U.S. Space Shuttle Columbia Crashes, Killing Crew

All seven astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia were killed after the craft broke up just 16 minutes from its scheduled landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday (Feb. 1).

"The Columbia is lost. There are no survivors," President George W. Bush said in a televised broadcast after the disaster.

The space shuttle lost contact with the U.S. space agency NASA at about 9 a.m. local time while it was almost 40 miles (64 kilometers) above the earth and traveling at 12,500 mph (20,000 kph), 18 times the speed of sound. The craft then broke apart, raining debris over northeast Texas.

Probes have been launched into the cause of the accident by NASA and independent investigators. U.S. government and FBI officials have stated there are no indications that the break-up was caused by terrorists.

Damage at take-off

Sensors in the craft's left wing began to fail after the Columbia reentered the earth's atmosphere. The wing had been hit during take-off 16 days earlier by a piece of foam rubber insulation that came off the fuel tanks. Ground controllers then believed that it had not damaged the shuttle's heat shield.

"Now, in hindsight, that impact was on the left wing," space shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore said in a press conference. "All the indicators (of trouble) were on the left wing. We can't discount that there might have been a connection, but we can't rush to judgment on that."

NASA has begun collecting the remains of the shuttle which are spread throughout Texas and Louisiana. Officials have warned the local population to notify police if they come upon rubble and to avoid touching the debris, which could be contaminated by poisonous rocket fuel.

Astronauts mourned

The seven astronauts on board included Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli in space, and Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian-born woman in space. Mission commander Rick Husband, pilot William McCool, payload commander Michael Anderson and mission specialists David Brown and Laurel Clark also died in the break-up.

The shuttle was returning at the end of a routine mission, after the astronauts carried out more than 80 experiments on behalf of NASA and the European, Japanese and Canadian space agencies, as well as student and commercial investigations.

Shuttle program grounded

Although President Bush pledged that the space shuttle program will continue, NASA officials have acknowledged that the remaining three crafts will stay grounded until the cause of the accident is determined and corrected.

This is the most serious incident involving a shuttle since the 1986 crash of the space shuttle Challenger, in which seven astronauts were killed. Then the shuttle program suffered a nearly three year setback as NASA searched for the cause of the disaster -- faulty wields in rocket boosters – and corrected it.

The space shuttle is the main supplier for the International Space Station, where three astronauts have been working since Nov. 23. NASA said they have enough food to stay on the station until June. They could be brought back to earth by a Russian Soyuz spacecraft if necessary.

The U.S. shuttles also perform the necessary function of boosting the space station into its optimal orbit, since the station sinks several hundred yards (meters) each day. A NASA spokesman said that Russian crafts would also be able to boost the station.

Columbia was NASA's oldest shuttle and first flew in 1981. This was its 28th mission.