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1 February 2003 - Shuttle Tragedy
This was a tragedy seen by thousands as Columbia flew overhead in clear skies - various websites had been predicting a good view of the end of STS 107's flight as it came home in the early dawn skies. Many reports have spoken of sonic booms and rumbles - but this is perfectly normal, as the shuttle is slowing from hypersonic speeds, through supersonic and down to sub-sonic speeds. Then the shuttle - streaking across the sky like a meteor - started to break up. Debris fell over an area of hundred's of square miles. Mission STS 107 was ironically in space during the 17th anniversary of the previous shuttle tragedy - the loss of shuttle Challenger which exploded during launch in January 1986. It is obviously too early to know what caused Columbia to break up, but focus has been put onto possible damage during launch when insulation came adrift from the main fuel tank, and was seen to strike the left wing of the shuttle. Data from Columbia before the tragedy indicated that the left wing area was suffering abnormal temperatures and pressures, suggesting that thermal tiles had been damaged. It is easy to forget the enormous stress that the shuttle's airframe has to withstand during any flight cycle, and although Columbia was the oldest of the shuttle fleet, she had been overhauled and upgraded many times. However, has the compromise design of shuttle orbiter and stack (rather than the original true shuttle design of lifter and orbiter) finally become unworkable? We can only hope that the setback to manned spaceflight is minimal, but it is difficult to see how the remaining shuttle fleet can continue the planned missions, including the continuing construction of the space station Freedom. The next generation of re-usable space vehicles is already decades behind schedule, so NASA may be without the means to continue work on Freedom, or progress the hoped-for Mars missions for many, many years.
Photo of STS 107 Columbia crew - official NASA photo. Photo of Columbia by Brian P James
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Today has brought
another tragedy in the history of human spaceflight, when shuttle
Columbia broke up in mid-air on its return to Earth. We
send our condolences to the families, and honour the memory of the
seven crew who died in this tragedy: Mission Commander Rick Husband;
Pilot William McCool; Payload Commander Michael Anderson; Mission
Specialists Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla, Ilan Ramon and David Brown.