Remembering the Columbia space shuttle disaster
Twenty years ago this week, San Diego-born astronaut William McCool and his six crew mates were killed when the space shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry on Feb. 1, 2003.
From The San Diego Union-Tribune, Sunday, Feb. 2, 2003:
‘COLUMBIA IS LOST’
SEVEN ASTRONAUTS PERISH JUST 16 MINUTES FROM HOME
SPACE SHUTTLE HAD RE-ENTERED ATMOSPHERE, WAS 39 MILES UP
By MARCIA DUNN AND PAM EASTON, Associated Press
High over Texas and just short of home, space shuttle Columbia disintegrated yesterday, raining debris over hundreds of miles of countryside. Seven astronauts perished — a gut-wrenching loss for a country already staggered by tragedy.
The catastrophe occurred 39 miles above the Earth in the last 16 minutes of the 16-day mission as the spaceship re-entered the atmosphere and glided in for a landing in Florida.
In its horror and in its backdrop of a crystal blue sky, the day echoed one almost exactly 17 years before, when the Challenger exploded.
“The Columbia is lost,” said President Bush, after he telephoned the families of the astronauts to console them.
“The same creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today,” Bush said, his eyes glistening. “The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth but we can pray they are safely home.”
The search for the cause began immediately. One focus: possible damage to Columbia’s protective thermal tiles on the left wing from a flying piece of debris during liftoff on Jan. 16.
The loss of seven astronauts — shuttle commander Rick Husband, Michael P. Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, William McCool and Ilan Ramon — brought a new round of grief to the nation.
And again, Americans were forced to confront the risks of space, along with the glories.
“The reality of what these people do has often escaped me,” said Charlie Dillon, 52, of Denver. “But they are frontiersmen, they’re out there making my life better and creating endless possibilities for my children.”
NASA appointed an independent commission to investigate. The agency said the first indication of trouble yesterday was the loss of temperature sensors in the left wing’s hydraulic system.
The spacecraft had just re-entered the atmosphere, traveling at 12,500 mph, or 18 times the speed of sound, and had reached the point at which it was subjected to the highest temperatures.
NASA officials said they suspected the wing was damaged on liftoff, but felt there was no reason for concern. They cautioned that it might have had nothing to do with the accident.
Authorities said there was no indication of terrorism; at 207,135 feet, the shuttle was out of range of any surface-to-air missile, one senior government official said. Security was extraordinarily tight on this mission because Ramon, Israel’s first astronaut, was among the crew members.
Television footage showed a bright light followed by white smoke plumes streaking diagonally across the brilliant sky. Debris appeared to break off into separate balls of light as it continued downward.