I told her that physically that could not happen. A couple of days after launch, our operations manager called me to ask whether a FREESTAR thermal blanket of the same size could have come off. One was a radar-detected object orbiting close to the shuttle on a parallel course.
While this damage was not known throughout the mission, some at Mission Control in Houston had concerns. As is well-known now, debris from the shuttle's external tank impacted the left wing's leading edge that was designed to protect against the fiery heat of reentry. Our job as experts on the payload was to help identify every little piece to aid in the accident investigation. It was rather sobering to see pieces of spaceflight hardware that one was used to handling in pristine cleanroom conditions sitting on the floor of a large hangar, singed almost beyond recognition. Thus began a multi-month effort of identifying debris at the Kennedy Space Center, for which I led the FREESTAR team. The first thing that went through our minds was, "Could we have forgotten something? Did we screw up?" After a period of exchanging condolences (and hugs) with our Israeli friends, we began the solemn task of impounding documents and data. Sadly, it was clear to everyone that the shuttle and crew were indeed lost. On Twitter, Facebook, Google News, and Instagram.After hearing the news that February morning, I immediately drove down to Goddard's Payload Operations Control Center, hoping our ops team had received news that all was well. The agency resumed shuttle flights in July 2005, with Discovery, then Endeavour and finally Atlantis continuing to fly missions to the ISS until 2011.įollow HT Tech for the latest tech news and reviews, also keep up with us The fleet also acted like space trucks, carrying more than 1,500 tonnes of equipment to help build the first space telescope, Hubble, and the International Space Station.Īfter the Columbia disaster, NASA underwent sweeping changes aimed at improving its culture and safety. The shuttle programme was born in 1972 under president Richard Nixon and went on to become the major focus of US human spaceflight ambitions over the next four decades. This left it unable to withstand the extreme temperatures generated by re-entry. In a televised address he hailed the crew, two of whom were women, as heroes.Ī probe revealed that the shuttle disintegrated due to damage caused by a piece of foam from the external fuel tank that took a chunk out of the orbiter's left wing during liftoff. When it took off on its 28th flight on Janufor a 16-day mission to carry out experiments it had been in operation for over 20 years.įlight STS-107 was launched under extremely tight security in the wake of the Septemattacks and due to the presence on board of Israel's first astronaut, Ilan Ramon.īush cut short a stay at the Camp David presidential retreat and raced back to Washington following the tragedy. "But there was nothing, and then I looked up and saw the trails of smoke zig-zagging, going across the sky." - Heroes -Ĭolumbia was the oldest shuttle to fly in orbit. "There was a big boom that shook the house for more than a minute, and I went outside because I thought there had been a train accident on the nearby line.
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The flaming debris from the 80-tonne craft was caught streaking across the sky over the southern US by local TV stations, with parts scattered over Texas and Louisiana.īob Molter from Palestine, Texas, told National Public Radio how he saw the shuttle break up in the sky. we did not copy your last" message.Īfter a moment, Husband replied: "Roger but."Īfter a brief crackling noise, contact was lost.Ĭolumbia disappeared from radar screens at 9:00 am (1400 GMT), 16 minutes before it was due to land. 'Trails of smoke' -Ĭolumbia broke up at 203,000 feet (61,900 metres) over eastern Texas just as the mission controller in Houston was talking to Columbia commander Rick Husband. Bush announced that the eye-wateringly expensive programme would be retired.įor years after the last shuttle flight in 2011, NASA found itself dependent on Russia for transport to the International Space Station (ISS) until Elon Musk's Space X began flying passengers there in 2020.Īs well as the Moon, Washington is now preparing for a manned mission to Mars, scheduled tentatively for the late 2030s or early 2040s. The shuttle fleet was grounded for two and a half years and it sparked a major shift in American space flights.
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