STS-107 (Columbia)

Key facts

Mission & specifications

Mission

Columbia was the oldest of the Shuttle orbiters and the first to fly; on 1 February 2003 it became the second to be lost. STS-107 was a sixteen-day science mission carrying seven astronauts: commander Rick Husband, pilot William McCool, mission specialists Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown and Laurel Clark, and payload specialist Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut. The mission went well in orbit. The danger had already happened, unseen, at launch. Eighty-two seconds after liftoff, a piece of insulating foam the size of a briefcase had broken off the external tank and struck the leading edge of Columbia's left wing, punching a hole in the reinforced carbon panels that shield it from re-entry heat. Foam shedding had been seen on many flights and, like the O-rings before it, had come to be accepted as normal rather than treated as the threat it was. During the mission some engineers asked for imagery to inspect the wing; those requests were not pursued by managers who judged that nothing could be done even if damage existed. The crew were never told there might be a problem. On re-entry, sixteen days later, superheated gas poured through the breach in the wing and tore the orbiter apart over Texas. All seven were killed, and debris fell across hundreds of miles. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board found that the physical cause — the foam strike — sat atop the same organisational failures that had doomed Challenger: schedule pressure, normalised risk, and a culture in which engineers' concerns did not reach the people who could act on them. The Board judged the Shuttle an inherently risky vehicle that could not fly indefinitely. NASA returned the fleet to flight only to finish the International Space Station, then retired the Shuttle in 2011. Columbia's loss, seventeen years after Challenger, was the tragedy that ended the Shuttle era.

1. 2003Columbia launchesLaunch

   STS-107 begins a 16-day science mission with seven aboard, including Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut.

2. 2003The foam strikeMilestone

   82 seconds after launch, foam from the external tank hits the left wing's heat shield — an unseen mortal wound.

3. 2003Lost on re-entryMission end

   Superheated gas enters the breached wing; Columbia breaks apart over Texas and all seven are killed.

4. 2003The CAIB reportsMilestone

   The accident board blames the foam strike and the same organisational failures as Challenger, and questions the program's future.

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