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The Space Shuttle Columbia
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Whilst this website is primarily dedicated to the tragic events of September
11th, 2001 we have decided to add this additional page as a special tribute to the last flight of the space shuttle Columbia,
which was the very first space shuttle, and which was unfortunately lost on re-entry to the earth's atmosphere on February
1st, 2003.
The mission, dedicated strictly
to scientific research, was a rare space shuttle flight that did not stop at the international space station. During the 16-day
trip, the seven-person crew of the shuttle Columbia worked on more than 80 experiments. The flight, which included the first
Israeli astronaut, launched under extremely tight security.
Space shuttle flights have been put on hold until NASA can learn what caused the disaster. NASA said the international
space station, where two astronauts and a cosmonaut remain, has enough supplies to last the crew until June. An unmanned Russian
supply ship was launched to the space station Sunday.
President Bush and first lady Laura Bush attended a memorial service on Tuesday 4th February in Houston,
TX.
President Bush in his speech included the following comments.
"Their mission was almost complete and we lost them so close to home. The men and women of the Columbia had journeyed
more than 6 million miles and were minutes away from arrival and reunion. The loss was sudden and terrible, and for their
families the grief is heavy. Our nation shares in your sorrow and in your pride. We remember not only one moment of tragedy,
but seven lives of great purpose and achievement. "
"The families here today shared in the courage of those they loved, but now they must face life and grief without them.
The sorrow is lonely, but you are not alone. In time, you will find comfort and the grace to see you through. And in God's
own time, we can pray that the day of your reunion will come. And to the children who miss your mom or dad so much today,
you need to know, they love you, and that love will always be with you. They were proud of you, and you can be proud of them
for the rest of your life. The final days of their own lives were spent looking down upon this Earth, and now, on every continent,
in every land they can see, the names of these astronauts is known and remembered. They will always have an honored place
in the memory of this country, and today, I offer the respect and gratitude of the people of the United States. "
"May
God bless you all. "
Email from a friend
Immediately after we added this page a long time friend of Trevor's who
lives in Texas sent us an email. We would like to reproduce a part of it here as it gives a wonderful
personal insight into Col. Rick Husband, we do have other emails on file from those close to him and his family, and are awaiting
permission to reproduce them.
"As I understand it, CNN televised some of our early morning church service (Polk Street UMC...Amarillo).
There were many TV cameras in the balcony area where I sit besides our own cameras. Rick grew up in our church.
He has been gone from Amarillo for some time coming back to visit his mother & attending church with her at those times.
Our pastor has greeted him several times when he was in the congregation. One of my friends told
me yesterday that her next door neighbor is a close friend of the Husband family having children the same ages who were always
at each others homes. Not long ago, Rick went by to see her & thanked her for letting him be a part of her family.....just
a small example of what a fine man he was..... Our service yesterday was in tribute to Rick & all the members of the crew.
God Bless them & their families & friends. God bless America & the World! "
The History of Columbia.
Columbia, the oldest orbiter in the Shuttle fleet, is named after the Boston, Massachusetts based sloop captained by
American Robert Gray. On May 11, 1792, Gray and his crew maneuvered the Columbia past the dangerous sandbar at the mouth of
a river extending more than 1,000 miles through what is today south-eastern British Columbia, Canada, and the Washington-Oregon
border. The river was later named after the ship. Gray also led Columbia and its crew on the first American circumnavigation
of the globe, carrying a cargo of otter skins to Canton, China, and then returning to Boston.
Other sailing ships have further enhanced the luster of the name Columbia. The first U.S. Navy ship to circle the globe
bore that title, as did the command module for Apollo 11, the first lunar landing mission.
The spaceship Columbia has continued the pioneering legacy of its forebears, becoming the first Space Shuttle to fly
into Earth orbit in 1981. Four sister ships joined the fleet over the next 10 years: Challenger, arriving in 1982 but destroyed
four years later; Discovery, 1983; Atlantis, 1985; and Endeavour, built as a replacement for Challenger, 1991. A test vehicle,
the Enterprise, was used for suborbital approach and landing tests and did not fly in space.
The final flight by Columbia was it's 28th mission.
A Tribute to the heroic crew of Columbia.
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| The Crew Patch for the ill fated mission. |
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| Commander Rick D. Husband |
Husband, 45, made his second trip into space. The U.S. Air Force colonel
and mechanical engineer piloted a shuttle flight in 1999, which included the first docking with the international space station.
A married father of two, Husband, 45, was a colonel in the U.S. Air Force
who had already been to space once, aboard space shuttle Discovery in 1999. But he was also an experienced pilot who had logged
more than 3,800 hours of flight time in more than 40 types of aircraft.
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| Mission Specialist David M. Brown |
The U.S. Navy captain made his first flight into space. Brown, 46, an aviator
and flight surgeon, was working on many experiments, including numerous biological ones.
Brown, 46, a U.S. Navy captain and surgeon, graduated from the College of
William and Mary, where he competed as a gymnast. During the summer of 1976, he was recruited to be a circus performer.
He received his medical training at Eastern Virginia Medical School and the
Medical University of South Carolina and enlisted in the Navy in 1984. His plan was to be a flight surgeon, but he was chosen
for pilot training, logging more than 2,700 flight hours.
In 1996, he joined NASA and the Columbia flight was his first shuttle mission.
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| Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon |
Ramon, 47, is the first Israeli astronaut. A colonel and former fighter pilot in the Israeli
air force, he saw combat experience in the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and the Lebanon War in 1982.
Ramon, 48, a career military man, was the pilot who dropped a bomb in 1981 on a nuclear plant under construction in Iraq,
destroying it.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, addressing a weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday, said: "Their (the seven astronouts) deaths
were not in vain.
"Man's journey into space will continue. Cooperation between the United States and Israel in this field will also continue.
The day will come when we will launch more Israeli astronouts into space."
U.S. President George W. Bush, in a phone conversation with Sharon, called Ramon a "brave Israeli citizen" and said his
death was "tragic," a spokesman for Sharon said.
The Israeli embassy in Washington dispatched a team to Florida to be with Ramon's wife and four children, a spokesman for
the Israeli Embassy said.
Some of Ramon's family members had traveled from Israel to watch his scheduled return aboard the space shuttle to the Kennedy
Space Center Saturday morning.
Ramon, a colonel in the Israeli Air Force, was the only non-American on board the shuttle and the first Israeli to travel
into space.
He was born in Tel Aviv and had undergone two years of training in Houston for his space flight.
He had taken with him on his trip into space a drawing made by a 14-year-old boy who died in a Nazi concentration camp.
The picture showed earth as he imagined it would be seen from space.
A Statement from the
Families of Space Shuttle Columbia
On January 16th, we saw our loved ones launch into a brilliant, cloud-free sky.
Their hearts were full of enthusiasm, pride in country, faith in their God, and a willingness to accept risk in the pursuit
of knowledge --- knowledge that might improve the quality of life for all mankind.
Columbia's 16-day mission of scientific discovery was a great success, cut short
by mere minutes ---- yet it will live on forever in our memories. We want to thank the NASA family and people from around
the world for their incredible outpouring of love and support.
Although we grieve deeply, as do the families of Apollo 1 and Challenger before
us, the bold exploration of space must go on. Once the root cause of this tragedy is found and corrected, the legacy of Columbia
must carry on --- for the benefit of our children and yours.
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| The Space Shuttle Columbia. |
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| The crew of the space shuttle Columbia. |
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| Pilot William C. McCool |
The 40-year-old former test pilot made his first foray into space. The U.S.
Navy commander and Naval Academy graduate was responsible for maneuvering the shuttle as part of several experiments.
McCool, who was married, graduated second in a class of more than 1,000 at
the U.S. Naval Academy in 1983. He went on to achieve three science degrees, including degrees in computer science and aeronautical
engineering.
The Navy commander made two deployments aboard the USS Coral Sea and had worked
as a test pilot with the TA-4J Skyhawk and EA-6B Prowler. He was assigned to the USS Enterprise in 1996 when he learned of
his NASA selection.
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| Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla |
Born in India in 1961, Chawla earned an aerospace engineering doctorate from the University of
Colorado in Boulder. Chawla, who has logged more than 375 hours in space, was the prime robotic arm operator on a shuttle
flight in 1997.
Born in Karnal, Chawla earned a degree in engineering from Punjab Engineering College in 1982 and then went to the United
States, where she earned her Master's and doctorate in aerospace engineering.
She joined NASA in 1995 as an astronaut candidate.
Karnal residents and hundreds of millions of Indians had been elated at Chawla. The 40-year-old became the first Indian
woman to enter space in 1997, when she was part of the Columbia mission that orbited the earth.
Chawla earned a degree in engineering from Punjab Engineering College in 1982 and then went to the United States, where
she earned her Master's and doctorate in aerospace engineering.
On her first space flight, she was blamed for making mistakes that sent a science satellite tumbling out of control. Other
astronauts went on a space walk to capture it.
Prior to her departure on Columbia for what was her second trip to space, she told reporters that her inspiration to take
up flying was J.R.D. Tata, who flew the first mail flights in India.
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| The route taken across America on Columbia's return journey. |
Jan. 16, 2003: A NASA security guard watches as the Space Shuttle Columbia
heads for orbit after lifting off at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Feb. 1, 2003: Debris from Columbia smolders in central Texas.
The world reacts
Government officials around the world expressed condolences for the loss of
the spacecraft and its seven crew members.
"Again, your country has made the painful experience that space exploration
can claim human victims,'' German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in a letter of condolence to President Bush.
European Commission President Romano Prodi told Italian news agencies in Bologna
that the disaster occurred ``in the service of progress, science and in this case, we can really say humanity.''
The Russian Space Agency was ready to offer any technical help NASA might
request for the investigation into the tragedy, said spokesman Vyacheslav Mikhailichenko.
"The Russian space agency expresses its deepest condolences to the American
side. This is a terrible catastrophe,'' Mikhailichenko said.
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| The temporary Memorial site at NASA headquarters. |
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| Payload Commander Michael P. Anderson |
Anderson, 42, went into orbit once before, a 1998 shuttle flight that docked
with the Russian space station Mir. The U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and physicist was responsible for the shuttle science
mission.
In an interview Wednesday night, Anderson, the only black crew member on space shuttle Columbia, pointed out that
three other black astronauts were scheduled to be on shuttle flights in the next year.
Michael's wife and two children, who had been preparing to greet Michael
upon his return when they heard the news.
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| Mission Specialist Laurel Clark |
Clark, 41, a U.S. Navy commander and flight surgeon, was making her first
flight into space. A medical school graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Clark was taking part in a variety of
biological experiments.
Clark, 41, was a medical doctor as well as a commander in the U.S. Navy. She
joined NASA in 1996 and the Columbia flight was her first shuttle mission.
Clark was born in Iowa but considered Racine, Wisconsin her hometown. She
earned a zoology degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she also earned her medical degree.
She entered naval service after graduating from medical school and served
as a submarine medical officer and a flight surgeon.
Clark is survived by her husband and one child.
Minister Raphael Obidigbo prays before a makeshift memorial
Sunday morning at the entrance to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas
on Saturday, killing all seven astronauts just minutes before they were supposed to land in Florida.
Jan. 15, 2003: The Space Shuttle Columbia sits on the pad after the rotating
service structure was moved back in preparation for its Jan. 16 launch at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Feb. 1, 2003: Contrails from the Space Shuttle Columbia are seen streaking
across the sky over Texas.
The Space Shuttle Columbia crew, from left: Kalpana
Chawla, Michael Anderson, William McCool, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, David Brown and Ilan Ramon.
May God Bless those who perished in the tragedy affecting
the Space Shuttle Columbia on February 1st, 2003, and may He also give strength to their families, friends, and the NASA "Family"
at this time of their greatest need.
NASA MEMORIAL SERVICE SCHEDULED AT JOHNSON SPACE CENTER
The President and Mrs. George W. Bush will join NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe Tuesday afternoon
in paying tribute to the brave heroes of the Space Shuttle Columbia crew during a special memorial service at the NASA Johnson
Space Center in Houston.
The ceremony to honor NASA astronauts Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla,
David Brown, Laurel Clark, and Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon is scheduled to begin at noon CST in the Central Mall area behind
Building One. Gates are scheduled to open at 9 a.m. CST.
This is a private ceremony for family members, friends, and invited guests, along with NASA employees
and contractors. The service will be carried live on NASA Television and available on the Internet at: www.nasa.gov.
Media access to the memorial service will be restricted with television and still photography access
provided on a pool basis.
NASA Television is available on AMC-2, transponder 9C, C-Band, located at 85 degrees west longitude.
The frequency is 3880.0 MHz. Polarization is vertical and audio is monaural at 6.8 MHz.
Additional information about the STS-107 crew and the Space Shuttle Columbia is available on the
Internet at: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov.
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