The Columbia space craft lifted off on January 16, 2003 going on a 16 day science mission. There were seven astronauts onboard for the journey, including Israel’s first man in space. Then the unexpected happened. About 15 minutes before the Columbia would land in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the shuttle went to pieces. All seven of the astronauts were lost. The Columbia was going Mach 18, or 18 times the speed of sound, at an altitude of over 200, 000 feet when contact was lost.
The cause is currently unknown, but there are a couple scenarios. There was a problem at liftoff. After about a minute passed, a piece of insulation foam broke off of the fuel tank and hit the bottom of the left wing. No one knew this until about a day later. If it would have been noticed at liftoff the mission may have been aborted.
Since it was not noticed until a day late it would have been hard to abort and mission managers said it would not effect the shuttle. They based their judgments on past happenings of insulation hitting the wings. Another scenario was that the aerodynamic structural breakup of the shuttle caused by the shuttle rolling down at the wrong angle. After reentry to the earth’s atmosphere, the shuttle comes down toward earth without any engine power.
The only way to control it is by using flaps, which is said to be extremely hard. Debris was seen falling off the shuttle as far west as California before it was disintegrated over Texas. The pieces of shuttle that fell off over California may have burned up completely before reaching the ground because they were so small. More than 3, 600 pieces of debris have been sent to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. About 2, 500 of those pieces have been identified as part of the shuttle and cataloged. Investigators are going to try to assemble as much of the shuttle as possible to see if they can find out what happen.
The Essay on Space Columbia Shuttle Expedition
The STS-108 crewmember's -- Commander Dom Gori e, Pilot Mark Kelley, Mission Specialists Linda Godwin and Dan Tani, and Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson -- will share their mission experiences aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour with JSC employees, contractors, friends, family members and public guests. This event is scheduled for 6: 30 p. m. on Jan. 22 in the Iwerks Theater at Space Center ...
In addition to the pieces already sent to Kennedy Space Center another 10, 000 pieces are headed to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. All kinds of debris was found, from parts of the shuttle such as the nose and pieces of tiles to patches and helmets worn by the crew members. This was the first fatal accident in reentry history for NASA. Most problems usually happen at liftoff, but the Russians mastered it in 1961 and the United States did it a few years later. The board of investigators was split into three groups: materials, operations, and technical.
They are trying to find out if the foam that hit the wing and made a hole in it is the reason for the shuttle being destroyed. After the Challenger disaster in 1986, NASA grounded space flight for about two years. That leaves a problem for the crew on the International Space Station. We have to get the crew members home some kind of way.
Officials say that they might consider one more flight to bring them home. The other option would be to let them come home on the Russian Soyuz craft, which is a small capsule that is very uncomfortable to ride in. We owe these brave astronauts our gratitude for the risks that they took in service of mankind. Their names are: Rick D.
Husband, Commander, William C. McCool, Pilot, Michael P. Anderson, Payload Specialist, Kalpana Chawla, Mission Specialist, David M. Brown, Mission Specialist, Laurel B. Clark, Mission Specialist, Ilan Ramon, Payload Specialist.
