The homeward-bound space shuttle Columbia broke up in orange flames and contrails of smoke Saturday over Texas, killing all seven astronauts aboard and leaving investigators baffled over what went wrong on a mission that was only 16 minutes away from a successful completion.
Echoing the tragedy of the space shuttle Challenger that stunned the nation almost exactly 17 years ago, Columbia exploded at an altitude of about 39 miles as it was traveling 18 times the speed of sound en route to Cape Canaveral, Fla. The force of the explosion scattered debris across hundreds of square miles in Texas and Louisiana and, according to witnesses, shook houses in the area around Nacogdoches, Texas.
The catastrophe evoked an outpouring of sympathy from a nation grappling with the memories of terrorist attacks and the prospect of war. Flags were lowered to half-staff. Americans interrupted their normal weekend routines to monitor developments on television and, in Texas and Florida, to create memorials to the fallen astronauts.
“The Columbia is lost,” an emotional President Bush said in a televised address to the nation. He paid homage to the astronauts, saying, “The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth, but we can pray that they are safely home.”
NASA and an independent review panel said they will investigate the disaster. While officials said it was too early to speculate about the cause of the disaster, early indicators pointed to debris that damaged the left wing during Columbia’s launch. That could have been responsible for the loss of signals from temperature sensors in the wing’s hydraulic system during re-entry.
Investigators have all but ruled out terrorism as a cause because the shuttle’s high altitude and extreme speed put it out of range of an attack from the ground.
“This was a fantastic mission that seemed to be coming to the right conclusion,” Milt Heflin, the shuttle’s chief flight director, told reporters in Houston.
Columbia’s disintegration quickly brought to mind the Jan. 28, 1986, Challenger disaster, which also killed seven astronauts when the shuttle exploded 73 seconds after launch. That tragedy undermined American confidence in the space program, and shuttle flights were suspended for nearly three years. Saturday’s loss is unique because it is the first in 42 years of U.S. human spaceflight involving a vehicle about to land.
The Challenger disaster reminded Americans of the inherent dangers of space travel, but on Saturday, under clear blue skies, residents of eastern Texas gathered to watch the approach of what they fully expected would be another successful Columbia mission. The craft had just re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, a critical juncture at which the spacecraft is exposed to its highest temperatures. Columbia was due to touch down at Cape Canaveral at 8:16 a.m. Chicago time.
But at 8 a.m., just as NASA’s Mission Control reported losing contact with the Columbia crew, witnesses reported hearing “a big bang,” seeing flames and contrails in the sky and watching debris fall to Earth.
Television footage showed a bright light followed by white smoke plumes streaking across the sky. Pieces of the spacecraft were found in several east Texas counties and in Louisiana. Some human remains were reportedly recovered.
Killed in the explosion were shuttle commander Rick Husband, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, William McCool and Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon. Six of the seven astronauts were married, and five had children. Ramon was the first Israeli to fly in space.
It was a somber Bush who said, “All Americans today are thinking, as well, of the families of these men and women who have been given this sudden shock and grief.
“You’re not alone. Our entire nation grieves with you. And those you loved will always have the respect and gratitude of this country,” he said. “The cause in which they died will continue.”
Bush ordered that government flags be flown at half-staff.
In a lengthy and often emotional briefing with reporters in Houston, Ron Dittemore, the shuttle program manager, said there was “no indication of any impending threats to the vehicle.” Then technicians noticed a loss of data from temperature sensors on the left wing, followed by a loss of data from tire pressure indicators on the left main landing gear.
The final radio transmission between Mission Control and the shuttle was at 8 a.m. It gave no hint of trouble. Mission Control told the shuttle, “We see your tire pressure messages and we did not copy your last.”
Husband responded: “Roger, uh, buh … .”
Those were the last words from Columbia.
Military satellites with infrared detectors saw several flashes as Columbia broke apart, a defense official said. It was unclear whether those “spikes” of heat indicated an explosion or the burning of pieces of debris re-entering the atmosphere.
When Columbia lifted off on Jan. 16, a piece of insulating foam on its external fuel tank flew off and was thought to have struck the left wing of the shuttle. At the time, officials were not alarmed. They believed that the potential damage to the wing did not pose a safety hazard. That view is being reconsidered.
Debris from the shuttle landed on fields, highways and in towns in Texas and Louisiana. Despite urgent warnings from government officials that people should not touch the wreckage, dozens of people were treated at area hospitals after they handled the smoldering metal.
Across the country, people watched television to keep up with developments. In moments preceding commercial breaks, CNN showed photos of the astronauts and played somber music, the same music the all-news channel used in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
In Florida, where about 1,000 people had gathered at Kennedy Space Center to await Columbia’s landing, visitors attached flower wreaths and bouquets to a fence surrounding a permanent memorial honoring astronauts killed in earlier accidents.
David Beckwith, a software engineer from Wheaton, was vacationing at Disney World with his family and 5-year-old son, Robert, when he decided to drive to Cape Canaveral on Saturday morning.
“This was our only non-Disney event,” Beckwith said. “That’s why I wanted to come here. I wanted my son to see history. Disney is fantasy.”
The Beckwiths heard the news of the accident on their way to the space center.
“I just told him [Robert] that it crashed. I don’t know if he really understood what happened,” Beckwith said.
In Houston, families laid wreaths at the entrance to Johnson Space Center. Flags flew at half-staff along roads leading to the center.
At the Smithsonian Institution’s Air and Space Museum in Washington, Wes Myers was one of hundreds who visited the display for Columbia, which made its first flight in 1981.
“You look at what America has done in terms of pioneering space, and you know what happened today is a tragedy,” he said.
As the United States grapples with a host of other issues, including threats from North Korea, a possible war against Iraq and a rocky economy, the Columbia disaster seemed one more daunting issue facing the nation, said Myers, a staff member at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
However, he said, the country always perseveres. Motioning to a display detailing the evolution of astronaut gear, Myers said, “Being here today, and looking at all this, gives you a sense that this country will recover and continue.”
