human remains space shuttle columbia debris field

Exceptionally cold weather at Challenger's Florida launch site that day caused a failure in an O-ring seal on one of the shuttle's solid rocket boosters that ultimately pulled apart the vehicle. It followed the 1986 destruction of the shuttle Challenger and its crew. The Columbia accident was the second disaster in the history of the 30-year space shuttle program. All post-Columbia shuttles flew with external tanks that had been redesigned to diminish the amount of debris from their insulating foam that fell off during liftoff.Īs a further precaution, recent crews conducted thorough inspections of their orbiters' heat shields once in orbit to make sure they hadn't sustained any damage that would endanger them during landing. (Image credit: NASA/JSC)Ĭolumbia was carrying commander Rick Husband, pilot William McCool, mission specialists Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, and Laurel Clark, payload commander Michael Anderson, and payload specialist Ilan Ramon, who was Israel's first astronaut.įollowing the catastrophe, NASA upgraded equipment and processes to protect against a similar failure. Ramon represents the Israeli Space Agency. From left (top row) are astronauts David Brown, mission specialist William McCool, pilot and Michael Anderson, payload commander.

From left (bottom row): Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist Rick Husband, commander Laurel Clark, mission specialist and Ilan Ramon, payload specialist. The shirt colors indicate their mission shifts. This image of the STS-107 shuttle Columbia crew in orbit was recovered from wreckage inside an undeveloped film canister. 'It always makes you think about the accident and Columbia and the crew of course,' Malone said. The hole rendered the orbiter unable to withstand the intense heat of re-entry, causing the vehicle to disintegrate.ĭiscoveries of debris from the wreck can still serve to reopen old wounds. The 2003 disaster was traced back to a hole that was punched into one of Columbia's wings by a piece of debris from its fuel tank during launch, according to the findings of a review board that investigated the accident. 'From time to time throughout the year we do get phone calls and emails from people about items they think are debris,' Malone said. The remainder was either burned up during reentry or is still where it landed in Texas and Louisiana. To date, about 38-40 percent of the Columbia orbiter's wreckage has been recovered. 'We do want to collect the debris items and keep them in one place.' 'We're working the plans and details out right now as to how we would get it shipped back here,' Malone said. The spherical tank, about 40 inches (1 meter) in diameter, will eventually be shipped back to Kennedy Space Center, where NASA stores all the collected debris from Columbia in a climate controlled area in the giant Vehicle Assembly Building. The piece was one of 18 tanks on the shuttle that stored supercold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. 'One of the guys had been here more than 30 years and recognized it, and said, 'That’s one of the tanks,'' Malone said.

Human remains space shuttle columbia debris field