Eighty seconds into the launch, a piece of insulating foam broke loose from the external propellant tank and hit the edge of the shuttle's left wing. Similar incidents had occurred on other launches without critical damage being taken, but some engineers at the space agency feared that a catastrophic failure was in the works. NASA management did not address their concerns during the two weeks that the Columbia was in orbit, as there was little that could be done at that point to fix the situation. NASA engineers also did not believe that the foam had enough momentum to cause significant damage. Post-accident tests would reveal otherwise.
Either way, Columbia re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on the morning of February 1. This was when the trouble began. Hot gases entered the wing and blew it apart, due to the damaged tile section and melted structural elements of the wing. The first debris began to fall to the ground in West Texas, where the shuttle was over. One minute later, the last communication between the five men and two women of the crew was heard. A minute after that, the shuttle disintegrated near Dallas. Remains of the shuttle and the crew were found in over 2,000 locations across Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana. To make matters worse, two pilots aboard a search helicopter were killed in a crash while searching for the remains. Strangely enough, in the midst of all this, it was discovered that worms the crew had brought aboard the Columbia for a study had survived in a canister.
The tragedy of the Columbia took place almost precisely 17 years after that of the Challenger in its respective launch accident. Investigations would later reveal that it would have been possible for the Columbia's crew to repair the wing or wait to be rescued from the doomed shuttle. In response to the devastating incident, the space shuttle program was grounded until 2005. In 2011, thirty years after the first mission, the program would make its final one.
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/event/Columbia-disaster
https://www.history.com/topics/space-exploration/columbia-disaster
I found your article really informative and it made me wonder of how successful space shuttle missions generally were. And when researching, while there were many times minor issues, only the Columbia and Challenger missions were critical failures in which members of the crew died. Out of the 135 total missions, only 2 resulting in horrific failure. I find that this serves as both a reminder for how dangerous space travel can be, but also how impressive it is, considering how dangerous and difficult space flight is, for how few total failures occurred. But regardless of how successful the missions generally were, both of the losses were still incredibly saddening.
ReplyDeleteSources:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/index.html
https://www.history.com/topics/1980s/challenger-disaster
https://www.history.com/topics/space-exploration/columbia-disaster