Columbia disaster, during launch. Footage of three members of the shuttle crew in the mid-deck area of the Space Shuttle Columbia during its launch on mission STS-107. This launch took place at 10:39 EST (15:39 UTC) on 16 January 2003, from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA. The three astronauts on the mid-deck were (left to right) Ilan Ramon, Laurel Clark and Michael P. Anderson. After carrying out their mission, the shuttle broke up on re-entry on 1 February 2003 due to damage sustained during the launch. All seven on board were killed. The other four members of the crew (seated on the flight deck) were US astronauts Rick Husband, William McCool, David M. Brown, and Kalpana Chawla. From 1994 to the end of the space shuttle programme, astronauts wore the Advanced Crew Escape Suit (ACES) during ascent and re-entry, but the subsequent investigation determined that the re-entry break-up had been a non-survivable event. |