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Feb. 1, 2003
Picking up the pieces of Columbia
The space shuttle Columbia exploded over north Texas on Feb 1 during the re-entry phase of its return to Earth after a 16 day-long mission, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
The cause of the the disintegration of the Columbia is undetermined. According to The Washington Post, the launch debris that hit the left wing on take off is probably not the only reason that the shuttle exploded and may not have even played a part. "Right now, it just does not make sense to us that a piece of debris is the root cause to explain the loss of the Columbia crew," shuttle program mamager Ron Dittemore said at a news conference. "There has got to be another reason."
According to the Associated Press, NASA lost contact with Columbia at about 9 a.m. EST on Feb 1, 2003, approximately 16 minutes before it was scheduled to land at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Eyewitnesses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area reported hearing loud noises and looking up to see several vapor trails made by pieces of Columbia. Debris from the shuttle was scattered over five states, and a substantial amount was found in the city of Nacogdoches, Texas. The nose, one of the major parts of the shuttle found so far, fell in Hemphill Texas. Remains have been found in 15 locations.
There has been amateur video of what looks like the capsule blowing up in mid-air. Anyone who finds debris has been asked to notify local law enforcement authorities and to stay away, since the debris will be critical to efforts to determine what went wrong and could be coated in toxic propellant. There have been reports of people seeking souveniers among the remains. Two people havv been charged with stealing government property. Some people have been reported to have checked into hospitals after touching debris, but there have been no reports of serious injury.
The final radio transmission between Mission Control and the shuttle gave no indication of any trouble. Aboard the shuttle was the first Israeli astronaut, payload specialist Ilan Ramon, and six American astronauts, mission commander Rick Husband, pilot William "Willy" McCool, payload commander Michael Anderson, and missions specialists Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, and Laurel Clark.
NBC4 news (nbc4.com) reported that Brown, who grew up in northern Virginia, brought a banner from Yorktown High School that had been to the top of Mt. Everest with him on the flight.
The last space shuttle to explode was the Challenger in 1986. Columbia was on a research mission and had been under tight security.
Other sources of information: cnn.com, washingtonpost.com, nasa.gov (official statement).
The cause of the the disintegration of the Columbia is undetermined. According to The Washington Post, the launch debris that hit the left wing on take off is probably not the only reason that the shuttle exploded and may not have even played a part. "Right now, it just does not make sense to us that a piece of debris is the root cause to explain the loss of the Columbia crew," shuttle program mamager Ron Dittemore said at a news conference. "There has got to be another reason."
According to the Associated Press, NASA lost contact with Columbia at about 9 a.m. EST on Feb 1, 2003, approximately 16 minutes before it was scheduled to land at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Eyewitnesses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area reported hearing loud noises and looking up to see several vapor trails made by pieces of Columbia. Debris from the shuttle was scattered over five states, and a substantial amount was found in the city of Nacogdoches, Texas. The nose, one of the major parts of the shuttle found so far, fell in Hemphill Texas. Remains have been found in 15 locations.
There has been amateur video of what looks like the capsule blowing up in mid-air. Anyone who finds debris has been asked to notify local law enforcement authorities and to stay away, since the debris will be critical to efforts to determine what went wrong and could be coated in toxic propellant. There have been reports of people seeking souveniers among the remains. Two people havv been charged with stealing government property. Some people have been reported to have checked into hospitals after touching debris, but there have been no reports of serious injury.
The final radio transmission between Mission Control and the shuttle gave no indication of any trouble. Aboard the shuttle was the first Israeli astronaut, payload specialist Ilan Ramon, and six American astronauts, mission commander Rick Husband, pilot William "Willy" McCool, payload commander Michael Anderson, and missions specialists Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, and Laurel Clark.
NBC4 news (nbc4.com) reported that Brown, who grew up in northern Virginia, brought a banner from Yorktown High School that had been to the top of Mt. Everest with him on the flight.
The last space shuttle to explode was the Challenger in 1986. Columbia was on a research mission and had been under tight security.
Other sources of information: cnn.com, washingtonpost.com, nasa.gov (official statement).
Discuss this Article
Rick D. Husband, Commander
William C. McCool, Pilot
Michael P. Anderson, Payload Commander
Kalpana Chawla, Mission Specialist
David M. Brown, Mission Specialist
Laurel B. Clark, Mission Specialist
Ilan Ramon, Payload Specialist
The Columbia(OV-102) was the oldest orbiter vehicle in NASA's fleet, and flew 28 missions, tragically destroyed in reentry on its last.
"They Slipped the Surly Bonds of Earth to Touch the Face of God"
Money does wonders for everything
About 10% of all spaceflights fail catastrophically (most of these are unmanned). NASA has managed to bring this number to less than 2% for its spaceflights where people are at risk. NASA should be commended for taking extra precautions to secure the safety of its crew.
I still fully respect NASA and its mission. It will take something much worse than the loss of a space shuttle to convince me otherwise.
Columbia certainly was the oldest shuttle, but Discovery has completed 30.
Ben -- you asked why can't the American people just accept that fact that Columbia was lost. Yes the Astronauts and their loved ones knew the enormous risks of spaceflight, but this knowledge does not make the tradgedy any easier to deal with.
About the age of Columbia, it was NASA's first and oldest shuttle, but it was designed to travel 100 missions and had just undergone a large refurbishing. There was no reason for NASA to be worried about Columbia's age.
Amen to "Anonymous"! I am all for giving NASA at least some of the money that will be used for the possible war.
Now, that being said,
Those 7 people were however doing the most important thing that of anyone on the planet. They transcend all of the crap that's going on right now and represent what is truly great about humanity.
The consequences of this impede that journey, and therefore extend far beyond the loss of 7 lives.
From reading http://www.sandcastlevi.com/space/index.html, it looks as if the Russians have been more successful than NASA--they have not lost anyone in spaceflight since the early 70's and have only had two fatal missions ever, with a total loss of only 4 lives. NASA has lost 17 persons, pretty much once every 15 years.
the Russians have flown scores of missions continuosly since the mid 70's with no loss of life.
But if anyone has reliable facts showing otherwise, we would love to hear about them!
The Space Shuttle is too big, too complex, too costly and too dangerous, and its detracting from the space program's main goal: construction of the International Space Station. Because the Shuttle transports so much to the station, the project is now in jepordy due the loss of means to transport necessary supplies, such as the rocket fuel which helps to fire boosters that prevent the station from falling into the earth's atmosphere. Is it worth it to scrap humanity's most important and ambitious goal just because of an unreliable, antiquaited Shuttle? I say its not worth it.
Instead, we should use space planes, which have been in existence since the 1960's, as well as unmanned scientific payloads and high powered telescopes. That will expand our understanding of the universe far more then the deaths several more astronauts.