Content area
All seven astronauts died. They never had a chance. Astronauts have no way to escape a shuttle as it glides toward a landing without power at 13,000 miles per hour. The crew included three U.S. military officers, one of the nation's few black astronauts and a woman who immigrated to America from India. Six were married. Among them, the astronauts of shuttle Columbia had 12 children. Astronauts are pioneers on the frontiers of space. They depend on muscular but fragile technology. It let seven of them down on Saturday, but they knew the risks going in. "I take the risk because I think what we're doing is really important," Michael Anderson, 43, Columbia's payload commander, said before Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral on Jan. 16. "This day has brought terrible news and great sadness to our country," President Bush said. "The Columbia is lost. There are no survivors . . ." He added: "The same creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today." In addition to Anderson, aboard Columbia were: Rick Husband, 45, the shuttle's commander and an Air Force colonel; co-pilot William McCool, 41, a Navy commander; mission specialists David Brown, 46, a Navy captain; Kalpana Chawla, 41, who was born in India; Laurel Clark, 41, a flight surgeon; and Ilan Ramon, 48, a colonel in Israel's air force. All but Brown were married. Ramon had four children, McCool had three, Husband had two, Anderson had two and Clark had one. Ramon, McCool, Brown and Clark were space rookies. It was the shuttle program's 113th mission and second major disaster, eerily reminiscent of the 1986 explosion of the Challenger shuttle during liftoff, which also killed all seven astronauts who were aboard. Heat and a vapor trail No cause was immediately apparent, but sensors aboard Columbia reported a sudden spike of intense heat, an indication that the ship's heat shield had been breached. The temperature at that point of reentry: 3,000 degrees. The altitude: 207,135 feet, or 39 miles above Earth. Government officials said there was no indication of terrorism and the shuttle was well out of the range of missiles when the accident occurred. The president and others vowed that the human space program would continue, after a lengthy investigation. "It's more than a job, this is a passion for us," said Ron Dittemore, NASA's shuttle program manager. "There's going to be a period of mourning in this community, then we're going to fix this problem and we're going to get back on the launch pad." The shuttle was only 16 minutes from the landing strip at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral when NASA lost communication with it. The last word from Columbia came at 8 a.m. CST from Commander Husband: "Roger." Then, a muffled sound. Then only static. Residents far below reported hearing a loud bang. Cherokee County Sheriff James Campbell was at home when he and his wife heard the terrible sound. Future of Space Station "I said, it's probably the space shuttle's entry back into the atmosphere," Campbell said. "She said, 'No, come look at the vapor trail.' It was zigzagging down, and I said, 'Well, something's wrong.' " The sky was scarred with smoke, debris, failure, and death. Debris rained over hundreds of miles of Texas fields and highways, stretching from near Dallas all the way to Louisiana. With the shuttle likely to be grounded for a lengthy period, the fate of the already controversial International Space Station was in serious doubt. Costing taxpayers $52.7 billion and scheduled to take more than six years, the space station is the most ambitious U.S. space project since the Apollo moon landing. Construction of the station continues and requires dozens of shuttle flights. Searching for a cause The current crew in the station - NASA astronauts Ken Bowersox and Don Pettit and Russian Nikolai Budarin - can return to earth aboard Russian spacecraft. Even as crews deployed to look for wreckage, NASA engineers and officials began searching for a cause. The quasi-independent Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel and other experts have been warning NASA for years about the dangers of an aging shuttle fleet and the need for safety upgrades that have been delayed due to lack of funds.
Graphic: caller.com Visit caller.com for more Videos * Message board for Columbia crew * Space Shuttle Columbia breaks up over Texas * Speech by President Bush * Former astronaut Gene Cernan speaks * Pre-launch interviews with members of STS-107 Columbia crew members about their science mission Message board * Send condolences and tributes to Columbia's crew Photo galleries * Columbia's last mission * A tragic day
Graphic: Locator map NASA loses space shuttle Columbia Space shuttle Columbia apparently broke apart in flames as it streaked over Texas toward its scheduled landing Saturday, killing all seven astronauts, six Americans and an Israeli.
Approximate path of space shuttle Debris might be strewn through parts of New Mexico 8:00 am* Columbia breaks apart at an altitude of about 200,000 feet as it begins its descent Debris found in northeastern Texas and Louisiana 8:16 am* Scheduled landing time
Crew on current mission: Seven Orbital speed: 17,600 mph Nominal touchdown speed: 212-226 mph
Features: Lifts off vertically with boosters and re-enters atmosphere after mission for unpowered aerodynamic landing on airfield Materials on outer skin are designed to perform a minimum of 100 missions, in which temperatures will range from -250°F (-156°C) in space to re-entry temperatures of nearly 3,000°F (1,648°C) Year built: 1981 Cost: $1 billion Number of missions: 28
Space Shuttle Columbia 56 ft., 8 in. (17.27 m) 78 ft., 0.68 in. (23.79 m) 122 ft., 2 in. (37.24 m)
Crew compartment, carries up to 8 people Payload bay Main engines External tank, used during launch Solid rocket boosters
*Central Standard Time. Sources: Associated Press; Jane's Information Group; NASA
Credit: Caller-Times/AP
Copyright 2011 - CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES - All Rights Reserved.