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The Columbia Disaster

The History of the Last Space Shuttle to Be Lost During a Mission

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On the morning of January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger launched for the 10th time, beginning mission STS-51-L. Space shuttles had already successfully completed 24 missions, and no American spacecraft had ever failed to reach orbit during an official mission. It was a beautiful morning, and many spectators came to the Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch, including the astronauts' relatives. Ascent seemed to be going normally during the first minute, but about 75 seconds into the ascent, a plastic O-ring used to seal a joint in one of the solid rocket boosters failed, causing a breach of hot gas. That gas spread to the other rocket booster and the external fuel tank, causing an explosion. When the spectators saw the explosion, many of them started cheering, unaware of what was really happening, but Mission Control quickly announced that there had been some sort of problem, and the crowd became confused and then panicky as the Space Shuttle, fuel tank and rocket boosters all broke apart and flew in opposite directions. The entire crew was killed in the explosion. That notorious date was commemorated by the crew of the Columbia while they were in space in 2003, and a few days later, on February 1, the Columbia was due to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 09:16. Only a few members of the press were present to watch the landing - this was, after all, supposed to be a routine return from a routine mission, the 113th for the shuttle program and the 28th for Columbia, one of the oldest Space Shuttles. Reentry into the Earth's atmosphere is always the most dangerous part of any space mission. The intense heat generated as a spacecraft enters the thin upper atmosphere at immense speed can be potentially lethal, but the shuttle was designed to deal with this heat, and Columbia had successfully done it 27 times in the past. For the five men and two women on board and the members of the press present, everything seemed normal, but there was a measure of concern among those in the ground control team. The team was aware that Columbia had possibly suffered damage to the thermal tiles forming the heat shield on one wing soon after liftoff, but no one knew how extensive the damage was or even if it existed at all. There was also some disagreement about how serious it might be - some on the ground were concerned this might compromise the shuttle wing's ability to resist the heat of reentry, while others were sure it was a minor issue that would have no serious impact on the mission. Videos of the launch had been exhaustively reviewed by engineers on the ground, but it was impossible to be certain of the precise level of damage to the heat shielding on the underside and leading edge of the wing. At 08:59, 17 minutes before it was scheduled to land, Columbia was passing over Texas 37 miles above the ground and reentering the atmosphere. Mission Control was discussing a landing gear tire pressure issue with Mission Commander Rick Husband when radio transmission from the shuttle abruptly ceased. Multiple sensors on the craft relaying real-time information back to Mission Control also stopped sending signals. On a large screen, the moving red triangle representing the shuttle's current position flickered and then disappeared over central Texas. There was clearly a major problem, and within hours, it would become clear that Columbia had disintegrated over Central Texas, scattering debris and the remains of the seven people aboard over thousands of square miles of east Texas and southern Louisiana. The attempt to recover the debris and find the remains of the seven astronauts became the biggest land search ever carried out in America. Over 20 years later, the choices made, the mission, and the findings of the investigations remain controversial.

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