The Space Shuttle’s Luckiest Escape

Have you ever wondered how sheer luck and miraculous circumstances can save a mission from disaster? In this video, we delve into the Space Shuttle Columbia's treacherous journey, where a fuel leak and electrical failure almost led to catastrophe. Discover how two major problems unexpectedly canceled each other out, allowing the Shuttle to complete its mission against all odds. We'll take you inside the payload bay, explore the engineering challenges, and reveal the tiny objects that caused these huge issues. Be sure to watch until the end to enter our next giveaway and see how this incredible story unfolded!

Enter this month’s giveaway:

Short on time? Feel free to skip ahead in this video using the chapter links below.

00:00 Space Shuttle Columbia's Lucky Escape
00:50 Space Shuttle Columbia Payload
01:57 Space Shuttle Columbia Launch
04:26 Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster
05:40 The Problem That Saved the Space Shuttle

Thanks for watching this Primal Space video. If you enjoyed it, let me know in the comments below, and don't forget to subscribe so you can see more videos like this!

Support Primal Space by becoming a Patron!

Twitter:

References:

Thanks to Albin Merle for their awesome Space Shuttle 3D model

3D Modeler: Orkun Zengin

Music used in this video:

Car Trouble - Trevor Kowalski
Etude No. 1 for String Quartet - Peter Sandberg
Go Down Swinging - NEFFEX
Cold War Games - Gabriel Lewis
New Land - ALBIS
Last Snow - Hampus Naeselius
Inspiring Cinematic Asia - Lexin Music
Eternal Garden - Dan Henig

#NASA #SpaceExploration #SpaceEngineering

[robustdelirium]

Reminds me of that Simpsons joke where a doctor commented on Mr. Burns health, saying that all his various ailments and diseases were competing against each other in a way that was so in balance that they were keeping him alive.

[KeplerBMP]

Imagine landing and hearing from some one that you almost God damn died because of a pin, but got saved because of a bolt

[gregebert]

As an engineer, I've seen many cases where one bug/flaw hides visibility of other bugs/flaws, so that when you fix the first bug, the other ones pop-up, usually sequentially. But I have NEVER seen a flaw actually counteract/compensate for a second flaw. Very strange.

[bevinboulder]

It became obvious some years ago that the fact that any shuttle flight was not a disaster was more like a miracle than science.

[rquest]

Everyone's guardian angel was working overtime on that flight.

[Alexander-the-ok]

A sobering thought: I consider this the LEAST extreme of the 3 shuttle ‘very near miss’ flights. The others being STS-51F and STS-27.

[hudsonball]

Seems Columbia used up all it's luck in this mission. Sad to know it was gone just a few missions later.
Also Atlantis is my favorite Shuttle!

[SiVlog]

Another miraculous escape a Space Shuttle experienced, this time Discovery, took place roughly a year before the Challenger disaster. On January 24th 1985, on a cold January day, Discovery was launched on mission STS-51-C. At first, it looked to be a textbook launch, but when the Solid Rocket Boosters were recovered and examined by engineers of the company that built them for NASA, a problem was discovered with the right booster. Around one of the field joints, they discovered signs of scorching. Worse still, they discovered that not all the O-Rings, which are supposed to seal the Field Joints with the ignition of the Solid Fuel, worked as they should have done. The cold temperatures prevented them expanding as they should have done. In actual fact, the O-Rings were only millimetres away from burning through completely.

One engineer in particular, Roger Boisjoly, was so shocked at this, that when he tried in vain to stop the ill-fated Challenger takeoff, he presented pictures of Discovery's SRB's as proof of the danger to his colleagues in a conference call with NASA management

[maxwell]

"Two wrongs dont make a right"
This space shuttle:

[El-Aziz_El-Jasimi]

This is the PERFECT example of how two wrongs make a right!

[YF]

The space shuttle is very sentimental to me.

I was at the launch of sts 135, and it was one of the best days of my life. I'll never forget seeing Atlantis roar into the clouds.

[ob]

My godness, the STS was such a mess. What a miracle, that "only" 2 missions ended in disaster... Amazing video, thank you.

[Alyx_Vance]

I've heard of this story many times but this animation really puts it into perspective while also being entertaining. Side note: Your Space Shuttle appears to be missing part of it's tail at 6:50

[Joel_VP]

Bro the sheer coincidence is insane ! Also i can't believe all these high quality videos are free on youtube thanks to u !

[EarMaster]

The debriefing on this mission must have been fascinating…

[hendwski]

Damn imagine if nasa hadn't been forced to operate with a shoestring budget. Shuttle really was held together by bubble gum and duct tape. It's kind of endearing

[bighaverlegend]

Its crazy how they had to wait for it to actually explode before they retired it

[basoncivicsi]

My grandfather worked for Rocketdyne back in the shuttle days. He left me some cool stuff when he passed, but nothing can compare to the stories he had.

[evanlee]

Honestly it's probably for the better that the shuttle has been retired.

[zacharypollard]

I really love these kinds of videos that go in depth about problems, and it is really interesting to see how two problems that are catastrophic just saved the lives of 5 people. Thank you Primal Space!