This Wednesday marks twenty years since the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. I and NPR’s Scott Simon, host of “Weekend Edition” recall the three hours of “live” unscripted emergency coverage from February 1, 2003, after the spacecraft broke apart and burned up. All seven astronauts on board were killed.
Here’s the link to today’s “Weekend Edition” interview on the 20th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/28/1152313312/remembering-the-space-shuttle-columbia-tragedy-20-years-on
Pat Duggins
/
The heat shields of the leading edge of the left hand wing of Space Shuttle Columbia, loaded into a plastic frame for examination by investigators of the 2003 disaster
I took these photos of Columbia’s wreckage, which had been collected from East Texas and elsewhere, and delivered to a hangar at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Perhaps most recognizable was the windshield frame, behind which sat astronaut commander Rick Husband and rookie shuttle pilot Willie McCool.
Perhaps most telling was the re-creation of the leading edge of the spacecraft’s left hand wing. One hour before the arrival of a group of reporters, including me, investigators decided that falling foam insulation punched a hole, the size of a football, in one of the gray heat shields. That damage, they believed, led to the destruction of the spacecraft during the fiery re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. Friction between the shuttle’s heat shields typically creates temperatures close to 3,000 degrees. The host of NPR’s “Weekend Edition” said that a week doesn’t go by without someone commenting on the coverage during the news magazine immediately following the disaster that killed the seven astronauts.
Also of note– today’s interview on “Weekend Edition” was produced by former Alabama Public Radio student intern Allison Mollenkamp. The University of Alabama graduate was a inaugural fellow at NPR’s investigative unit before joining the weekend news magazine. Mollenkamp also collected a national Edward R. Murrow Award while working for Nebraska Public Radio for coverage of flooding in the state.
This Wednesday marks twenty years since the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. I and NPR’s Scott Simon, host of “Weekend Edition” recall the three hours of “live” unscripted emergency coverage from February 1, 2003, after the spacecraft broke apart and burned up. All seven astronauts on board were killed.