The CNN Original Series “Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight” uncovers the events that ultimately led to disaster. The four-part documentary concludes at 9 p.m. ET/PT Sunday.
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Upon its inception, NASA’s space shuttle program promised to usher in a new era of exploration, keeping astronauts space-bound with a reusable and relatively cheap ride into orbit. It was a project that forever altered the course of spaceflight with its triumphs — and its tragic failures.
Deemed an “engineering marvel,” the first of five winged orbiters — the space shuttle Columbia — made its inaugural flight in 1981.
Twenty-two years and 28 trips to space later, the same shuttle broke apart during its final return to Earth, killing all seven crew members on board.
The tragedy spelled the end for the US space agency’s transformative shuttle program. And its memory continues to reverberate in the halls of NASA today, leaving a lasting mark on its consideration of safety.
“Human history teaches us that in exploration, after accidents like this occur, we can learn from them and further reduce risk, although we must honestly admit that risks can never be eliminated,” said then-NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe, who ran the agency from 2001 to 2004, in a speech before members of Congress shortly after the Columbia disaster.
After the shuttle program was retired, no US astronaut would travel to space on an American-made rocket for nearly a decade.
The space shuttle project was forged in the optimism of NASA’s Apollo program, which landed 12 astronauts on the surface of the moon and bested America’s Soviet rivals during the Cold War.
Apollo was, however, extraordinarily expensive: NASA spent $25.8 billion (or more than $200 billion when adjusted for inflation) — according to a cost analysis from space policy expert Casey Dreier of the nonprofit Planetary Society.
With financial constraints on the horizon, by the mid-1970s, engineers within NASA were building an entirely new means of space transportation.
Space Frontiers/Getty Images
An artist’s rendering from the late 1970s shows how NASA’s space shuttle would look on a joint mission with the European Space Agency.
Apollo used towering rockets and small capsules — destined to be flown just once — that would plunge back home from space and parachute to an ocean landing.
The space shuttle concept was a remarkable pivot: Reusable, winged orbiters would take off strapped to rockets, sail through Earth’s orbit and glide to an airplane-esque runway landing. From there, the shuttle could be refurbished and flown again, theoretically driving down the cost of each mission.
Over the course of three decades, NASA’s fleet of space shuttles flew 135 missions — launching and repairing satellites, building a permanent home for astronauts with the International Space Station and commissioning the revolutionary Hubble Space Telescope.
But the shuttle program, which ended in 2011, never lived up to the US space agency’s initial vision.
Each shuttle launch cost about $1.5 billion on average, according to a 2018 paper from a researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Center. That’s hundreds of millions of dollars more than what the space agency had hoped for at the program’s outset, even when adjusted for inflation. Long delays and technical setbacks also beleaguered its missions.
“Every single mission that I was there for was scrubbed, rescheduled, delayed because something wasn’t exactly right,” said O’Keefe, the former NASA administrator, in a new CNN documentary series, “Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight.”
And two disasters — the Challenger explosion in 1986 and the loss of Columbia in 2003 — cost the lives of 14 astronauts.
On the morning of February 1, 2003, the Columbia orbiter was heading home from a 16-day mission to space.
The seven-person crew on board had carried out dozens of science experiments while in orbit, and the astronauts were slated to land at 9:16 a.m. ET in Florida.
NASA/Courtesy of Scott Andrews
Space Shuttle Columbia launches from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 16, 2003.
Joe Skipper/Reuters
The crew of NASA's STS-107 mission attends a news conference at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on December 20, 2002. Pictured from left are payload commander Michael P. Anderson; pilot William C. McCool; commander Rick D. Husband; mission specialist David M. Brown; mission specialist Laurel B. Clark; payload specialist Ilan Ramon; and mission specialist Kalpana Chawla.
NASA
Space Shuttle Columbia sits on Launchpad 39A, atop the mobile launcher platform, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on December 9, 2002.
NASA/Courtesy of Scott Andrews
The STS-107 crew members wave to onlookers on their way to the launchpad for liftoff at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 16, 2003.
NASA/Getty Images
People work in the control room at NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston on January 16, 2003. Space Shuttle Columbia launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 10:39 a.m. ET.
NASA
Members of the closeout crew help Anderson, front, with his launch and entry suit in the White Room at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 16, 2003. The environmentally controlled chamber was mated to Space Shuttle Columbia for access into the orbiter. Behind Anderson is McCool.
Karl Ronstrom/Reuters
Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 16, 2003. It was the 28th mission for the orbiter, with the STS-107 crew set to carry out experiments over the course of 16 days.
NASA
The VIP stand at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is filled with friends and families of the STS-107 crew on January 16, 2003. Representatives of Israel were there as well to support Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut and a colonel in the Israeli Air Force.
NASA
Chawla performs work in the SPACEHAB Research Double Module (RDM) on January 18, 2003. She is pictured through the tunnel linking SPACEHAB to the Space Shuttle Columbia's crew cabin.
NASA
Some of the STS-107 crew are pictured prior to their sleep shift in bunk beds on the middeck of Space Shuttle Columbia on January 20, 2003. From left are Clark, Husband and Chawla. Along with Ramon, out of frame, they were members of the Red Team; Anderson, Brown, and McCool were on the Blue Team. The teams worked opposite shifts in order to perform continuous research for 16 days.
NASA
The STS-107 crew pose for an in-flight portrait in the SPACEHAB RDM aboard Space Shuttle Columbia. This photo was on a roll of unprocessed film that searchers later recovered from debris.
NASA
Clark looks through an overhead window on the aft flight deck of Space Shuttle Columbia. This photo was on a roll of unprocessed film that searchers later recovered from debris.
Robert Giroux/Getty Images
A store employee in New York pauses to watch a breaking news broadcast about Space Shuttle Columbia minutes before its scheduled landing on February 1, 2003.
Brett Coomer/Getty Images
Kathryn O'Neill of Laguna Hills, California, and her son Zachary kneel by the entrance sign of Johnson Space Center in Houston on February 1, 2003. A makeshift memorial for the STS-107 crew had been set up there.
Matt Stroshane/Getty Images
Former astronaut and then-Florida Sen. Bill Nelson addresses the news media at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on February 1, 2003. Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart during reentry over east Texas at around 9 a.m. ET, and the STS-107 crew was lost.
Eric Gay/AP
Tommy Peltier of Houston stands next to debris from Space Shuttle Columbia that fell near San Augustine, Texas, on February 2, 2003.
Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle/Getty Images
Averi Forline, 4, plays with a model of a space shuttle as he visits a growing memorial outside the main gate of Johnson Space Center in Houston on February 3, 2003. The memorial was created by NASA workers and other Houstonians in honor of the STS-107 crew.
NASA
People attend a memorial for the STS-107 crew on the mall of the Johnson Space Center in Houston on February 4, 2003.
Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle/AP
Capt. Gene Theriot, chaplain for the US Navy Corps, wipes his eyes as he and NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe listen to President George W. Bush speak during a memorial service at the Johnson Space Center in Houston on February 4, 2003. On Theriot's right is a portrait of the STS-107 crew. "To leave behind Earth and air and gravity is an ancient dream of humanity,"
President Bush said. "For these seven, it was a dream fulfilled. Each of these astronauts had the daring and discipline required of their calling. Each of them knew that great endeavors are inseparable from great risks. And each of them accepted those risks willingly, even joyfully, in the cause of discovery."
Joe Cavaretta/AP
Ron Dittemore, NASA's space shuttle program manager, displays a piece of insulating foam, similar to that which coated Space Shuttle Columbia's fuel tank, during a briefing for the news media held at the Johnson Space Center in Houston on February 5, 2003.
NASA
Pieces of Space Shuttle Columbia that had been identified are placed within the outline of the orbiter on the reusable launch vehicle hangar floor at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 6, 2003. The Columbia Reconstruction Project Team was attempting to reconstruct the bottom of the orbiter as part of the investigation into what caused the destruction of Columbia and the loss of its crew.
Mannie Garcia/Reuters
Reporters ask NASA Administrator O'Keefe, visible in the monitor, questions about the "Columbia Accident Investigation Board Report" during a news conference at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, on August 27, 2003.
NASA
A member of the Shoshone-Bannock Native American community from Fort Hall, Idaho, displays a handmade item with the STS-107 insignia on February 1, 2004. Dancers from Shoshone-Bannock Junior/Senior High School also performed a healing ceremony during the one-year anniversary event at the Space Memorial Mirror in Florida. Students and staff of the Shoshone-Bannock High School had an experiment on board Space Shuttle Columbia.
Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle/AP
Sandy Anderson, widow of Space Shuttle Columbia's Michael P. Anderson, is comforted by astronaut Carlos Noriega during the annual Day of Remembrance ceremony at the Johnson Space Center's Astronaut Tree Grove in Houston on January 27, 2011. Johnson Space Center Director Michael L. Coats is on the far left, and Evelyn Husband-Thomas, widow of the Columbia crew's Rick D. Husband, is on the right.
John Raoux/AP
Visitors look at display cases at the "Forever Remembered" exhibit for the astronauts who died on the Columbia and Challenger space shuttles, at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, on July 21, 2015.
The exhibit is permanent and "displays personal items from each astronaut and recovered hardware from both orbiters, including a section of Challenger's left fuselage with American flag and the framework of Columbia's cockpit windows," according to the Kennedy Space Center website.
Glenn Benson/NASA
Members of the Space Coast Voices sing the national anthem during the NASA Day of Remembrance ceremony at the Space Mirror Memorial in Florida on January 30, 2020. The crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia, as well as other fallen astronauts who lost their lives in the name of space exploration and discovery, were honored at the annual event.
Kim Shiflett/NASA
A wreath is placed in front of the Space Mirror Memorial in Florida during the NASA Day of Remembrance on January 27, 2022.
NASA engineers knew that a piece of foam — used to insulate the shuttle’s large, orange fuel tank — had broken off during the January 16 launch, striking the Columbia orbiter.
The space agency’s stance, however, was that the lightweight insulation material likely didn’t cause significant harm. Some foam had broken off on earlier missions and caused slight damage, but it was deemed an “accepted flight risk,” according to the official Columbia accident investigation report.
It was later revealed, however, that concerns about the foam’s impact were swept under the rug by NASA management, according to previous reporting and “Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight.”
“I was very upset and angry and disappointed with my engineering organizations, top to bottom,” said Rodney Rocha, a chief NASA shuttle engineer, in the new series.
The astronauts even received an email from mission control alerting them about the foam strike on the eighth day of their mission, reassuring them there was no reason for alarm, according to NASA.
But the assumption was wrong.
An investigation later revealed the dislodged foam had struck Columbia’s left wing during launch, damaging the spacecraft’s thermal protection system.
The issue didn’t affect crew members while they spent more than two weeks in space.
But heat protection is crucial for the dangerous return home. As with every mission that returns from orbit, the vehicle had to dive back into the thick of the Earth’s atmosphere while still traveling at more than 17,000 miles per hour (27,359 kilometers per hour). The pressure and friction on a spacecraft can heat up the exterior to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,649 degrees Celsius).
Reentry proved too much for the damaged Columbia shuttle. As the vehicle approached its destination, crossing over New Mexico into Texas, the orbiter began to disintegrate — visibly shedding chunks of debris.
At 8:59 a.m. ET, ground controllers lost contact with the crew.
The final dispatch came from mission commander Rick Husband, who said, “Roger, uh,” before he was cut off.
At 9 a.m., onlookers saw Columbia explode over East Texas and watched in horror as it showered the area with debris.
Getty Images
Debris from the space shuttle Columbia lies on the floor of the RLV Hangar at Kennedy Space Center in Florida in May 2003.
Two decades later, the Columbia tragedy and the broader shuttle program offer crucial perspective about the perils and triumphs of spaceflight.
NASA entered the era confidently, anticipating that the odds of a shuttle being destroyed during flight were around 1 in 100,000.
The space agency reevaluated that risk, estimating after the Challenger disaster that the shuttle had carried a 1 in 100 chance of disaster.
“If somebody told me, ‘Hey, you can go on this roller coaster ride, and there’s a 1 in 100 chance that you’ll die. Well, there’s no chance in the world — no chance in hell — I would do that,” US Sen. Mark Kelly, a former NASA space shuttle astronaut, told “The Final Flight” documentarians.
“But I also think that people generally think it’s not going to be them,” Kelly added.
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