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Astronomy: Columbia
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The space shuttle Columbia broke apart in flames as it streaked over Texas on 1 February 2003. The accident took place about 16 minutes before scheduled landing on Cape Canavarel and killed all seven astronauts. First commentary suggested that the left wing of the space shuttle was damaged, which had happened at liftoff 16 days earlier. On liftoff isolation material probably damaged the wing and the heat resitant tiles that form the shuttles heat shield. A damaged heat shield could have caused that temperature rose so high that the shuttle construction desintegrated when it re-entered Earth's atmosphere. Pictures between 16 January - 1 February 2003 |
 Timeline of events  The last crew of this space shuttle |
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The last crew of the space shuttle Columbia: David Brown, mission commander Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla, Michael Anderson, William McCool and Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut. |
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| A closeup camera view shows space shuttle Columbia as it lifts off from Launch Pad 39A on mission STS-107 on 16 January 2003. |
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| This moment may have had an influence on the fatal end of the mission. NASA says that photo and video material shows that it is very likely that isolation material hit the left wing. But the inflected damage to the wing and condition of the heat shield is uncertain. The accident also could have been caused by damage as a result of an impact of space debris while orbiting Earth. |
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| 1 February 2003 at an altitude of 63 km (200.000 feet) the Columbia falls apart above Texas, USA. |
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| Debris from the shuttle |
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| 11 March 2003 press briefing held at the Center for Advanced Space Studies, Lunar and Planetary Institute in Clear Lake, Texas. |
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Mission factsColumbia factsRelated subjects>> Challenger space shuttle accident>> The space shuttle >> More accidents in space travel |
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