Wayne Hale

@konstructivizm @Arcturus227 Over the top. Never looked like that fake picture. It was a serious problem but not life threatening on the ground

Fire on the Runway: The Hidden Inferno of STS-9November 28, 1983. Space Shuttle Columbia was gliding home from orbit after the first Spacelab mission — a soaring success carrying six crew members and a European astronaut. But as the massive orbiter sliced through the final minutes of descent toward Edwards Air Force Base, an invisible nightmare was unfolding in its tail.The Space Shuttle’s three Auxiliary Power Units (APUs) — essentially compact, ferocious jet engines powered by highly toxic and explosive hydrazine — provide the hydraulic muscle for flight controls, brakes, and landing gear. Without them, the orbiter is little more than a 100-ton unpowered glider with no steering.Roughly two minutes before touchdown, a hydrazine fuel leak ignited. Two of the three APUs burst into flames inside the aft compartment. The crew, led by commander John Young, had no warning. No fire lights. No alarms that reached the cockpit in time. They flew the approach and executed a flawless landing at over 200 mph, completely unaware they were piloting a spacecraft with a raging fire in its rear.The wheels touched down. Columbia rolled to a stop on the dry lakebed runway.Only then did the real danger peak. About fifteen minutes after landing, trapped hydrazine in the APU valves detonated. The explosion blew the engine covers off, destroyed critical steering components, and scorched wiring and structure in the aft compartment. The fire had been burning during those final critical minutes of flight — had the explosion or loss of hydraulics happened just moments earlier while still airborne, Columbia would have lost all flight control and likely disintegrated in a high-speed crash.Instead, the fire eventually burned itself out once the leaked fuel was exhausted. NASA quietly ushered the astronauts away, covered the blackened and charred rear of the orbiter, and kept the full drama largely out of public view. Technicians only discovered the extent of the damage the next day when they opened access panels to a blackened, scorched hellscape.It remains one of the closest calls in Space Shuttle history — a silent, invisible fire that nearly claimed the vehicle and crew on what should have been a triumphant return.A miracle landing… with flames licking at its heels the entire way down.

@realhomerhickam @NASAWatch @NASAAdmin Ouch.

When I was on the national space Council, the NASA advisory council was considered pretty much without value, and also a group who just echoed everything NASA headquarters said. I believe they are of zero value. If @NASAAdmin wants advice, he should first choose people who are knowledgeable, who have made their living in the aerospace world or have paid a lot of attention to it, and also have a reputation for honesty and a willingness to roll up their sleeves and provide the truth as they see it. In other words, SOBs.

The Disassembly Of The NASA Advisory Council nasawatch.com/ask-the-admini… “NASA officials provided a statement to El Paso Matters that appears to be the agency’s first public comment on its plans for the NASA Advisory Committee. Committee members are not paid for their service.“The NASA Advisory Council is a discretionary committee that reports directly to the NASA administrator. The NAC has an active charter in place through September 2027. The composition of the NAC and the topics it addresses are within the authority and discretion of the administrator. Future membership is under discussion,” the statement said.” #NASA @NAC

@JeffGreason @yamanakanobody Four time zones on CONUS.

@yamanakanobody Well, some people get up at 4am, some people are still up at 1 am, and just on the mainland we cover three time zones, more if you consider Alaska and Hawaii. So there really is no time when you wouldn't find some awake.

何かどの時間帯でもアメリカ人からコメントが来るけどさ、 アメリカ人は寝ないの？　睡眠時間短い？

@realhomerhickam Hope you get well soon!

Almost as if waiting for Artemis II & a bunch of interviews about it to be over, flu/sore throat stuck me down Saturday morning & kept getting worse. Voice gone. On meds. As I’m single, it’s up to the cats to keep me warm. They’re thinking it over…

Artemis II reminding me of Apollo 8: Riders on Earth Together By ARCHIBALD MACLEISH December 25, 1968 Men's conception of themselves and of each other has always depended on their notion of the earth. . . . Brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold.

@TXRandy14 Then ignore the presidents budget request and fully fund NASA

685,000 miles is the flight path to greatness and a WIN for the USA. May God BLESS the Artemis Crew on Day 2 of their journey around the Moon!

@LifeAtPurdue It was a privilege to work with Janice

Janice Voss picked Purdue because it felt like home. 🏡 She went on to fly to space five times, starting in 1993 when she became Purdue’s first female astronaut. 🚀 Learn more about this Purdue icon and the other 29 members of our Cradle of Astronauts: purdue.university/4sVHYAN

@Uncle_Rocket_98 Best of luck!

Hoping today is a little less sim like. Who will walk through the doors today? #ADCO

@LeahCheshier I got plenty of phone calls in Mission Control - misdialed numbers were no problem. Calls from the boss, on the other hand . . .

On console today for an Artemis II sim & the console phone rang. This has NEVER happened to me. It was a random person who was certain she’d gotten a call from our number. She was properly shocked when I explained that wasn’t possible, as this is NASA PAO in Mission Control. 😂

Spectacular ISS pass this evening right beside Orion

@Astro_Cady @NASA My childhood hero!

#OTD 2/20/1962: #Mercury #astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the #Earth aboard #Friendship7. He circled the Earth 3 times in just under 5 hours: spacecenter.org/john-glenn-fri… @NASA #space

@konstructivizm Of course the picture here is a fake - at best some AI generated version of what a side view might have looked like. It is too bad that a thoughtful written article must be ‘illustrated’ with a fanciful picture that is not even properly labeled

Apollo 13’s Damage Was Far Worse Than Anyone Realized The explosion of oxygen tank No. 2 in Sector 4 of the Service Module (SM) on April 13, 1970—triggered by a short circuit during a routine stir—ripped through the spacecraft with devastating force. What began as a routine mission to Fra Mauro crater became humanity's most famous near-disaster.As the crippled Apollo 13 approached Earth on April 17, 1970 (just hours before reentry), the crew jettisoned the now-useless Service Module. From the docked Command Module (Odyssey) and Lunar Module (Aquarius) "lifeboat," astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise turned to photograph the departing wreckage. What they captured was shocking: an entire outer panel (Bay 4) had been completely blown away, exposing a mangled interior of torn multi-layer insulation (MLI), dangling wires, shattered components, and debris floating in the void.The iconic images—primarily NASA frame AS13-59-8500 (and variants like AS13-58-8459)—reveal the stark reality: the explosion had vented one oxygen tank entirely and damaged the other, crippled two of the three fuel cells (leaving only one operational briefly), and severed critical plumbing and wiring. Bright MLI blankets protrude like ragged flags, while the high-gain S-band antenna and other structures show heavy damage forward of the engine nozzle. The Moon looms faintly in the background of some shots, a silent witness to the peril.Engineers on the ground had pieced together the crisis from telemetry and crew reports, but these raw photographs—taken from roughly 100–200 meters away—provided the first visual confirmation of the scale. The missing panel alone confirmed fears of widespread structural compromise, yet miraculously, the Command Module's heat shield and reentry systems remained intact, allowing the crew's safe splashdown in the Pacific.This haunting view of the mangled Service Module drifting away stands as one of the most powerful symbols in spaceflight history: a stark testament to how razor-thin the margin was between catastrophe and survival, and how human ingenuity, teamwork (both in space and on the ground), and sheer determination turned "Houston, we've had a problem" into a triumphant return home Image credits: NASA (original Hasselblad frames and remastered versions by Andy Saunders / ASU); public domain archival photos showing the severely damaged Service Module post-jettison.

@BobbyBraun @SpcPlcyOnline Gentry Lee is a national treasure!

So enjoyed seeing my long- time friend Gentry Lee last night at the DC premiere of his film starmanmovie.com Well worth watching - Starman is an amazing story of wonder, inspiration, imagination and adventure!

@airandspace @Arcturus227 Except the one that landed at White Sands New Mexico.

When Space Shuttle Challenger landed at Kennedy Space Center on #TDIH in 1984, it became the first space shuttle to land at KSC. Prior to this mission, Space Shuttles landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

February first, again waynehale.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/aft…

59 years since the Apollo 1 fire.

@DavidV_81 @DLaneBreckenri1 @NASAAdmin For the what it’s worth - maybe nothing since you unfollowed me - the comment is completely non political. And yes, I was part of the failure of STS-107.

I met with leadership at Axiom Space yesterday to discuss the development of their spacesuit. It was great to see their facilities and all the progress. I shared with them exactly what I told our HLS providers: NASA will do all we can to help them accelerate and meet the timelines, with plenty of schedule margin to spare. As an agency, we must be willing to challenge the requirements and not let an hour go by on a problem we can solve today. This is imperative to achieving the President’s national space policy.

@NASAAdmin It is possible that we are talking past each other. No disrespect meant. Your revision clarifies much.

It is disappointing and disrespectful that you would so casually invoke the loss of Challenger on a topic related to EVA suit development. Let me rework my above post to be the opposite of what I wrote, and please tell me if it sounds safer: I shared with them exactly what I told our HLS providers: NASA should do absolutely nothing to help them accelerate and meet their timelines so there is no schedule margin to spare. As an agency, we must never be willing to challenge the requirements and let as much time go by as possible on problems. Is this better? Respectfully, do better Sir.