Space Shuttle Columbia

Columbia Space Shuttle

On April 12, 1981, NASA astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen did something that no one had ever tried before: ride a rocket into space on its first flight.

Space Shuttle Columbia Launch

Columbia Space Shuttle Launch

The vehicle they flew was the space shuttle Columbia. It was powered by three main engines and two solid rocket boosters that had been tested on the ground but had never flown into space.

It was a brave act. All previous vehicles had unmanned test flights before anyone climbed aboard. Young and Crippen had to put their faith in engineers and computer simulations. Fortunately, all went well. Columbia roared into orbit and landed safely two days later.

Columbia was NASA's first operational space shuttle. It was named after the 18th century American sloop Columbia Rediviva that Captain Robert Gray used to explore the U.S. Pacific Northwest and to circumnavigate the world. The shuttle also honored Apollo 11's Lunar Module Columbia.

After its maiden flight, Columbia flew three additional test missions before the space shuttle system was declared operational. The orbiter would fly a total of 27 successful missions over 22 years. Missions included deploying and retrieving satellites and flying the Spacelab module in its cargo bay. In 1999E, ileen Collins became the first female shuttle commander aboard Columbia.

The space shuttle Columbia's 28th mission began on January 16, 2003, with a crew of seven aboard: Commander Rick Husband; pilot William McCool; Payload Commander Michael Anderson; Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, and Laurel Clark; and Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon.

Unlike other shuttle flights, this would be a solo science mission that would not dock to the International Space Station (ISS). The 107th flight of the space shuttle program seemed routine enough. But, that was an illusion.

During launch, a piece of insulating foam from the external tank struck the orbiter. Although ground controllers had seen the strike, they did not believe that it was serious. They were wrong. The foam had punched in the leading edge of the left wing.

The crew could not see the damage, nor did Columbia have a robotic arm with a camera attached they could use to inspect for damage. After a successful 16-day mission, the crew flew Columbia through re-entry. Hot gasses poured in through the hole in the wing, destroying the interior of the orbiter. The vehicle broke up over Texas just 16 minutes before its scheduled landing. The entire crew was lost.

If NASA had known about the damage, the crew might have been saved. A rescue mission could have been flown with the space shuttle Atlantis. Or the crew could have made some emergency repairs to the wing.

Columbia's loss was the beginning of the end of the space shuttle program. The following year, President George W. Bush announced that the space shuttles would be retired after they completed construction flights for the ISS. The final flight of the program occurred in July 2011.

The Columbia Hills on Mars were named in honor of the lost crew. They are also memorialized with a 13,980 foot mountain in Colorado named Columbia Point, which is less than one-half mile from Challenger Point, which honors the crew of NASA's other lost space shuttle.

By the Numbers

Total miles traveled: 121,696,993
Total time in space: 300 days
Total flights: 28 flights
Total crew members: 160

Links for Space Shuttle Columbia

NASA Space Shuttle website

 

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