Flight-deck video, taken by members of the Space Shuttle
Columbia crew on Feb. 1, will be released at 1 p.m. EST today
on NASA Television. The videotape was recovered February 6
near Palestine, Texas, during search and recovery efforts
after the tragedy.
The video is about 13 minutes long and shows flight-deck
activity beginning about 8:35 a.m. EST as Columbia passed
over the south central Pacific Ocean at an altitude of
approximately 500,000 feet. It continues until approximately
8:48 a.m. EST, when Columbia was over the eastern Pacific
Ocean, southwest of the San Francisco Bay area. The video
ends approximately 11 minutes prior to loss of signal between
the orbiter and Mission Control.
Commander Rick Husband, Pilot Willie McCool, Mission
Specialists Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark were on the
flight deck during reentry. In the video, they can be heard
conversing among themselves and working through routine
checklist activities with flight controllers in Mission
Control.
Mission Specialists Mike Anderson and Dave Brown, and Payload
Specialist Ilan Ramon were on Columbia’s mid-deck during
reentry. The video was shot with a small onboard camera
mounted to the right of McCool, who then removes it and hands
it to Clark for additional filming.
NASA Television is on GE-2, transponder 9C, and vertical
polarization at 85 degrees west longitude, 3880 MHz, with
audio at 6.8 MHz.
More information about the Space Shuttle Columbia
investigation and NASA is available on the Internet at:
and
