the foam strike on the left wing, clearly captured by launch-day video recorded for every launch, had caused more damage than initially thought. Based on computer modeling later proven inadequate, Ham's mistaken belief was that the damage was not serious, and that at most it would merely lengthen the time necessary to refurbish Columbia between missions. Referring to the supposed minor damage in a review meeting, she was quoted as saying that "...there's nothing we can do about it anyway." Ham decided to quash the request for high-resolution imaging of the shuttle, based on her belief that the damage was too minor to be of consequence.

Ham's on-the-job persona was reported to be somewhat brusque, and she was perceived by some below her in the chain of command as being occasionally less than willing to embrace dissenting points of view. This was part of a larger cultural problem within NASA which was addressed at length by the CAIB. Even if the hole in the left wing had been discovered immediately, according to flight director LeRoy Cain, (it was assumed that) there were few if any realistic options to either circumvent the damage or launch a rescue mission, though two realistic options were worked out later. Ham was subjected to intense criticism after the accident.

Former Flight Director Wayne Hale worked outside of proper NASA channels in an effort to get imaging of the damage, even though Ham had the authority over this decision. In the aftermath of the mishap, Hale was promoted to Space Shuttle Program Manager and then on to NASA Headquarters and Ham was demoted.