Part 5: Shuttle Depressurization – Flawed Procedures
Launch of the Columbia on its last mission
Three crewmembers had not completed donning the Advanced Crew Escape Suit (ACES). One was not wearing a helmet or gloves, and two others were not wearing gloves. The Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report indicated that this was not unusual, based on past flights, and there were two reasons for this.
First, as covered previously in Part 3, the Shuttle was not designed to be operated by a crew wearing ACES. Some of the required tasks are apparently inconvenient to perform while wearing gloves, so it was the personal choice of some astronauts not to wear them, at least while they had tasks to perform. It’s interesting to note that both the pilot and commander were wearing their gloves. The control stick was bumped twice on re-entry, deactivating the autopilot. This was quickly recognized and corrected, but the report attributed this to the bulkiness of the suit and stated it was a common occurrence.
Second, astronauts are so busy during de-orbit preparation that they sometimes do not have time to finish donning their suits. Worse, one crewmember had to perform post de-orbit burn tasks that required moving around the Crew Module. That crewmember did get seated, but did not have time to put on all the restraining belts, gloves, or a helmet before the accident. Before a mission, every aspect is trained and rehearsed, so it would not be a surprise that they’d run out of time. It’s also apparently a common occurrence on actual missions. The report notes that 40 seconds would not be long enough to don the helmet and gloves.
It does not seem that altering the procedures so that every astronaut has the time to don a suit would require much change. Modifying the controls to make them easier to use with gloves would be harder, but not impossible. The de-orbit burn tasks must be changed to allow all astronauts to be belted in, but there’s not enough detail in the report to determine how much of an effort this change would require.
