Space Shuttle Columbia disaster 18 years later

TYLER — Monday marked a somber anniversary for NASA and people impacted across East Texas. The first day of February, 2003, was the day of the Columbia Space Shuttle catastrophe and its breakup over Texas. After more than two weeks in space, upon re-entry to the earth’s atmosphere, the shuttle was shredded while crossing the western United States. Investigators said the shuttle, traveling at 14,400 m.p.h., finally disintegrated east of Dallas, with most of the debris coming down over east Texas and western Louisiana.

Unknown to the crew, there was a hole in the leading edge of the left wing that had been there since launch, when a 1.8-pound piece of foam broke free from the aircraft and struck it roughly 80 seconds after its engines fired. The official government report found no error on part of the crew onboard the shuttle, saying they acted correctly at the first sign of trouble.

The seven astronauts killed were:
Commander Rick Husband
Pilot William C. McCool
Payload Commander Michael P. Anderson
Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla
Missioner Specialist David M. Brown
Mission Specialist Laurel Clark
Mission Specialist IIan Ramon