 Spacehab's Research Double Module inColumbia's payload bay during STS-107 | |
| Names | Space Transportation System-107 |
|---|---|
| Mission type | Microgravity research |
| Operator | NASA |
| COSPAR ID | 2003-003A |
| SATCATno. | 27647 |
| Mission duration | 15 days, 22 hours, 20 minutes, 32 seconds |
| Distance travelled | 6,600,000 miles (10,600,000 km) |
| Orbits completed | 255 |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft | Space Shuttle Columbia |
| Launch mass | 263,706 pounds (119,615 kg) |
| Landing mass | 232,793 pounds (105,593 kg) (expected) |
| Payload mass | 32,084 pounds (14,553 kg) |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 7 |
| Members | |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | January 16, 2003 15:39:00 (2003-01-16UTC15:39Z) UTC |
| Launch site | Kennedy,LC-39A |
| End of mission | |
| Decay date | February 1, 2003, 13:59:32 (2003-02-01UTC13:59:33Z) UTC Disintegrated during reentry |
| Landing site | Kennedy,SLF Runway 33 (planned) |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Low Earth |
| Perigee altitude | 170 miles (270 km) |
| Apogee altitude | 177 miles (285 km) |
| Inclination | 39.0 degrees |
| Period | 90.1 minutes |
 STS-107 mission patch  Rear (L-R): David Brown, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson, Ilan Ramon; Front (L-R): Rick Husband, Kalpana Chawla, William McCool | |
STS-107 was the 113th flight of theSpace Shuttle program, and the 28th and final flight ofSpace ShuttleColumbia. The mission ended on February 1, 2003, with theSpace ShuttleColumbia disaster, in which all seven crew members were killed; the shuttle was destroyed along with most of its scientific payloads. It was the 88th post-Challenger disaster mission.
The flight launched fromKennedy Space Center in Florida on January 16, 2003. It spent 15 days, 22 hours, 20 minutes, 32 seconds inorbit. The crew conducted a multitude of international scientific experiments.[1] The disaster occurred during reentry while the orbiter was overTexas.
Immediately after the disaster, NASA convened theColumbia Accident Investigation Board to determine the cause of the disintegration. The source of the failure was determined to have been caused by a piece offoam that broke off during launch and damaged the thermal protection system (reinforced carbon-carbon panels andthermal protection tiles) on the leading edge of theorbiter's left wing. During re-entry the damaged wing slowly overheated and came apart, eventually leading to loss of control and disintegration of the vehicle. The cockpit window frame is now exhibited in a memorial inside the Space ShuttleAtlantis Pavilion at the Kennedy Space Center.
The damage to the thermal protection system on the wing was similar to that ofAtlantis which had also sustained damage in 1988 duringSTS-27, the second mission after the Space ShuttleChallenger disaster. However, the damage on STS-27 occurred at a spot that had more robust metal (a thin steel plate near the landing gear), and that mission survived the re-entry.
| Position | Astronaut | |
|---|---|---|
| Commander |  Rick Husband Second and last spaceflight | |
| Pilot | William C. McCool Only spaceflight | |
| Mission Specialist 1 | David M. Brown Only spaceflight | |
| Mission Specialist 2 Flight Engineer | /  Kalpana ChawlaSecond and last spaceflight | |
| Mission Specialist 3 | Michael P. Anderson Second and last spaceflight | |
| Mission Specialist 4 | Laurel B. Clark Only spaceflight | |
| Payload Specialist 1 |  Ilan Ramon,ISAOnly spaceflight | |
| Member of Blue Team Member of Red Team | ||
| Seat[2] | Launch | Landing |  Seats 1–4 are on the flight deck. Seats 5–7 are on the mid-deck. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Husband | ||
| 2 | McCool | ||
| 3 | Brown | Clark | |
| 4 | Chawla | ||
| 5 | Anderson | ||
| 6 | Clark | Brown | |
| 7 | Ramon | ||
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(January 2024) |
STS-107 carried theSPACEHAB Research Double Module (RDM) on its inaugural flight, theFreestar experiment (mounted on aHitchhiker Program rack), and theExtended Duration Orbiter pallet. SPACEHAB was first flown on STS-57.[citation needed]
On the day of the experiment, a video taken to study atmosphericdust may have detected a new atmospheric phenomenon, dubbed a "TIGER" (Transient Ionospheric Glow Emission in Red).[3]
On boardColumbia was acopy of a drawing byPetr Ginz, the editor-in-chief of the magazineVedem, who depicted what he imagined theEarth looked like from theMoon when he was a 14-year-old prisoner in theTerezínconcentration camp. The copy was in the possession ofIlan Ramon and was lost in the disintegration. Ramon also traveled with a dollar bill received from theLubavitcher Rebbe.[4]
An Australian experiment, created by students fromGlen Waverley Secondary College, was designed to test the reaction of zero gravity on the web formation of theAustralian garden orb weaver spider.[5]
Examples of some of the experiments and investigations on the mission.[6]
In SPACEHAB RDM:[6]
In the payload bay attached to RDM:[6]
Additional payloads[6]
Because much of the data was transmitted during the mission, there was still large return on the mission objectives even thoughColumbia was lost on re-entry. NASA estimated that 30% of the total science data was saved and collected throughtelemetry back to ground stations. Around 5-10% more data was saved and collected through recovering samples and hard drives intact on the ground after theSpace ShuttleColumbia disaster, increasing the total data of saved experiments despite the disaster from 30% to 35-40%.[6][7]
About five or sixColumbia payloads encompassing many experiments were successfully recovered in the debris field. Scientists and engineers were able to recover 99% of the data for one of the six FREESTAR experiments, Critical Viscosity of Xenon-2 (CVX-2), that flew unpressurized in the payload bay during the mission after recovering theviscometer and hard drive damaged but fully intact in the debris field in Texas. NASA recovered a commercial payload, Commercial Instrumentation Technology Associates (ITA) Biomedical Experiments-2 (CIBX-2), and ITA was able to increase the total data saved from STS-107 from 0% to 50% for this payload. This experiment studied treatments for cancer, and themicro-encapsulation experiment part of the payload was completely recovered, increasing from 0% data to 90% data after recovering the samples fully intact for this experiment. In this same payload were numerous crystal-forming experiments by hundreds of elementary and middle school students from all across the United States. Miraculously most of their experiments were found intact in CIBX-2, increasing from 0% data to 100% fully recovered data. The BRIC-14 (moss growth experiment) and BRIC-60 (Caenorhabditis elegans roundworm experiment) samples were found intact in the debris field within a 12-mile (19 km) radius in east Texas. 80-87% of these live organisms survived the catastrophe. The moss and roundworms experiments' original primary mission was not nominal due to the lack of having the samples immediately after landing in their original state (they were discovered many months after the crash), but these samples helped the scientific community greatly in the field ofastrobiology and helped form new theories about microorganisms surviving a long trip in outer space while traveling on meteorites or asteroids.[8]
KSC landing was planned for Feb. 1 after a 16-day mission, butColumbia and crew were lost during re-entry over East Texas at about 9 a.m. EST, 16 minutes prior to the scheduled touchdown at KSC.
— NASA[6]
Columbia began re-entry as planned, but the heat shield was compromised due to damage sustained during the ascent. The heat of re-entry was free to spread into the damaged portion of the orbiter, ultimately causing its disintegration and the death of all seven astronauts.
The accident triggered a 7-month investigation and a search for debris, and over 85,000 pieces were collected throughout the initial investigation.[6] This amounted to roughly 38 percent of the orbiter vehicle.[6]
The mission insignia itself is the only patch of the shuttle program that is entirely shaped in the orbiter's outline. The central element of the patch is themicrogravity symbol,μg, flowing into the rays of theastronaut symbol.
The missioninclination is portrayed by the 39-degree angle of the astronaut symbol to the Earth'shorizon. The sunrise is representative of the numerous experiments that are the dawn of a new era for continued microgravity research on the International Space Station and beyond. The breadth of science and the exploration of space is illustrated by the Earth and stars. TheconstellationColumba (thedove) was chosen to symbolizepeace on Earth and the Space ShuttleColumbia. The seven stars also represent the mission crew members and honor the original astronauts who paved the way to make research in space possible. Six stars have five points, the seventh has six points like aStar of David, symbolizing the Israeli Space Agency's contributions to the mission.
AnIsraeliflag is adjacent to the name ofPayload Specialist Ramon, who was the first Israeli in space. The crew insignia or 'patch' design was initiated by crew members Dr. Laurel Clark and Dr. Kalpana Chawla.[10] First-time crew member Clark provided most of the design concepts as Chawla led the design of her maiden voyage STS-87 insignia. Clark also pointed out that the dove in the Columba constellation was mythologically connected to the explorersthe Argonauts who released the dove.[11]
Throughout the shuttle program, sleeping astronauts were often awakened each morning by songs and short pieces of music chosen by their families, friends, and Mission Control, a tradition dating back to the Gemini and Apollo programs. While the crew of STS-107 worked shifts in "red" and "blue" teams to work around the clock, on this mission each shift was still awoken with a "wake-up call"; the only other two-shift shuttle mission to do so wasSTS-99.[12]: 4, 44, 52–53
| Day | Team | Song | Artist/Performer | Played for | Link[13] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Blue | "E'mma" | Touré Kunda | David Brown | WAV |
| Red | "America, the Beautiful" | Texas Elementary Honors Choir[a] | Rick Husband | WAV | |
| 3 | Blue | "Coming Back to Life" | Pink Floyd | William McCool | WAV |
| Red | "Space Truckin'" | Deep Purple | Kalpana Chawla | WAV | |
| 4 | Blue | "Cultural Exchange" | Not listed | David Brown | WAV |
| Red | "Hatishma Koli" | The High Windows | Ilan Ramon | WAV | |
| 5 | Blue | "Fake Plastic Trees" | Radiohead | William McCool | WAV |
| Red | "Amazing Grace" | Black Watch and 51st Highland Brigade Band | Laurel Clark | WAV | |
| 6 | Blue | "Texan 60" | Not listed | David Brown | WAV |
| Red | "God of Wonders" | Steve Green | Rick Husband | WAV | |
| 7 | Blue | "The Wedding Song" | Paul Stookey | William McCool | WAV |
| Red | "Prabhati" | Ravi Shankar | Kalpana Chawla | WAV | |
| 8 | Blue | "Hakuna Matata" | The Baha Men | Michael Anderson | WAV |
| Red | "Ma ata oseh kesheata kam baboker?" | Arik Einstein | Ilan Ramon | WAV | |
| 9 | Blue | "Burning Down The House" | Talking Heads | To honor combustion experiments | WAV |
| Red | "Kung Fu Fighting" | Carl Douglas | Whole crew | WAV | |
| 10 | Blue | "Hotel California" | The Eagles / McCool Family[b] | William McCool | WAV |
| Red | "The Prayer" | Celine Dion | Rick Husband | WAV | |
| 11 | Blue | "I Say a Little Prayer" | Dionne Warwick | Michael Anderson | WAV |
| Red | "Drops of Jupiter" | Train | Kalpana Chawla | WAV | |
| 12 | Blue | "When Day Is Done" | Django Reinhardt andStephane Grappelli | David Brown | WAV |
| Red | "Love of My Life" | Queen | Ilan Ramon | WAV | |
| 13 | Blue | "Slow Boat to Rio" | Earl Klugh | Michael Anderson | WAV |
| Red | "Running to the Light" | Runrig | Laurel Clark | WAV | |
| 14 | Blue | "I Get Around" | The Beach Boys | David Brown | WAV |
| Red | "Up On the Roof" | James Taylor | Rick Husband | WAV | |
| 15 | Blue | "Imagine" | John Lennon | William McCool | WAV |
| Red | "Yaar ko hamne ja ba ja dekha" | Abita Parveen | Kalpana Chawla | WAV | |
| 16 | Blue | "Silver Inches" | Enya | David Brown | WAV |
| Red | "Shalom lach eretz nehederet"[c] | Yehoram Gaon | Ilan Ramon | WAV | |
| 17 | Blue | "If You've Been Delivered" | Kirk Franklin | Michael Anderson | WAV |
| Red | "Scotland the Brave" | The Black Watch and 51st Highland Brigade Band | Laurel Clark | WAV |
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This article incorporatespublic domain material from websites or documents of theNational Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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| Crew | |||
| See also | |||
Space ShuttleColumbia (OV-102) | ||
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| Flights | .jpg) | |
| Status |
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