Space Shuttle Columbia

Space Shuttles
American Enterprise (test) Pathfinder (mockup) Columbia ( destroyed 2003) Challenger (destroyed 1986) Discovery (grounded) Atlantis (grounded) Endeavour (grounded) Explorer (mockup)
Soviet and Russian Buran (retired, destroyed 2002) Ptichka (unfinished) 2.01 (unfinished) 2.02 (dismantled) 2.03 (dismantled) Baikal (hoax)

Space Shuttle Columbia (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-102) was the first space shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. Its first mission, STS-1, lasted from April 12 to April 14, 1981. On February 1, 2003, Columbia disintegrated during re-entry on its 28th mission; all seven crew members aboard were killed (see Space Shuttle Columbia disaster).

History

Construction began on Columbia in 1975 primarily in Palmdale, California. Columbia was named after the Boston-based sloop Columbia captained by American Robert Gray, which explored the Pacific Northwest and became the first American vessel to circumnavigate the world; the name also honored Columbia, the Command Module of Apollo 11. After construction, the orbiter arrived at John F. Kennedy Space Center on March 25, 1979 to prepare for its first launch. On March 19, 1981 during preparations for a ground test, five workers were asphyxiated during a nitrogen purge, resulting in two deaths.

The first flight of Columbia ( STS-1) was commanded by John Young (a space veteran from the Gemini and Apollo eras) and piloted by Robert Crippen, a rookie who had never been in space before, but who served as a support crew member for the Skylab missions and Apollo-Soyuz. It launched April 12, 1981 and returned April 14, 1981 after orbiting the earth 36 times.

In 1983, Columbia launched the first mission ( STS-9) with 6 astronauts, including the first non-American astronaut on a space shuttle, Ulf Merbold. On January 12, 1986 Columbia took off with the first Hispanic American astronaut, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz, as well as the first sitting member of the House of Representatives in space, Bill Nelson. Another first was announced on March 5, 1998 when NASA named their choice of U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins as commander of a future Columbia mission making Collins the first woman commander of a space shuttle mission.

Columbia lands at the end of STS-1, the first shuttle mission.

Prototype orbiter

Unlike her sisterships. Columbia was raised in a different way. One of the most notable features was the black "chines" located on the upper wing surfaces. In addition, for the first four flights, the orbiter was equipped with modified SR-71 Blackbird ejection seats, that were made inactive after STS-4 and removed after STS-9. It also lacked, until its return to space in 1986, a heads-up display for the commander and pilot, and had an "all-tile" thermal protection system, which was later replaced with Nomex felt blankets.

Other major differences include the orbiter retaining the internal airlock, although it was retrofitted for an external airlock for flights to the International Space Station, along with having, until its last retrofitting, wing markings bearing an American flag on the left (port) wing and a "USA" on the right (starboard) wing--these were replaced with the newer NASA "meatball" logo on the left wing and the American flag and "Columbia" name on the right. Like Atlantis and Discovery, Columbia also had the new MEDS "glass cockpit" display installed during its last retrofit. Another feature, located on the tailfin, was the so-called "STILTS" pod, which was used to measure infrared and other thermal readouts during long-duration missions. The tailfin was also modified to incorporate the drag chute first used on Endeavour.

Final mission

Columbia launches on its final mission, STS-107

On its final mission, the craft was carrying the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, and the first female astronaut of Indian birth, Kalpana Chawla. Other crew members on the final flight included Rick Husband (commander), Willie McCool (pilot), Michael P. Anderson, Laurel Clark, and David M. Brown.

On the morning of February 1, 2003, the shuttle re-entered the atmosphere after a 16-day scientific mission. NASA lost radio contact at about 0900. EST, only minutes before the expected 0916 landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Video recordings show the craft breaking up in flames over Texas, at an altitude of approximately 39 miles (63 km) and a speed of 12,500 mph (5.6 km/s).

In the months following the tragedy, NASA scientists determined that a hole was punctured in the leading edge on one of Columbia's wings, made of a carbon-carbon composite. The hole had formed when a piece of insulating foam from the external fuel tank peeled off during the launch 16 days earlier, puncturing the edge of the wing. Hot gases, refered to by many reports as plasma, penetrated the interior of the wing, destroying the support structure and causing the rest of the shuttle to break apart during the intense heat of re-entry.

The use of the word "plasma" to describe the gases that entered the wing is not technically accurate, according to NASA and Boeing aero-thermal engineers who support the Space Shuttle program at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. They have pointed out during the Columbia accident investigations that atmospheric entry heating and its intrusion into damaged left wing was from superheated air---not ionized gas and not plasma, though this technicality has largely been ignored by the media.

The collected debris of the vessel are currently stored on the 16th floor of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center; recovered items are occasionally loaned for research into the hypersonic flight regime. NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe has vowed that Columbia will not be sealed away as the debris from the Challenger was. The debris from Challenger is permanently entombed in two Minuteman missile silos at KSC.

Flights

Space Shuttle Columbia flew 28 flights, spent 300.74-days in space, completed 4,808 orbits, and flew 125,204,911 miles in total, including its final mission.

Columbia launching during STS-1. The original white-painted external tank, as well as Columbia's distinctive black chines, are clearly visible

Trivia

• Columbia flights STS-75 and STS-83 were the first ones to take the Linux operating system to the orbit.
• In the video games Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow for the Gameboy, Columbia can be found in the space museum in Pewter city, though following the disaster new edited versions of the game have removed the Columbia and replaced it with the Space Shuttle Discovery. However, in reality, Discovery is in service, so Space Shuttle Enterprise would be a more logical option.
• In an episode of Cowboy Bebop, the space shuttle Columbia was used to rescue a character from a disabled space vehicle in a decaying orbit abround Earth. Its appearance is anachronistic, given that the show takes place in the far future, but the episode was made before the Columbia's disintegration.
• Shortly after the Columbia disaster, the televison show Star Trek: Enterprise named the next NX Class starship after the Columbia.