All aboard were killed over Texas, just 16 minutes from landing. The shuttle was torn apart by aerodynamic forces. As the shuttle glided down through the atmosphere, the superheated gases that surround it during reentry entered the hole and deformed the wing. The impact punctured a hole in the Reinforced Carbon Carbon lining the edge of the wing.

3XrC8zfgr7įoam had caused damage in the past, but nothing too worrisome as far as NASA and its contractors were concerned. It was the beginning of the end for the space shuttle program, changing how we explore space now. Today marks 20 years since the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on its way home. On the PBS NewsHour tonight, Miles O’Brien, a CNN reporter at the time and now an independent journalist, showed the video of that foam strike as he reported it at the time. Initially NASA shrugged it off even though video clearly showed the impact.

Foam had fallen from the External Tank during every flight since the first in 1981. On February 1, they began their return to Earth.ĭuring liftoff, however, a piece of insulating foam had broken off the shuttle’s External Tank and hit the leading edge of the shuttle’s left wing 82 seconds into the ascent. Blue Team members from left: David Brown, Willie McCool, and Michael Anderson. Red Team members from left: Kalpana Chawla, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark ,and Ilan Ramon. Aboard were Ramon and NASA’s Rick Husband, Willie McCool, Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, and Laurel Clark.ĭivided into “red” and “blue” teams working opposite shifts, the crew spent 16 days in space conducting more than 80 science experiments in the Spacehab module secured in the shuttle’s cargo bay. Colleagues, politicans and others paid tribute to their courage and vowed to ensure a culture of safety as astronauts continue to explore the stars.Ĭolumbia lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on the STS-107 science mission on January 16, 2003. Today is the 20th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy that took the lives of six NASA astronauts and Israeli Air Force pilot Ilan Ramon.

Challenger space shuttle pbs