The Columbia before her maiden flight on April 12, 1981
The Space Shuttle Columbia was the first space-qualified space shuttle of NASA and the first reusable spacecraft. Completed in March 1979, the maiden flight took place on April 12, 1981 ( STS-1 ). The internal name is OV-102, where OV stands for Orbiter Vehicle . It broke apart on February 1, 2003 during its 28th space mission (mission STS-107 ) when re-entering the earth's atmosphere , killing all seven crew members.
The space shuttle was named - like the explorer ship of the American navigator Robert Gray and the command module of Apollo 11 - after Columbia , which, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, was initially the poetic name of North America and later as a female personification symbol for the United States was.
On April 12, 1981, Columbia completed the first space shuttle mission under the command of John Young on flight STS-1 . It was the first time in NASA history that a new spacecraft was launched without prior unmanned testing. Apart from damage to the heat protection tiles , the first flight of a space shuttle went smoothly.
The following four space shuttle flights were also carried out with the Columbia. Later missions included the third Hubble servicing mission STS-109 and the German D2 mission with the Spacelab . Since it could carry a little less payload due to its heavier construction and was not equipped with a docking adapter for the International Space Station , it was most recently used for the few missions that did not lead to the ISS.
The Columbia is driven to the launch pad of the Kennedy Space Center on a special tracked vehicle (March 1998)
Columbia was returning from its 28th mission ( STS-107 ) to the Kennedy Space Center , the US spaceport , when it arrived at 200,800 ft. On February 1, 2003 at around 8:59 a.m. local time (2:59 p.m. CET ) (approximately 61,200 m) altitude above Texas at a speed of approximately 12,385 mph (19,900 km / h). The cause was overheating of the inside of the wing until the material softened, caused by a hole in the heat shield caused by a piece of foam torn off during take-off. All seven crew members lost their lives.
After the Challenger, the Columbia is the second NASA space shuttle that crashed during a mission and was completely destroyed. The crew also died in the Challenger disaster .
^ Columbia Accident Investigation Board: STS-107 Re-entry Trajectory and Timeline. (PDF) In: Report of Columbia Accident Investigation Board, Volume I. August 26, 2003, p. 41 , accessed on July 15, 2017 .
