STS-107rocketsoftheage

Rockets of the Age

Remembering the Columbia STS-107 Rocket

On January 16, 2003, the Columbia STS-107 and it’s crew lifted off for a 17 day mission with a lot of microgravity experiments. But nobody would ever guess what would happen on their return to earth, and it all started during their bad takeoff.
The rocket during takeoff was leaking foam from the External Tank which hit the side of the carbon panels on the underside of the left wing. The astronauts Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, David Brown, Laurel Blair, Salton Clark, Michael P. Anderson, Ilan Ramon, and Kalpana Chawla died in an explosion just after entering the atmosphere and only 15 minutes before their scheduled landing.
On February 1st a public ceremony was performed to honor the astronauts at the Space Mirror Memorial. The KSC Director, James Kennedy, and the KSC Director, Woodrow Whitlow, were joined by the Florida Space Authority Executive Director Winston Scott and Astronauts Memorial Foundation Executive Director Stephan Feldman as the main people at the ceremony. The crew of the Columbia STS-107 will not be forgotten and it shows the danger of traveling in space.