Space Shuttle Columbia

The **Space Shuttle _Columbia**_ (OV-102) was a spacecraft used by NASA to fly into outer space. It was the first Space Shuttle to fly into space, on April 12, 1981. It broke apart while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003, killing all seven people who were on it at the time. The shuttle flew a total of 28 missions. The Columbia was named after a US Navy ship that circumnavigated the world in 1790. It was also the name of the Apollo 11 Lunar Excursion Module.

## Cause of destruction

A piece of insulating foam from the external fuel tank peeled off during the launch 16 days earlier and struck the shuttle's left wing.
A hole was punctured in the leading edge of the wing. During the intense heat of re-entry, hot gases entered the interior of the wing, destroying the support structures and causing the rest of the shuttle to break apart.

## Crew

- Commander: Rick D. Husband, a U.S. Air Force colonel and mechanical engineer, who piloted a previous shuttle during the first docking with the International Space Station (STS-96).
- Pilot: William C. McCool, a U.S. Navy commander
- Payload Commander: Michael P. Anderson, a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and physicist who was in charge of the science mission.
- Payload Specialist: Ilan Ramon, a colonel in the Israeli Air Force and the first Israeli astronaut.
- Mission Specialist: Kalpana Chawla, an Indian-born aerospace engineer on her second space mission.
- Mission Specialist: David M. Brown, a U.S. Navy captain trained as an aviator and flight surgeon. Brown worked on a number of scientific experiments.
- Mission Specialist: Laurel Clark, a U.S. Navy captain and flight surgeon. Clark worked on a number of biological experiments.

## Missions

|width="15" style="background:#efefef;"|#|style="background:#efefef;"|Date|style="background:#efefef;"|Designation|style="background:#efefef;"|Launch pad|style="background:#efefef;"|Landing location|style="background:#efefef;"|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|12 April 1981|STS-1|39-A|Edwards Air Force Base|First Shuttle mission|||||||
|2|12 November 1981|STS-2|39-A|Edwards Air Force Base|First re-use of manned space vehicle|||||||
|3|22 March 1982|STS-3|39-A|White Sands Space Harbor|First mission with an unpainted External tank. Only time that a space shuttle has landed at the White Sands Space Harbor. This launch was dedicated by Ronald Reagan to "the people of Afghanistan".|||||||
|4|27 June 1982|STS-4|39-A|Edwards Air Force Base|Last shuttle R&D flight|||||||
|5|11 November 1982|STS-5|39-A|Edwards Air Force Base|First four-person crew, first deployment of commercial satellite.|||||||
|6||STS-9|39-A||First six-person crew, first Spacelab.|||||||
|7|12 January 1986|STS-61-C|39-A|Edwards Air Force Base|Representative Bill Nelson (D-FL) on board/ final successful shuttle flight before Challenger disaster|||||||
|8|8 August 1989|STS-28|39-B|Edwards Air Force Base|Launched KH-11 reconnaissance satellite|||||||
|9|9 January 1990|STS-32|39-A|Edwards Air Force Base|Retrieved Long Duration Exposure Facility|||||||
|10|2 December 1990|STS-35|39-B|Edwards Air Force Base|Carried multiple X-ray & UV telescopes|||||||
|11|5 June 1991|STS-40|39-B|Edwards Air Force Base|5th Spacelab - Life Sciences-1|||||||
|12|25 June 1992|STS-50|39-A|Kennedy Space Center|U.S. Microgravity Laboratory 1 (USML-1)|||||||
|13|22 October 1992|STS-52|39-B|Kennedy Space Center|Deployed Laser Geodynamic Satellite II|||||||
|14|26 April 1993|STS-55|39-A|Edwards Air Force Base|German Spacelab D-2 Microgravity Research|||||||
|15|18 October 1993|STS-58|39-B|Edwards Air Force Base|Spacelab Life Sciences|||||||
|16|4 March 1994|STS-62|39-B|Kennedy Space Center|United States Microgravity Payload-2 (USMP-2)|||||||
|17|8 July 1994|STS-65|39-A|Kennedy Space Center|International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-2)|||||||
|18|20 October 1995|STS-73|39-B|Kennedy Space Center|United States Microgravity Laboratory (USML-2)|||||||
|19|22 February 1996|STS-75|39-B|Kennedy Space Center|Tethered Satellite System Reflight (TSS-1R)|||||||
|20|20 June 1996|STS-78|39-B|Kennedy Space Center|Life and Microgravity Spacelab (LMS)|||||||
|21|19 November 1996|STS-80|39-B|Kennedy Space Center|3rd Wake Shield Facility flight/ longest Shuttle flight as of 2006|||||||
|22|4 April 1997|STS-83|39-A|Kennedy Space Center|Microgravity Science Laboratory (MSL)- cut short|||||||
|23|1 July 1997|STS-94|39-A|Kennedy Space Center|Microgravity Science Laboratory (MSL)- reflight|||||||
|24|19 November 1997|STS-87|39-B|Kennedy Space Center|United States Microgravity Payload (USMP-4)|||||||
|25|13 April 1998|STS-90|39-B|Kennedy Space Center|Neurolab - Spacelab|||||||
|26|23 July 1999|STS-93|39-B|Kennedy Space Center|Deployed Chandra X-ray Observatory|||||||
|27|1 March 2002|STS-109|39-A|Kennedy Space Center|Hubble Space Telescope service mission (HSM-3B)|||||||
|28||STS-107|39-A|Did not land (Planned to land at Kennedy Space Center)|Earth science research mission.  Shuttle destroyed during re-entry on 1 February 2003. All seven astronauts on board died.|||||||