Remembrance: STS-107, lost Feb. 1, 2003

The last of the three sad NASA anniversaries that by fate fall within a calendar week of each other... this day 8 years ago, orbiter Columbia disintegrated on re-entry due to a hole in the leading edge of its wing tip. The hole (caused by debris falling from the external tank during lift off) burned through the wing's edge and eventually caused the orbiter to tumble out of control.

God speed to the crew of STS 107:

Commander: Rick D. Husband
Pilot: William C. McCool
Payload Commander: Michael P. Anderson
Payload Specialist: Ilan Ramon (the first Israeli astronaut)
Mission Specialist: Kalpana Chawla, an Indian-born aerospace engineer
Mission Specialist: David M. Brown
Mission Specialist: Laurel Clark



Columbia setting sail on her final voyage:



With visible debris coming off the left (lower) wing during re-entry:



Final recorded views from Columbia's cockpit during re-entry (note the glow outside the windows from the heat caused by slowing down from 17,500mph):



Orbiter breaking up over Texas:

What a loss for all of us. Thanks for posting this, especially the photo of those heroes. They honored us all by their service and sacrifice. Let us never forget!

Peace and blessings

palestEEn in Texas. with stress on the first syllable

and in Palestine, Texas...the locals probably say it more like Pael-es-teen. East Texas has a distinctive dialect.


There. A geographical linguistic lesson for you.

I know you really wanted it
:sarcasm:
lol
:hi:

By the way,

Lived in Houston for 20 years, have friends who live in PalestEEn.

:hi:

Columbia Dies over Texas: story by radio host Thom Hartmann
Topic started by IanDB1 on May-15-08 08:11 AM (3 replies)
Last modified by cynthia on May-16-08 12:27 AM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=385&topic_id=132506

That inner cockpit view makes one wonder if they knew what was about to happen.. sad.

The crew and mission control knew from soon after the launch that the vehicle was struck. The question was the extent, if any, of damage. Obviously, the vehicle was not examined in detail - even though there was some discussion about imaging the orbiter from a high resolution spy satellite. As for knowing what was coming for the astronauts, I also recall reading that the pilot (McCool) who was flying through the first phases of descent was applying an unusual amount of thrust/control - apparently to compensate from the drag caused by the hole in the wing. Sadly, it's likely that the pilot and cdr knew something was "off"

The Columbia disaster is why all launches since that time (except for the last Hubble repair) have been to the same orbital plane as the space station - in case there is catastrophic damage to the vehicle on launch, the crew could take shelter at the space station while a rescue flight is prepped (this is why there's always a flight ready orbiter standing by for each launch).

:fistbump: