Seventeen years ago, UB was coping with the loss of the space shuttle Challenger and the UB graduate that was aboard the spacecraft. This week, the UB community is coming to terms with yet another space shuttle tragedy.
As many students at the time of the Challenger explosion are able to remember that point in time, so will students today remember the explosion of the shuttle Columbia upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere Saturday.
Terriann Murray, a sophomore majoring in biochemistry and international business, watched the coverage of the Columbia tragedy on television.
"I was kind of shocked, but then again, I wasn't that surprised. I just don't think we're destined to be in space," she said. "I think we're playing with fire."
"I was surprised. My roommate saw it online 14 minutes after it happened," said freshman engineering major Nick Mason. "There was a lot of surprise. It reminded me of the whole Challenger thing."
"I do think it was the astronauts' destiny," Murray said. "They wanted to do it, and they loved it. I'd be happy if I died doing what I love."
John Crassidis, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UB, was one such freshman when the Challenger space shuttle exploded 73 seconds into its mission.
Gregory Jarvis was on board the Challenger in 1986 as the first UB graduate to fly into space. Crassidis later attended the dedication of Jarvis Hall to the university's most famed astronaut.
"It was surreal, knowing that a UB grad was there," Crassidis said.
Crassidis said he has watched the theories on what may have caused the Columbia to break apart being discussed in the news. Currently, he said, no one has the information to know what really happened.
"That's the question on everybody's mind," he said. "Engineers are problem solvers, and they really have to look at every possible solution before they can say, 'Yes, we think this is it.'"
The popular theory among NASA scientists at this time is that damage may have occurred to thermal heating tiles on the left wing of Columbia. The thermal tiles protect the ship from overheating during reentry into the earth's atmosphere.
Crassidis is somewhat critical of the theory and the significance attributed to overheating on the left wing of Columbia. "The temperature of the area around the wheel-well did increase about 30 or 40 degrees in the five minutes before the accident," he said. "But you've got to think about it. There was over 2,000 degrees being put on that space shuttle, so 30 or 40 degrees is not that much of an increase. That's not enough to cause major damage to the space shuttle."
According to Crassidis, there are two other likely theories being advanced by NASA engineers, both involving damage to heating tiles.
One theory is that the absence of a heating tile on the left side of Columbia caused the ship to roll to the left, causing disintegration.
The other theory is the possibility of missing heating tiles in the landing gear area.
Crassidis said his connection to the tragedy is close, given that he worked for NASA for two years, doing post-doctoral work at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
"They talk about the family atmosphere at NASA, and that's certainly a true statement," he said. "I loved working 16 hours a day, I couldn't get enough of going in and working my tail off there."
Based on his experience with the NASA program, Crassidis said the Columbia tragedy would not doom the space program.
"NASA will survive," he said. "Yes, there is failures, but with one failure there's a hundred successes."
For NASA to achieve success in the future, they would need increased funding for space programs, said Crassidis. "There's going to be some serious issues, there's a lot of politics involved."
Crassidis said he is hopeful that more funding will go to NASA in the future, and even without it, he is confident in the abilities of his former coworkers.
"As somebody who used to work there, I have to tell you that what some of these (NASA) engineers do on the budgets that they have is just absolutely amazing."
Crassidis said he hopes the Columbia tragedy will not ruin the future of potential aerospace engineers and that he remembers what it was like to be an aerospace engineering student at the time of the Challenger explosion.
"My twin brother and I were in the same engineering program at UB, and we definitely were a little bit worried as to the future of our jobs, as a lot of students are right now," Crassidis said. "But we survived, I got my job at NASA, and I was really happy after that."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
