Columbia disaster that scuttled the space shuttle

America could now be aiming to place astronauts again on the Moon, however for years the USA turned its again on manned missions after the Columbia space shuttle catastrophe.

Its space program suffered a catastrophic setback when all seven astronauts have been killed when the shuttle broke up on re-entering the Earth’s ambiance 20 years in the past on February 1, 2003.

It was the second shuttle catastrophe after the Challenger explosion of 1986 which additionally killed the crew and led to sharp criticism of the protection tradition at NASA.

The shuttle fleet was grounded for 2 and a half years and it sparked a significant shift in American space flights.

In 2004, president George W. Bush introduced that the eye-wateringly costly program could be retired.

For years after the final shuttle flight in 2011, NASA discovered itself depending on Russia for transport to the Worldwide Area Station (ISS) till Elon Musk’s Area X started flying passengers there in 2020.

In addition to the Moon, Washington is now making ready for a manned mission to Mars, scheduled tentatively for the late 2030s or early 2040s.

‘Trails of smoke’

Columbia broke up at 203,000 ft (61,900 meters) over jap Texas simply because the mission controller in Houston was speaking to Columbia commander Rick Husband.

“To Columbia, right here is Houston… we didn’t copy your final” message.

After a second, Husband replied: “Roger however…”

After a short crackling noise, contact was misplaced.

Columbia disappeared from radar screens at 9:00 am (1400 GMT), 16 minutes earlier than it was as a result of land.

The flaming particles from the 80-ton craft was caught streaking throughout the sky over the southern US by native TV stations, with components scattered over Texas and Louisiana.

Bob Molter from Palestine, Texas, advised Nationwide Public Radio how he noticed the shuttle break up within the sky.

“There was a giant growth that shook the home for greater than a minute, and I went outdoors as a result of I assumed there had been a prepare accident on the close by line.

“However there was nothing, after which I appeared up and noticed the paths of smoke zig-zagging, going throughout the sky.”

Heroes

Columbia was the oldest shuttle to fly in orbit.

When it took off on its twenty eighth flight on January 16, 2003 for a 16-day mission to hold out experiments it had been in operation for over 20 years.

Flight STS-107 was launched beneath extraordinarily tight safety within the wake of the September 11, 2001 assaults and as a result of presence on board of Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon.

Bush lower brief a keep on the Camp David presidential retreat and raced again to Washington following the tragedy. In a televised deal with he hailed the crew, two of whom have been girls, as heroes.

A probe revealed that the shuttle disintegrated as a result of harm brought on by a chunk of froth from the exterior gas tank that took a bit out of the orbiter’s left wing throughout liftoff.

This left it unable to resist the extreme temperatures generated by re-entry.

Finish of shuttle program

The shuttle program was born in 1972 beneath president Richard Nixon and went on to change into the most important focus of US human spaceflight ambitions over the following 4 a long time.

The fleet additionally acted like space vehicles, carrying greater than 1,500 tons of apparatus to assist construct the primary space telescope, Hubble, and the Worldwide Area Station.

After the Columbia catastrophe, NASA underwent sweeping adjustments aimed toward bettering its tradition and security.

The company resumed shuttle flights in July 2005, with Discovery, then Endeavour and at last Atlantis persevering with to fly missions to the ISS till 2011.

© 2023 AFP