Sitting on the right side of the flight deck, Smith looked out his window and likely saw a flash of vapor or a fire.ĭown on the ground at Mission Control, a computer screen indicated falling pressure in the right booster rocket. The Space Shuttle Challenger was hurtling through the air at twice the speed of sound when pilot Michael Smith noticed something alarming. ‘Challenger: The Final Flight’ trailer explores 1986 tragedyįirst of Christa McAuliffe’s lost lessons released from space Piece of Challenger space shuttle found nearly 37 years after deadly explosion The command module for the Apollo 11 lunar mission was also named Columbia.Ex-astronaut says ‘toxic’ NASA hasn’t learned from costly fatal mistakes Navy to circumnavigate the globe was named Columbia. EST at the conclusion of a microgravity research mission, STS-107.Ĭolumbia was named after a small sailing vessel that operated out of Boston in 1792 and explored the mouth of the Columbia River. Other, achievements for Columbia included the recovery of the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) satellite from orbit during mission STS-32 in January 1990, and the STS-40 Spacelab Life Sciences mission in June 1991 - the first manned Spacelab mission totally dedicated to human medical research.Ĭolumbia was destroyed over east Texas on its landing descent to Kennedy Space Center on Feb. It proved the operational concept of a winged, reusable spaceship by successfully completing the Orbital Flight Test Program - missions STS-1 through STS-4. Columbia initiated the Space Shuttle flight program when it lifted off Pad A in the Launch Complex 39 area at KSC on April 12, 1981.
Columbia (OV-102), the first of NASA's orbiter fleet, was delivered to Kennedy Space Center in March 1979.
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