The Space Shutter Columbia ’s fiery end arrive as the STS-107 astronaut ’ families were await rails - side for everyone to come home . NASA ’s old space shuttlecock broke up around 9 a.m. Eastern ( 2 p.m. UTC ) on Feb. 1 , 2003 , scattering debris along east Texas and nearby area . Its demise was captured on several inexpert video cameras , many of which were rebroadcast on intelligence electronic internet .
In the next four months , some 20,000 military volunteer winnow out across the southwest United States to find slice of the shuttle , coming up with 85,000 pieces ( 38 % of the shuttle)as well as human cadaver . Meanwhile , investigators quickly zeroed in on a while of froth that fall off of Columbia ’s external tankful and coin the wing . A seven - month enquiry roll in the hay as theColumbia Accident Investigation Boardeventually yield that as the ultimate cause of the shuttle ’s demise , although there were other factors as well .
The disaster drink down seven citizenry : Rick Husband , Willie McCool , Michael Anderson , Kalpana Chawla , David Brown , Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon ( who was Israel ’s first cosmonaut . ) At a time when most birdie were focused on build the International Space Station , this crew ’s mandate was unlike : to spend 24 hour a 24-hour interval doing research experimentation . Some of the work was recoverable from the bunch ’s 16 days in space .
A shower of foam debris after the impact on Columbia?s impart wing . The event was not observed in real fourth dimension . acknowledgment : NASA
Columbia ’s demise impart about several pattern changes in the external tank as NASA zeroed in on “ the froth problem . ” NASA put in a new procedure in orbit for astronauts to scan the shuttle ’s stomach for broken tile using the robotlike Canadarm and video cameras ; shuttle also fly to the International Space Station in such a way so that astronauts on place could take pictures of the bottom .
Return - to - trajectory mission STS-114 in July - August 2005 yielded more foam expiration than carry . Then NASA recover something . For a recollective time , proletarian at the Michoud Assembly Facility were blamed for improper froth installation after fond test on extraneous tank , but an X - ray of light analysis on an entire tank ( done for reasons that are explain in thisblog postfrom then - shuttle manager Wayne Hale ) revealed it was in reality due to “ thermic cycle associated with fill the tank . ”
“ Discovery fly on July 4 , 2006 ; no pregnant froth loss occurred . I consider that to be the real tax return to flight of steps for the place shuttle , ” he save . “ So were we stupid ? Yes . Can you learn from our misapprehension ? I hope so . ”
The Columbia gang . From the left : Mission Specialist David Brown , Commander Rick Husband , Mission Specialists Laurel Clark , Kalpana Chawla and Michael Anderson , Pilot William McCool and Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon . Credit : NASA .
This post by Elizabeth Howelloriginally appeared at Universe Today . It has been republish with license .
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