Launch Director Mike Leinbach reflects on the traditional launch team/shuttle crew dinner with STS-107 Columbia. R.I.P. Commander Rick Husband, Pilot Willie McCool, Payload Commander Michael Anderson, Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark and Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon. | Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex

On January 16, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off for its final mission with a crew of seven heroes: Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, and Ilan Ramon. Just eighty-two seconds into the launch, a piece of insulation foam about the size of a suitcase broke off the external fuel tank and struck the leading edge of the left wing at over five hundred miles per hour. Although NASA cameras captured the impact, mission managers believed th

On February 1, 2003 the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas and Louisiana as it reentered Earth’s atmosphere. The disaster occurred just sixteen minutes before the scheduled landing at Kennedy Space Center. All seven crew members including Rick Husband, Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark were killed instantly when the orbiter broke apart at eighteen times the speed of sound. The catastrophe was caused by a piece of insulating foam that broke off the external tank during launch sixteen d