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Shuttle burns up over Texas
Published:
Monday, February 3, 2003
Media Credit: NASA
Members of the space shuttle Columbia crew pose for a photo in October 2001. Seated in front are Rick D. Husband, from left, Kalpana Chawla, and William C. McCool. Standing are, from the left, David M. Brown, Laurel B. Clark, Michael P. Anderson and Ilan Ramon. Columbia broke apart on its return to Earth on Saturday.
Media Credit: PAUL MOSELEY/FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
Federal investigators, above, holding GPS instruments, look over a piece of the space shuttle Columbia, near Bronson, Texas, Saturday.
Media Credit: IAN MCVEA/FORT
A boot sole, apparently from a spacesuit boot belonging to a crew member of the space shuttle Columbia, was tagged where it landed with other debris near a home in Bronson.
Media Credit: RED HUBER/ORLANDO SENTINEL
Kennedy Space Center security officers Bruce Forton, right, and Mike Orr lower the American Flag and flag for the space shuttle Columbia to half-staff after the shuttle broke apart as it was returning to land Saturday. In the background is launch pad 39A where Columbia lifted off 16 days ago.
Martin Merzer, Phil Long and Seth Borenstein
Knight Ridder Newspapers
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Columbia, a 21st Century cargo ship carrying a cross-section of America's human treasure and the first Israeli astronaut, disintegrated in flames Saturday over Texas.
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. Between 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. He was the son of an Air Force man and grew up on military bases. He was an African-American.
"This day has brought terrible news and great sadness to our country," President Bush said. "The Columbia is lost. There are no survivors...
"The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth, yet we can pray they all are safely home. May God bless the grieving families."
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 aboard.
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 9 a.m. EST 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.
"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. Residents reported finding metal fragments, piles of ash and what appeared to be a door off the shuttle.
Authorities urged them not to touch or even approach the debris. It could contain hazardous material, experts said, and it could contain vital clues to the cause of Columbia's demise.
Late Saturday, recovery crews prepared to begin the grim, agonizing search for human remains. And NASA engineers and managers launched the first phase of a painstaking search for the accident's cause.
Early speculation centered on an explosion caused by a structural defect or the possibility that crucial, heat-protecting tiles on the shuttle's left wing were damaged when it was struck by a piece of fuel-tank insulation during blastoff on Jan. 16.
NASA engineers concluded during the flight that any damage to the wing was minor and posed no safety hazard -- an assertion certain to be tested during a probe that NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe promised would be complete and vigorous.
"At this time, we have no indication that it was caused by anything or anyone on the ground," O'Keefe said, a comment apparently designed to quell speculation about terrorism.
Flags were lowered to half-staff at the White House, the Capitol, the Kennedy Space Center in Central Florida, the Johnson Space Center near Houston and at countless other locations around the nation.
At the Kennedy Space Center, spouses and children of the astronauts were gathered from the landing strip and taken to a secluded location. A NASA official said they were returning to Houston and "bearing up under the grief."
Before the 16-day scientific flight, Ramon the Israeli spoke evocatively about the symbolic nature of his assignment -- and its meaning to his people.
Though a secular Jew, he planned to observe the Sabbath, when possible, and eat kosher food aboard the shuttle. He called it an "act of solidarity with Jewish tradition."
"I was born in Israel," said Ramon, "and I'm kind of the proof for the whole Israeli people that whatever we fought for and we've been going through in the last century -- or maybe in the last 2,000 years -- is becoming true."
Clark, another rookie, echoed his words.
"This is my first flight and I'm very excited," she said before liftoff. "I can't wait to look down on our planet from space."
Chawla, the first native of India to fly in space, was particularly admired by Indian immigrants to America. In a magazine interview after her first flight in 1997, she said:
"You see the continents go by, the thunderstorms shimmering in the clouds, the city lights at night.... Earth is very beautiful. I wish everyone could see it."
Columbia was inaugurated in flight on April 12, 1981. This was its 28th flight in space.
