Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster
It was a horrific tragedy particularly considering that the shuttle was on its 28th mission and had been a solid vehicle for space exploration and research since the 1980s.
Space shuttle columbia disaster. The space shuttle columbia disaster the columbia disaster is one of the most tragic events in spaceflight history. The seven astronauts were killed. The columbia mission was the second space shuttle disaster after challenger which saw a catastrophic failure during launch in 1986.
On february 1 2003 the space shuttle columbia was reentering earth s atmosphere after a two week routine mission when it exploded killing all seven astronauts aboard and scattering debris across multiple states. The disaster was the second fatal accident in the space shuttle program after the 1986 breakup of challenger soon after liftoff. On february 1st 2003 the space shuttle columbia disintegrated during its re entry into the atmosphere.
The columbia disaster directly led to the retirement of the. Its impact on us human spaceflight program and the resulting decision to discontinue the space shuttle program was so dramatic that to this date nasa has not recovered an autonomous human access to space.