The Columbia space shuttle disaster, in which the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, was killed along with the rest of the shuttle's crew, was one of the greatest tragedies to occur in the history of NASA and the space industry as a whole. Now, a retired engineer has opened Pandora's box, saying that there was a way to save the seven astronauts who died in the accident. The Columbia burned up upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003, after a 17-day journey through space. Since then, tough questions have arisen about the possibility that the shuttle's astronauts might have been saved. Engineers, scientists and researchers have made conjectures and presented plans that, if carried out, could have allowed the members of the Columbia crew to walk among us today. The most recent proposal was aired Tuesday in a BBC interview. Retired NASA engineer David Baker, who was employed on the space shuttle program for years, said that if mission control had been made aware of the danger of re-entry on time, a daring but feasible rescue would have been possible. According to Baker, the damage to the space shuttle that would lead it to its doom was recorded on film during its launch, leaving 17 days to try and save the astronauts. The crew also had an air purification system and food that -- if properly rationed -- could have lasted for 30 days. However, the damage was not reported on time, and when the video of the launch was observed and analyzed in greater detail, it was already too late to put a rescue plan into action, so mission control decided not to tell the crew of the danger it was in. According to Baker, "The big mistake was not having a sufficiently detailed and intensive analysis soon enough." Had the analysis been made on time, he added, a rescue plan could have been initiated on the second day of the space flight. Baker has proposed a solution whereby the space shuttle orbiter Atlantis would have been launched two weeks early and the Columbia astronauts would have been alerted to the danger so they could ration supplies and food. The crew would then have been evacuated to the Atlantis in a 48-hour space walk rescue process and make an emergency return to earth. "It could have been done," Baker said. "It would have been possible, but frankly the mindset at NASA was so rigid compared to the lightning decisions and quick responses we had during Apollo."
Retired NASA engineer: Ilan Ramon's death was preventable
Retired NASA engineer David Baker says analysis of the damage done during the launch of the space shuttle Columbia was not performed on time • "It could have been done," he says of a bold rescue plan that would have evacuated the crew to safety.
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