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 1836. It was also the name of the Apollo 11 Lunar Excursion Module.

Space Shuttle Columbia

Cause of destruction

See the main article: Space Shuttle Columbia disaster

A piece of insulating foam from the external fuel tank peeled off during the launch 16.0 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

The crew of STS-107. L to R: Brown, Husband, Clark, Chawla, Anderson, McCool, Ramon.

• 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

#	Date	Designation	Launch pad	Landing location	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	28 November 1983	STS-9	39-A	Edwards Air Force Base	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	16 January 2003	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.