Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster Marks Nine-Year Anniversary (PHOTOS)

February 1, 2012 is the ninth anniversary Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, which claimed the lives of all seven crew members.

The shuttle disintegrated during reentry after superheated gases penetrated a damaged spot on its left wing. The initial damage had occurred shortly after launch, when a briefcase-sized piece of insulating foam broke off from an external fuel tank and smashed against the wing.

Columbia disintegrated about 15 minutes before it was scheduled to touch down at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

As a result of the disaster, President Bush announced his eventual goal to retire the remaining space shuttles but assured the public that the manned space program would continue. "The cause in which they died will continue," he said. "Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. Our journey into space will go on."

Late January also marks the dates of two other dark moments for NASA and the nation's manned space program. See the following links for more images commemorating the Apollo 1 fire on January 27, 1967 and the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986.

The Columbia Space Shuttle disaster claimed the lives of Commander Rick D. Husband, Pilot William C. McCool, Payload Commander Michael P. Anderson, Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon, Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla, Mission Specialist David M. Brown and Mission Specialist Laurel Clark.

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that February 1, 2012 was the 8th anniversary of the disaster. In fact, it was the 9th anniversary.

Comments

[glassbender]

12:29 PM on 02/06/2012

NASA did and does the best it can with the little money it gets,one cent out of every dollar,place the blame on congress not NASA..............

[JudKast]

04:38 AM on 02/04/2012

Pioneers in any research, such as the shuttle programs, are aware of the potential to disaster. These Columbia astronauts are hero's as are many others through history in similar explorations. We are grateful for their contributions and should always keep them in mind in our prayers. Plow on, for there will be many more but without the efforts of exploration, we have no future.

[frank1946]

01:37 AM on 02/04/2012

Rockwell oversold the Shuttle, That's All, very simple !

Poor design, lots of vulnerabilities, cost the lives of two crews.

NASA simply missed the issues and committed America to 25 years of Shuttle Missions.

NASA loves "Good Luck", they need it !

[TheLibraryOfCodex]

03:45 AM on 02/02/2012

Should be a picture of NASA management hanging their heads in shame.

[ae12wrangell]

05:31 PM on 02/01/2012

NASA is rarely on top of thing's. Why? The last time there was tragedy, and NASA was on top of the whole thing, it was Apollo 13. And, even that did not work out as was expected. Columbia could have been saved, and the crew, if the shuttle had an "abort mission" switch. Upon going 3 mile's high, hit the button, then wait for it to splash back into the Atlantic Ocean. But all the astronaut's would have to get away from the window's. They break on impact.

[SwiftJonathan]

02:54 AM on 02/02/2012

I am afraid that you have very naive ideas about a Shuttle abort...

[A12Mach]

06:43 PM on 02/02/2012

Not to familiar with how the Shuttle abort and safety program works, eh? NASA did not fully realize the extent of Columbia's damage until she was in orbit. The ONLY possible way this crew would have been saved was to send up another shuttle or several Russian craft to get them. Otherwise, they had no chance. There was no patching the massive hole in Columbia's wing. God bless the souls of the lost crew.

[ae12wrangell]

11:02 PM on 02/02/2012

It's all hindsight, we could not do anything except see it lauch, and come back in a lot of pieces in 3 states.

[Jim Spellman]

04:58 PM on 02/01/2012

You can add another correction to the story besides the 9th vs. 8th anniversary miscue: The Kennedy Space Center is located on Merritt Island, not Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station occupies the triangular land area known as Cape Canaveral.

After President Kennedy was assassinated, Congress renamed the area Cape Kennedy. The area acquired for NASA's use in building the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and Launch Complexes 39-A and 39-B for the Apollo program were originally known as MILA for Merritt Island Launch Authority.

It was later renamed the John F. Kennedy Space Center (or "KSC" for short) after the Cape Kennedy designation reverted back to Cape Canaveral in 1974.

[MarkVA71]

10:31 AM on 02/01/2012

Was this article recycled from last year? It's 9 years, not 8. 2012 - 2003 = 9. Basic math.

[pjkool]

09:39 AM on 02/01/2012

I think it's 9 years, not 8.

[leftparadise]

09:10 AM on 02/01/2012

we were flying back to Denver from Mexico and flew through the path of debris - they didn't make any announcement at the time but my brother heard the crew talking at the time and told us something was going on, a crash or something, we found out later it was the shuttle.