1. Columbia Space Shuttle: The Disaster
By: Blair Raphael

2. Columbia’s History Named after Robert Gray’s Columbia Sailboat
First space worthy space shuttle in NASA’s orbital fleet
Its first mission lasted from April 12th to April 14th, 1981
Its final, most famous mission was the space shuttle’s 28th flight

3. Qualities Columbia had an extraordinary weight of 8,000 pounds
It was the only orbiter in the fleet that had an all-tile thermal protection system (TPS)
The TPS is the barrier that protects the Space Shuttle Orbiter during the searing heat of atmospheric re-entry

4. Qualities
Only operational orbiter with an American Flag and the “USA” logo on its left wing
Columbia’s SISTL pod was located on top of its tailfin and was used by NASA for experiments

5. What Happened?
While concluding its 28th mission, the Columbia space shuttle broke apart
This happened 16 minutes before scheduled landing time into Florida’s Kennedy Space Center
All seven crew members were killed in the debris

6. CAUSES
A seal on the left wing was struck by a piece of foam the size of a small briefcase during liftoff and fell off the next day
At the time, this didn’t seem like a problem
While the Columbia was still in orbit, engineers suspected damage but no major investigations were ordered by NASA

7. CAUSES
During re-entry, the damaged area allowed the hot gasses to penetrate and destroy the internal wing structure
Damage to the internal wing structure caused the in-flight break up
Massive ground searches recovered crew remains and many vehicle fragments