Editor’s Notice: The CNN Authentic Sequence “Area Shuttle Columbia: The Remaining Flight” uncovers the occasions that finally led to catastrophe. The four-part documentary concludes at 9 p.m. ET/PT Sunday.
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When NASA’s Columbia shuttle launched on January 16, 2003, it carried a crew of seven astronauts who had spent almost three years attending to know each other earlier than venturing on a 16-day science mission into area.
NASA chosen astronauts Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel B. Clark, Rick D. Husband and William C. “Willie” McCool, in addition to Ilan Ramon of the Israeli Area Company for the mission in July 2000.
Through the day, the crew educated collectively, engaged on the camaraderie that might assist them as a workforce. After work, the crew members and their households would collect for cookouts and laser tag at each other’s properties.
NASA/Courtesy of Scott Andrews
Area Shuttle Columbia launches from the Kennedy Area Middle in Florida on January 16, 2003.
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The crew of NASA’s STS-107 mission attends a information convention at Kennedy Area Middle 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
Area Shuttle Columbia sits on Launchpad 39A, atop the cell launcher platform, on the Kennedy Area Middle in Florida on December 9, 2002.
NASA/Courtesy of Scott Andrews
The STS-107 crew members wave to onlookers on their solution to the launchpad for liftoff on the Kennedy Area Middle in Florida on January 16, 2003.
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Individuals work within the management room at NASA’s Mission Management Middle in Houston on January 16, 2003. Area Shuttle Columbia launched from the Kennedy Area Middle in Florida at 10:39 a.m. ET.
NASA
Members of the closeout crew assist Anderson, entrance, along with his launch and entry go well with within the White Room at Kennedy Area Middle in Florida on January 16, 2003. The environmentally managed chamber was mated to Area Shuttle Columbia for entry into the orbiter. Behind Anderson is McCool.
Karl Ronstrom/Reuters
Area Shuttle Columbia lifts off from the Kennedy Area Middle in Florida on January 16, 2003. It was the twenty eighth mission for the orbiter, with the STS-107 crew set to hold out experiments over the course of 16 days.
NASA
The VIP stand on the Kennedy Area Middle in Florida is stuffed with pals and households of the STS-107 crew on January 16, 2003. Representatives of Israel have been there as properly to assist Ramon, the primary Israeli astronaut and a colonel within the Israeli Air Drive.
NASA
Chawla performs work within the SPACEHAB Analysis Double Module (RDM) on January 18, 2003. She is pictured by the tunnel linking SPACEHAB to the Area Shuttle Columbia’s crew cabin.
NASA
A few of the STS-107 crew are pictured previous to their sleep shift in bunk beds on the middeck of Area Shuttle Columbia on January 20, 2003. From left are Clark, Husband and Chawla. Together with Ramon, out of body, they have been members of the Pink Staff; Anderson, Brown, and McCool have been on the Blue Staff. The groups labored reverse shifts to be able to carry out steady analysis for 16 days.
NASA
The STS-107 crew pose for an in-flight portrait within the SPACEHAB RDM aboard Area Shuttle Columbia. This photograph was on a roll of unprocessed movie that searchers later recovered from particles.
NASA
Clark appears to be like by an overhead window on the aft flight deck of Area Shuttle Columbia. This photograph was on a roll of unprocessed movie that searchers later recovered from particles.
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A retailer worker in New York pauses to look at a breaking information broadcast about Area Shuttle Columbia minutes earlier than its scheduled touchdown on February 1, 2003.
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Kathryn O’Neill of Laguna Hills, California, and her son Zachary kneel by the doorway signal of Johnson Area Middle in Houston on February 1, 2003. A makeshift memorial for the STS-107 crew had been arrange there.
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Former astronaut and then-Florida Sen. Invoice Nelson addresses the information media at Kennedy Area Middle in Florida on February 1, 2003. Area Shuttle Columbia broke aside throughout reentry over east Texas at round 9 a.m. ET, and the STS-107 crew was misplaced.
Eric Homosexual/AP
Tommy Peltier of Houston stands subsequent to clutter from Area Shuttle Columbia that fell close to San Augustine, Texas, on February 2, 2003.
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Averi Forline, 4, performs with a mannequin of an area shuttle as he visits a rising memorial exterior the principle gate of Johnson Area Middle in Houston on February 3, 2003. The memorial was created by NASA staff and different Houstonians in honor of the STS-107 crew.
NASA
Individuals attend a memorial for the STS-107 crew on the mall of the Johnson Area Middle in Houston on February 4, 2003.
Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle/AP
Joe Cavaretta/AP
Ron Dittemore, NASA’s area shuttle program supervisor, shows a bit of insulating foam, much like that which coated Area Shuttle Columbia’s gas tank, throughout a briefing for the information media held on the Johnson Area Middle in Houston on February 5, 2003.
NASA
Items of Area Shuttle Columbia that had been recognized are positioned throughout the define of the orbiter on the reusable launch automobile hangar ground on the Kennedy Area Middle in Florida on March 6, 2003. The Columbia Reconstruction Venture Staff was trying to reconstruct the underside of the orbiter as a part of the investigation into what triggered the destruction of Columbia and the lack of its crew.
Mannie Garcia/Reuters
Reporters ask NASA Administrator O’Keefe, seen within the monitor, questions concerning the “Columbia Accident Investigation Board Report” throughout a information convention at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, on August 27, 2003.
NASA
A member of the Shoshone-Bannock Native American group from Fort Corridor, Idaho, shows a hand-crafted merchandise with the STS-107 insignia on February 1, 2004. Dancers from Shoshone-Bannock Junior/Senior Excessive Faculty additionally carried out a therapeutic ceremony throughout the one-year anniversary occasion on the Area Memorial Mirror in Florida. College students and employees of the Shoshone-Bannock Excessive Faculty had an experiment on board Area Shuttle Columbia.
Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle/AP
Sandy Anderson, widow of Area Shuttle Columbia’s Michael P. Anderson, is comforted by astronaut Carlos Noriega throughout the annual Day of Remembrance ceremony on the Johnson Area Middle’s Astronaut Tree Grove in Houston on January 27, 2011. Johnson Area Middle 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 best.
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Glenn Benson/NASA
Members of the Area Coast Voices sing the nationwide anthem throughout the NASA Day of Remembrance ceremony on the Area Mirror Memorial in Florida on January 30, 2020. The crews of Apollo 1 and area shuttles Challenger and Columbia, in addition to different fallen astronauts who misplaced their lives within the identify of area exploration and discovery, have been honored on the annual occasion.
Kim Shiflett/NASA
A wreath is positioned in entrance of the Area Mirror Memorial in Florida throughout the NASA Day of Remembrance on January 27, 2022.
The STS-107 mission crew included 5 males and two girls of various backgrounds, religions, pursuits and hobbies. However quite than let the variations divide them, the trainees got here collectively and inspired each other, mentioned Laura Husband, daughter of STS-107 Commander Rick Husband.
“I grew up with seeing this lovely image of all these totally different views, and so they beloved one another and labored so properly collectively,” Laura advised CNN. “They celebrated one another.”
Earlier than the launch, the crew went on an out of doors team-building journey in Wyoming. Because the shuttle commander, Rick thought it might assist the workforce bond.
“I watched my dad actually construct a workforce, and he did that with our household, too,” Laura mentioned. “He was a very good chief and a very good workforce participant.”
NASA
Mission Specialist Laurel B. Clark and Commander Rick D. Husband are seen close to supportive tools for experiments on the SPACEHAB Analysis Double Module aboard the area shuttle Columbia.
Crew member Brown filmed the journey. Earlier than changing into a medical physician and astronaut, he was a collegiate varsity gymnast who carried out as an acrobat, 7-foot unicyclist and stilt walker.
The footage Brown captured reveals crew members laughing and joking with each other, making enjoyable of campfire brownies that regarded like bear scat and anticipating their mission with an infectious hopefulness.
“Once they got here again, it was like their bond was without end,” mentioned Rosalind Hobgood, NASA secretary for the crew, within the CNN docuseries. “They walked in sync with one another. It was like left, proper, left, proper. They have been the Columbia crew. They have been STS-107. They have been a unit.”
After launching to area, the crew break up into two groups to conduct dozens of round the clock experiments and collect useful science knowledge whereas taking time to trade emails and revel in a few video calls with their households.
When Columbia reentered Earth’s ambiance on February 1, 2003, the shuttle broke aside over Texas on account of harm from a foam strike on the shuttle’s left wing after liftoff, and the crew was tragically misplaced.
Now, greater than twenty years after the lack of the Columbia astronauts, their members of the family proceed to honor the reminiscences and legacies of their family members.
Jonathan Clark first met his future spouse, Laurel, at a US Navy diving course for medical officers on the Naval Diving and Salvage Coaching Middle in Panama Metropolis, Florida, in February 1989. However he joked it wasn’t like the long-lasting bar scene from the 1986 film “High Gun.”
Jonathan and Laurel every teamed up with a diving buddy, and the 2 pairs have been subsequent to one another throughout coaching. She had a tenacious spirit and was a pure within the water, outswimming all the boys within the course “like a race boat,” he mentioned. She was extremely calm beneath strain, even when her diving helmet system flooded and she or he almost died.
Courtesy of Jonathan Clark
Jonathan Clark met his future spouse, Mission Specialist Laurel B. Clark, at US Navy diving college in 1989. Laurel (close to middle) was the one girl who accomplished the course. Jonathan is seen standing behind her proper shoulder.
After finishing the course, the 2 went on dive journeys collectively and fashioned a friendship that bloomed right into a deeper relationship constructed on mutual respect and admiration, Jonathan mentioned.
Laurel turned one of many first feminine submarine medical officers and aced quite a few achievements earlier than changing into an astronaut. She was an outdoorsy individual and avid sailor who beloved tenting and nature. And she or he was all the time smiling.
“She was only a enjoyable, cheerful, optimistic position mannequin,” he mentioned. “And fairly actually, I absorbed numerous who she was as a result of I noticed that’s a greater approach for me, not simply being that type of machismo, cocky man, however to consider issues and care about different folks. She was very emotionally clever and had an exquisite capability to learn folks and be capable of make any state of affairs higher.”
Laurel additionally loved being a mom and excelled at it, Jonathan mentioned.
“She made every thing joyful on a regular basis,” mentioned her son, Iain Clark, within the collection. “She was my complete world. I relied on my mother for a lot.”
The knowledge and perception that Jonathan gained from Laurel helped him course of his grief after dropping her, he mentioned. She taught him to simply accept actuality however by no means abandon hope, and that people develop and be taught from loss and hardship.
“What I’m doing now could be working to make human spaceflight safer by specializing in what classes we are able to be taught after catastrophic occasions,” Jonathan mentioned. “It’s not about discovering who’s at fault. It’s about discovering the trigger and addressing and coping with that.”
Jonathan Clark was a flight surgeon in mission management at Johnson Area Middle in Houston throughout the remaining Columbia mission. After the tragedy, he turned his efforts to the restoration and investigation that adopted. He turned a member of the crew survival working group to find out the implications and classes of what might need enabled the crew to outlive, and the way these classes could possibly be utilized sooner or later.
Courtesy of Jonathan Clark
The Clarks are seen with their son, Iain, throughout a go to to the zoo.
“I type of have a look at the legacy of Columbia as not simply the science that they recovered from the mission, but in addition the crew survival enhancements discovered,” he mentioned. “Spaceflight is a lot safer now than it was once.”
Since leaving NASA in 2005, Jonathan has labored with firms relating to crew security for area missions and different high-stakes operations. And he has found the “greatest job he by no means knew existed”: changing into a grandfather.
Iain Clark now has a daughter named Laurel, and she or he has a lot of her namesake’s attributes, together with a love of nature, water and the outside, “with a bubbly character such as you wouldn’t imagine,” Jonathan mentioned.
“God gave Laurel again in a small approach,” he mentioned.
Rick Husband and his future spouse, Evelyn, grew up a mile down the street from each other in Amarillo, Texas.
They went to the identical highschool, however they didn’t start relationship till after working into every one other in faculty throughout a basketball recreation at Texas Tech College. Their first date was on January 28, 1977, and immediately, Rick knocked over a glass of water and bumped his head on a lightweight making an attempt to scrub up the mess.
Quickly after, he advised Evelyn he needed to be a Dallas Cowboys soccer participant or an astronaut, however he didn’t suppose being a soccer participant was practical, which made her giggle. Rick had labored towards the purpose of changing into an astronaut since he was 4 years outdated.
The 2 married after faculty, specializing in rising their religion collectively.
Rick was extremely humble, Evelyn mentioned. When folks requested about his job, he merely mentioned he labored for NASA, and solely would admit to being an astronaut after additional questioning, she mentioned. For Rick, religion got here first, household second and his job was third, Evelyn mentioned.
Courtesy of Evelyn Husband
Evelyn and Rick D. Husband are seen with their youngsters, Matthew and Laura.
Regardless of how demanding his job was, Rick all the time made time to spend along with his household, his daughter Laura mentioned. He embellished her ceiling with glow-in-the-dark stars, acted out skits along with her at church and took her on father-daughter tenting journeys, creating candy reminiscences that she nonetheless cherishes. She beloved how goofy he was and preferred to listen to him sing as a result of it was one in every of his favourite issues to do.
Religion helped Evelyn and Rick navigate tough patches of their marriage, she mentioned. When Rick entered a quarantine to forestall crew members from getting sick earlier than launch, he advised Evelyn, “I really feel like we’re in the perfect place we’ve ever been in our marriage,” she recalled. And she or he advised him she felt the identical approach.
From area, Rick and his household shared a video name on January 28, 2003, and Rick wished Evelyn a “glad relationship anniversary.” It was the final time they ever spoke.
Evelyn and Laura relied on their religion to navigate their grief after the catastrophe, and so they felt like God protected them by a few of the worst days, they mentioned.
Eight months after her loss, Evelyn learn the accident investigation report that was launched. She remembers struggling along with her anger, realizing that NASA knew the froth strike could have triggered a problem and that perhaps one thing might have been finished to avoid wasting the crew. She prayed that she wouldn’t be bitter.
Evelyn has since attended seminars hosted by NASA to recollect the Columbia tragedy and share classes discovered, in order that historical past by no means repeats itself once more.
“I’ve a ton of pals at NASA, and I nonetheless do,” Evelyn mentioned. “No person did this on goal. NASA needed to do a extremely onerous take care of (the) Challenger (explosion in 1986), after which they wanted to do a extremely onerous take care of Columbia. So it was tremendous necessary to me to not be bitter and to keep up this relationship with them, and it’s actually paid off.”
Throughout the previous 10 years, Evelyn has turn out to be the one feminine board member of a ministry referred to as Fathers within the Discipline, a program that pairs mentor fathers with fatherless boys for a three-year dedication. She needs that her son, Matthew, might have had that have after dropping his father.
Laura was 12 when her dad died, forcing her to develop up rapidly. Now, she displays on how intentional her dad was along with his time. Religion and her love of storytelling, singing, dancing and performing have helped her alongside the way in which, she mentioned.
Courtesy of Evelyn Husband
Laura Husband was solely 12 when her father, Rick, died. She nonetheless cherishes the reminiscences they made collectively.
“My want is to stay and foster magnificence on the earth and deliberately do one thing along with different folks to convey hope not directly,” Laura mentioned.
Rising up with the opposite crew youngsters, Laura remembers the adults speaking over barbecue whereas the children went upstairs and performed for hours.
Laura and Tal Ramon, son of Ilan Ramon, have been solely a couple of 12 months aside in age, and they might paint or play piano collectively. Now, Tal is a singer-songwriter, pianist and composer. And most of the Columbia youngsters are inventive in a wide range of methods — one thing that connects them past tragedy.
“It’s one thing that existed in all of us, and perhaps it’s as a result of we watched our mother and father do massive issues,” Laura mentioned. “That gave us stability and safety to dream massive.”
