Space Shuttle Columbia

The Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) was a spacecraft used by NASA to fly into outer space. It was the first Space Shuttle to fly into space, on April 12, 1981. It broke apart while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003, killing all seven people who were on it at the time. The shuttle flew a total of 28 missions. The Columbia was named after a US Navy ship that circumnavigated the world in 1836.^[1] It was also the name of the Apollo 11 Lunar Excursion Module.

Space Shuttle Columbia

Cause of destruction

See the main article: Space Shuttle Columbia disaster

A piece of insulating foam from the external fuel tank peeled off during the launch 16.0 days earlier and struck the shuttle's left wing.^[2]

A hole was punctured in the leading edge of the wing. During the intense heat of re-entry, hot gases entered the interior of the wing, destroying the support structures and causing the rest of the shuttle to break apart.^[3]

Crew

The crew of STS-107. L to R: Brown, Husband, Clark, Chawla, Anderson, McCool, Ramon.

• Commander: Rick D. Husband, a U.S. Air Force colonel and mechanical engineer, who piloted a previous shuttle during the first docking with the International Space Station (STS-96).
• Pilot: William C. McCool, a U.S. Navy commander
• Payload Commander: Michael P. Anderson, a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and physicist who was in charge of the science mission.
• Payload Specialist: Ilan Ramon, a colonel in the Israeli Air Force and the first Israeli astronaut.
• Mission Specialist: Kalpana Chawla, an Indian-born aerospace engineer on her second space mission.
• Mission Specialist: David M. Brown, a U.S. Navy captain trained as an aviator and flight surgeon. Brown worked on a number of scientific experiments.
• Mission Specialist: Laurel Clark, a U.S. Navy captain and flight surgeon. Clark worked on a number of biological experiments.

Missions

#	Date	Designation	Launch pad	Landing location	Notes
1	12 April 1981	STS-1	39-A	Edwards Air Force Base	First Shuttle mission
2	12 November 1981	STS-2	39-A	Edwards Air Force Base	First re-use of manned space vehicle
3	22 March 1982	STS-3	39-A	White Sands Space Harbor	First mission with an unpainted External tank. Only time that a space shuttle has landed at the White Sands Space Harbor. This launch was dedicated by Ronald Reagan to "the people of Afghanistan".
4	27 June 1982	STS-4	39-A	Edwards Air Force Base	Last shuttle R&D flight
5	11 November 1982	STS-5	39-A	Edwards Air Force Base	First four-person crew, first deployment of commercial satellite.
6	28 November 1983	STS-9	39-A	Edwards Air Force Base	First six-person crew, first Spacelab.
7	12 January 1986	STS-61-C	39-A	Edwards Air Force Base	Representative Bill Nelson (D-FL) on board/ final successful shuttle flight before Challenger disaster
8	8 August 1989	STS-28	39-B	Edwards Air Force Base	Launched KH-11 reconnaissance satellite
9	9 January 1990	STS-32	39-A	Edwards Air Force Base	Retrieved Long Duration Exposure Facility
10	2 December 1990	STS-35	39-B	Edwards Air Force Base	Carried multiple X-ray & UV telescopes
11	5 June 1991	STS-40	39-B	Edwards Air Force Base	5th Spacelab - Life Sciences-1
12	25 June 1992	STS-50	39-A	Kennedy Space Center	U.S. Microgravity Laboratory 1 (USML-1)
13	22 October 1992	STS-52	39-B	Kennedy Space Center	Deployed Laser Geodynamic Satellite II
14	26 April 1993	STS-55	39-A	Edwards Air Force Base	German Spacelab D-2 Microgravity Research
15	18 October 1993	STS-58	39-B	Edwards Air Force Base	Spacelab Life Sciences
16	4 March 1994	STS-62	39-B	Kennedy Space Center	United States Microgravity Payload-2 (USMP-2)
17	8 July 1994	STS-65	39-A	Kennedy Space Center	International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-2)
18	20 October 1995	STS-73	39-B	Kennedy Space Center	United States Microgravity Laboratory (USML-2)
19	22 February 1996	STS-75	39-B	Kennedy Space Center	Tethered Satellite System Reflight (TSS-1R)
20	20 June 1996	STS-78	39-B	Kennedy Space Center	Life and Microgravity Spacelab (LMS)
21	19 November 1996	STS-80	39-B	Kennedy Space Center	3rd Wake Shield Facility flight/ longest Shuttle flight as of 2006
22	4 April 1997	STS-83	39-A	Kennedy Space Center	Microgravity Science Laboratory (MSL)- cut short
23	1 July 1997	STS-94	39-A	Kennedy Space Center	Microgravity Science Laboratory (MSL)- reflight
24	19 November 1997	STS-87	39-B	Kennedy Space Center	United States Microgravity Payload (USMP-4)
25	13 April 1998	STS-90	39-B	Kennedy Space Center	Neurolab - Spacelab
26	23 July 1999	STS-93	39-B	Kennedy Space Center	Deployed Chandra X-ray Observatory
27	1 March 2002	STS-109	39-A	Kennedy Space Center	Hubble Space Telescope service mission (HSM-3B)
28	16 January 2003	STS-107	39-A	Did not land (Planned to land at Kennedy Space Center)	Earth science research mission. Shuttle destroyed during re-entry on 1 February 2003. All seven astronauts on board died.

References

1. "Space Today Online - Space Shuttle Stories". spacetoday.org. Retrieved November 19, 2010.
2. "Columbia's Problems Began on Left Wing". Space.com. Archived from the original on June 5, 2003. Retrieved February 26, 2008.
3. "Molten Aluminum found on Columbia's thermal tiles". USA Today. Associated Press. March 4, 2003. Retrieved August 13, 2007.