![]() Image right: Columbia lifts off for the first time from Kennedy Space Center on April 12, 1981. Despite its limitations, the orbiter's legacy is one of groundbreaking scientific research and notable "firsts" in space flight. The heaviest of NASA's orbiters, Columbia weighed too much and lacked the necessary equipment to assist with assembly of the International Space Station. Named after the first American ocean vessel to circle the globe and the command module for the Apollo 11 Moon landing, Columbia continued this heritage of intrepid exploration. Mission Control began its disaster procedures at 9:12.On April 12, 1981, a bright white Columbia roared into a deep blue sky as the nation's first reusable Space Shuttle. 45 seconds later, video from the ground shows Columbia breaking apart. The last communication with commander Rick Husband was " Roger, uh bu-" at 8:59. ![]() By this point several temperature sensors in the damaged left wing had stopped working, and one of the flight controllers reported that the tyre pressure sensors on that side were reporting "off scale low"- meaning that it is a reading that falls below the minimum capability of the sensor, and it usually indicates that the sensor has stopped functioning, due to internal or external factors, not that the quantity it measures is actually below the sensor's minimum response value. By 8:58 Columbia, still moving at incredible speeds, crossed from New Mexico into Texas, at which point it began shedding debris. At this point, the temperature of the damaged part of the wing was around 3,000☏ (1,650☌). Video shows flashes happening and an unusual trail left behind Columbia, which even hobbyist watchers saw as out of the ordinary. This loss of lift caused the Shuttle to turn away from its re-entry path, tumble, and break up from the drag of the air.Ĭolumbia passed over California at 8:53. This air was able to enter the wing through the hole made during launch, melting through it and causing the Shuttle to lose lift on that side. As Columbia entered the atmosphere, the air heated up around it due to the Shuttle moving at extreme speeds, over twenty times the speed of sound. A 13-minute video recorded in the cabin, ending eleven minutes before the loss of signal from Columbia, shows the astronauts in good spirits and unaware of the danger. At 8:15 EST, about an hour before Columbia was due to land, it lit its engines and changed its course so that it would re-enter the atmosphere. On February 1, Columbia prepared to return to Earth on a path that would take it over the USA from west to east. Viewed from a Dutch helicopter operating near Fort Hood, Texas. One flight director contacted Columbia about the concerns, but stressed "we have seen this same phenomenon on other flights and there is absolutely no concern for entry."įailed re-entry Ĭolumbia breaks apart in the atmosphere. NASA management thought that even if something were wrong, it would be better for the crew not to know since rescue or repair would be nearly impossible. Once high-quality video of the launch was ready, NASA reviewed it and concluded that everything was fine, and stopped engineers from using Department of Defense images from orbit to get a closer look. However, this debris strike hit Columbia's left wing head on, punching a hole through the panels on the wing's forward edge. Such debris strikes had happened before - in particular on STS-27 in which a piece of a booster's forward heat shield broke and hit Atlantis' bottom-side heat shield - and were seen as an acceptable risk. It was Columbia's 28th flight and the 113th of any Shuttle.Ĩ1 seconds into flight, a briefcase-sized part of the external fuel tank's foam insulation, which stops ice from forming while the very cold liquid fuel is in the tank, broke away and hit Columbia. Launch & response Ĭolumbia launched on its final mission on January 16, 2003. Mission Specialist: Laurel Blair Salton Clark, a U.S.Mission Specialist: Kalpana Chawla, an Indian-born aerospace engineer.Payload Specialist: Ilan Ramon, a colonel in the Israeli Air Force.Air Force lieutenant colonel and physicist Air Force colonel and mechanical engineer The cockpit window is now inside the Space Shuttle Atlantis Pavilion at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Parts of Columbia were found across the state of Texas. All of the people on board died when it broke up. During its entry, hot gases entered the wing, causing it to break up. The cause of the disaster was that a piece of foam broke from the external fuel tank. The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster occurred when Space Shuttle Columbia broke up when it was reentering the atmosphere on February 1, 2003. Final launch of Columbia - the part that broke off the fuel tank can be seen as a light triangle by the nose of the Shuttle
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