Columbia broke apart during reentry on February 1, 2003, killing all seven astronauts on board. For the Shuttle program, it marked the beginning of the end.
27 miles above the state of Texas, marking the second catastrophic mission of NASA’sthe tragic event serves as an important reminder of the dangers posed by space exploration—and why astronaut safety should always be a priority.
A falling chunk of insulating foam weighing no more than 1.67 pounds—that’s all it took to take down the 179,000-pound Space Shuttle. The debris formed a gash in the orbiter’s left wing, compromising the Shuttle’s thermal protection system. The orbiter disintegrated during reentry on February 1, 2003, resulting in the deaths of all seven crew members on board.
An ensuing investigation uncovered serious faults with NASA’s safety culture, but the Shuttle’s exorbitant cost and poor safety performance signaled the beginning of the end for the program, which ended just eight years later.
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