Greg Casaretto
on February 1, 2023
73 views
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Shuttle Columbia Disaster. All 7 crew members of the Columbia's 28th mission, STS-107, died when the shuttle broke up over East Texas while preparing for landing at Florida's Kennedy Space Center.
"Columbia was destroyed at about 09:00 EST on February 1, 2003 while re-entering the atmosphere after a 16-day scientific mission. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board determined that a hole was punctured in the leading edge on one of Columbia's wings, made of a carbon composite. The hole had formed when a piece of insulating foam from the external fuel tank peeled off during the launch 16 days earlier and struck the shuttle's left wing. During the intense heat of re-entry, hot gases penetrated the interior of the wing, likely compromising the hydraulic system and leading to control failure of the control surfaces. The resulting loss of control exposed minimally protected areas of the orbiter to full-entry heating and dynamic pressures that eventually led to vehicle break up. The report also delved deeply into the underlying organizational and cultural issues that led to the accident. The report was highly critical of NASA's decision-making and risk-assessment processes. Further, the board determined that unlike early claims, a rescue mission was indeed possible using the Shuttle Atlantis which was essentially ready for launch and might have saved the Columbia crewmembers. The nearly 84,000 pieces of collected debris of the vessel are stored in a 16th floor office suite in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center. The collection was opened to the media once and has since been open only to researchers. Unlike Challenger, which had a replacement orbiter built, Columbia did not."
From Wikipedia
Space Shuttle Columbia Crew:
Rick D. Husband
William C. McCool
Michael P. Anderson
Kalpana Chawla
David M. Brown
Laurel Clark
Ilan Ramon
Dimension: 461 x 236
File Size: 25.47 Kb
Be the first person to like this.