The Columbia Disaster: The History of the Last Space Shuttle to Be Lost During a Mission

On February 1, the Columbia was due to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 09:16. Only a few members of the press were present to watch the landing - this was, after all, supposed to be a routine return from a routine mission, the 113th for the shuttle program and the 28th for Columbia, one of the oldest Space Shuttles.

Reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere is always the most dangerous part of any space mission. The intense heat generated as a spacecraft enters the thin upper atmosphere at immense speed can be potentially lethal, but the shuttle was designed to deal with this heat, and Columbia had successfully done it 27 times in the past. For the five men and two women on board and the members of the press present, everything seemed normal, but there was a measure of concern among those in the ground control team. The team was aware that Columbia had possibly suffered damage to the thermal tiles forming the heat shield on one wing soon after liftoff, but no one knew how extensive the damage was or even if it existed at all. There was also some disagreement about how serious it might be - some on the ground were concerned this might compromise the shuttle wing’s ability to resist the heat of reentry, while others were sure it was a minor issue that would have no serious impact on the mission. Videos of the launch had been exhaustively reviewed by engineers on the ground, but it was impossible to be certain of the precise level of damage to the heat shielding on the underside and leading edge of the wing.

There was no agreement on what should or could be done, so one thing was universally agreed upon: the crew would not be informed of the problem. There was nothing they could do to make repairs and no way to avoid reentry.

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