Columbia disaster, mission control contingency plans. Footage of mission controllers at the Johnson Space Centre, Houston, Texas, USA, during the re-entry of the Space Shuttle Columbia into the Earth's atmosphere at the end of mission STS-107 (16 January to 1 February 2003). This mission ended in tragedy when the shuttle broke up on re-entry due to damage to the leading edge of one of the wings, 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. The shuttle was travelling at around 24, 000 kilometres per hour at an altitude of over 60 kilometres. It broke up in seconds with the resulting debris strewn across Texas and Louisiana. This footage show Flight Director LeRoy Cain starting contingency plans to secure the mission control data for the investigation. This included locking the control centre doors, the first time this order had been issued since the Challenger disaster in 1986. |