#COLUMBIA SPACE SHUTTLE FULL#

The CAIB would detail this in their findings. Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson describes her experience writing and teaching a case on the Columbia space shuttleвЂ™s final mission, including the organizational challenges within. The troubling part discovered during the investigation though was that NASA engineers had informed the managers of the foam strike, yet nothing was really done to investigate the damage to the thermal protection system. Once the heat shield was compromised, the rest of the billion dollar shuttle was destroyed in an instant. Upon reentry in the EarthвЂ™s atmosphere, the extreme heat penetrated into the wing where the damage had occurred. The piece of foam was no larger than a briefcase, yet was enough to cause a failure of the heat shield later in the mission. A piece of insulating foamВ had broken loose of the external tank during the violent firing of the rockets and struck the underside of the orbiter vehicle damaging the fragile heat shield. The problems for the doomed Columbia started just seconds after liftoff. From this and the pieces of the broken up shuttle they were able to locate, they were able to gleen a ton of information and to figure out preciselyВ what had gone wrong. The CAIB wereВ fortunate to be able to locate the shuttleвЂ™s flight data recorder nearВ Hemphill, Texas. The second shuttle in the fleet of 6 had been destroyed with allВ astronauts on board paying the ultimate sacrifice. This Columbia Chronology outlines some of the major accident-related flight events of STS-107. The wreckage was scattered across over multipleВ states, Louisiana, Texas and even parts of Arkansas. The shuttle disintegrated in the sky for all to see. Shortly after this occurrence, all contact was lost with the Columbia.

Sensors in the left wing were not responding. A few moments later,В mission controlВ noticed an anomaly. The Entry Flight Director gave Shuttle commander Rick Husband the go-ahead to initiate deorbit and reentry procedures.

Inside mission control at Johnson Space Center, engineers performed all the last minute checks. Little did the crew know that events that had taken placeВ over two weeks ago would destroy the orbiter vehicle and take their lives.

The crew of seven вЂ“ five men and two women вЂ“ had carried out more thanВ 80 experiments during their time in EarthвЂ™s orbit.

#COLUMBIA SPACE SHUTTLE FULL#

OnВ Februthe Shuttle Columbia was making its reentry into EarthвЂ™s atmosphere after a mission full of science.