• Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster
On February 1, 2003, the Columbia Space Shuttle crashed while entering into the Earth’s atmosphere. It was the first shuttle lost on landing and the second Space Shuttle disaster. This disaster had taken the lives of all the seven astronauts.
• Pilot – William C. McCool, United States Navy commander.
• Commander – Rick D. Husband, a mechanical engineer and United States Air Force Colonel.
• Payload Specialist – IIan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut and Colonel of Israeli Air Force.
• Payload Commander – Michael P. Anderson, a physicist and United States Air Force lieutenant Colonel.
• Mission Specialist – David M. Brown, a flight surgeon and United States Navy Captain trained as an aviator.
• Mission Specialist – Laurel Clark, a flight surgeon and United States Navy Captain.
• Mission Specialist – Kalpana Chawla, an aerospace engineer.
The Columbia Space Shuttle was launched from Kennedy Space Center's LC-39-A on January 16th, 2003 at 09:39 a.m. CST. It was on the sixteenth day of science research mission (STS-107) in Earth orbit. Approximately, one and a half minutes after launch, a part of thermal insulation (materials used to reduce heat transfer) foam broke off the STS-107 External Tank (ET: the most important propellant reservoir) due to the aerodynamic forces. The debris struck the foremost edge of left wing and damaged the Space Shuttle TPS (thermal protection system), which guards it from heat produced during re-entry in the atmosphere.
During re-entry of Columbia Space Shuttle, the broken area allowed the hot gases to pierce and tear down the internal wing structure, quickly causing in-flight disintegration of the Shuttle. Approximately, 7 to 8 minutes before the breakdown, gauges started to lose readings in Shuttle’s left tire, landing gear brake system and left wings.
Around 09:00 a.m. (EI+969), the Columbia Space Shuttle crumbled over Texas and into some parts of Louisiana. The disaster occurred just about 16 minutes prior to its scheduled landing at Kennedy Space Center.
In all of human ventures there is a danger involved; it is not possible to completely avoid risk. The history of exploration of space has number of disasters that resulted in the deaths of the astronauts or ground crew. To date, there have been many disasters, where many astronauts lost their lives during the mission or while rehearsing.
List of few major space disasters –
• March 23, 1961 - Valentin Bondarenko died in a special low-pressure chamber, with a pure oxygen environment while in a training. Bondarenko chucked an alcohol-drenched cloth onto an electric hotplate and the fire rapidly engulfed the whole chamber. He suffered third-degree burns over most of his body and died shortly after being hospitalized.
• October 31, 1964 – Theodore Freeman died in a T-38 jet trainer, when a bird smashed through the cockpit. Flying debris of Plexiglas entered the engine intake and caused the engine to flame out. Freeman ejected from the aircraft, but was too close to the ground for his parachute to open properly.
• 28 February, 1966 – Charles Bassett and Elliot See (crew of Gemini 9) lost their lives while attempting to land in bad weather. The pilot misjudged his approach due to poor visibility and crashed into the McDonnell aircraft factory.
• 27 January, 1967 – Roger Chaffee, Gus Grisssom and Edward White II (crew of Apollo 1) died due to a fire in the cabin while rehearsing the launch.
• April 24, 1967 – Vladimir Komarov, a Soviet cosmonaut, died on his one-day mission with the new type of spacecraft Soyuz 1 due to the parachute failure.
• October 5, 1967 – Clifton C. C. Williams died in T-38 jet trainer due to the mechanical failure in the control systems.
• March 27, 1968 – Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, lost his life while he prepared for the Soyuz 3 mission when his MiG-15 jet trainer crashed.
• June 30, 1971 - Vladislav Volkov, Georgi Dobrovolski and Viktor Patsayev (crew of Soyuz 11) lost their lives after undocking from Salyut 1 (Russian space station) after 23 days stay.
• January 28, 1986 – Christa McAuliffe, Dick Scobee, Greg Jarvis, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair, Michael J. Smith and Judith Resnik lost their lives in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. The Space Shuttle Challenger destroyed after seventy-three seconds since its launch due to faulty O-ring seal, which allowed the hot gases from SRB (solid rocket booster) to an external propellant reservoir of the space shuttle.
• May 15, 1995 – Jean-Claude Dhainaut and Luc Celle died during an inspection in the umbilical mast of the launch pad in the Guyana Space Centre, French Guyana.
• February 15, 1996 – Long March rocket (Intelsat 708 Satellite) swerved off course after two seconds since its liftoff, crashing in the nearby village of Xichang, China.
According to the U. S. defense intelligence official report, 80 houses were destroyed and around 200 people were killed.
