Columbia disaster, public view of launch. Footage of a countdown clock and people in a public viewing area on 16 January 2003 for the 10:39 EST (15:39 UTC) launch of mission STS-107, flown by the Space Shuttle Columbia. This mission launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA. The shuttle broke up on re-entry on 1 February 2003 due to damage sustained during the launch, killing all seven on board. The members of the crew were US astronauts Rick Husband, William McCool, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Michael P. Anderson and Laurel Clark, and Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon. Space Shuttles used an external tank and two solid rocket boosters, taking about 9 minutes to ascend to Earth orbit, achieving an escape velocity of over 40, 250 kilometres per hour. Launches were viewed from outside an exclusion zone several kilometres across, with footage from launch pad cameras used to monitor and analyse each launch. |