Burnout: the mystery of Space Shuttle STS-281 Read Online Free PDF Page A

all too vividly he recalled why he had retired from NASA.
    Hamilton replied softly, "We may be doing that anyway, now… once the media gets a hold of this. Come on, Tracy. You know the drill."
    "Yeah. Let's go, honey," Tracy told Bob. "I've gotta get back to Houston, in reach of the MCC--" she glanced apologetically at Sally, "Mission Control Center--and at least check in. Sorry to break up the party, Crash."
    "I'm about to break it up in a big way," Ham said as he helped Elaine gather her things. "This is unprecedented. Crash, they want you to come in, too. Independent investigator. The entry phase expert."
    "How did I know that was coming?" Crash sighed into the darkness, wanting only to be alone with his grief for awhile. "Okay, Ham. I'll stow everything here and bring it on in," he capitulated with reluctance.
    "Fine. Meet you at the Flight console."
    * * * *
    When Crash was escorted into the Front Room of the MCC, he ran headlong into a scene that only deepened his sense of unreality and depression. The flight controllers were in shock. Most of them had worked closely with the crew members for at least the last several years, and were in various stages of exhaustion, denial, and grief. The soft sound of men and women weeping permeated the rooms in the MCC. PAO had immediately discontinued live broadcast on the NASA Select channel as soon as an off-nominal situation had been realized; the windows into the observation area at the back of the control room had also been closed, and the controllers could give vent to their emotions in relative privacy. "Suits" wandered among the flight controllers, mission management putting aside their own grief for the time and going about the business of conducting discreet interviews with various console positions and gathering information on the nature and extent of the disaster. Other personnel searched systematically through the entire control center, confiscating console logbooks and other pertinent documentation, and locking down computer accounts so that potentially valuable information couldn't be inadvertently lost.
    "Last time I saw the MCC in this much confusion was in ‘86," Crash murmured to Ham as he walked up to the Flight Director's console.
    "That's because it was the last time we had a disaster of this magnitude," Ham replied, grim-faced.
    The retired flight controller looked around for familiar faces. "Where's Freddy?" Crash suddenly asked with concern.
    "Capcom is… in the men's room," Steve Greggs, the Entry Flight Director, told him. "He… well, he and Carrie were gonna… he'd just given her the ring… he's not in… good shape. Not in good shape at all."
    "Damn," Crash sympathized. "Yeah. I copy. He's not--?"
    "No. George is in there with him. We didn't leave him alone." Greggs nodded decidedly.
    The men stood around the console, silent, at a loss.
    "You lost a buddy on this one, too, didn't you, Crash?" Greggs finally mustered voice enough to ask him.
    "Yeah… the commander, Jet Jackson. Jet was my pal from our Air Force days. They never would let us fly pilot and GIB together, though. Something about the call signs ‘Jet-Crash' bein' a real bad combination…" Crash smiled fondly in bittersweet remembrance.
    Greggs chuckled once in response, then sobered, feeling awkward. "Sorry…"
    "Yeah. Me too," Crash told him, hollow voiced, then glanced away. "Well, I'm supposed to be one of the investigators here, so I guess I better start investigatin'," Crash noted. "What's the word?"
    " Atlantis came down in the Gulf, Crash," Ham told him then. "Roughly 250 nautical miles east-southeast of Galveston Bay. T-38s have already overflown the area, but it's too dark to see much. Recovery ships are en route under full steam; they're expected on site by daybreak. They'll send divers down, maybe attempt a rescue."
    "Any chance of getting anybody back okay?" Crash said in surprise, as hope rose inside.
    "You want me to be realistic?" Greggs responded, shaking his head. "Just