#STS-107

[nocternalrandomness]

In remembrance of the crew of STS-107

The mission was commanded by Rick Husband, who was a colonel in the U.S. Air Force and a test pilot. He had previously flown on STS-96 The mission's pilot was William McCool, a U.S. Navy commander who was on his first spaceflight. The payload commander was Michael Anderson, a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel who had previously flown on STS-89. Kalpana Chawla served as the flight engineer; she had previously flown on STS-87. David Brown and Laurel Clark, both Navy captains, flew as the mission specialists on their first spaceflights. Ilan Ramon, a colonel in the Israeli Air Force and the first Israeli astronaut, flew as a payload specialist.

[lonestarflight]

Photos of STS-107 Columbia in orbit from a ground based infrared telescope at Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing observatory.

Date: January 28, 2003

source

[gusgrissom]

Ilan Ramon during a training session at the Johnson Space Center, 2001

[deadpresidents]

This documentary on the 2003 loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia and the seven astronauts onboard, The Space Shuttle That Fell to Earth, is incredible. Some of the footage, especially of the astronauts as they prepared for the launch is absolutely remarkable and I've never seen any of it before. And getting the perspective of the families of the astronauts is heartbreaking and important. I strongly recommend checking it out.

[spyglassrealms]

21 years ago today, the shuttle orbiter Columbia and all seven astronauts she carried disintegrated on reentry. They were roughly fifteen minutes from landing.

Sometimes I watch the mission control recordings of that morning. It's a reminder of what —of who— we've lost on our path to the stars. it's a reminder that things can go so wrong so quickly in spaceflight.

HOBAUGH: Columbia, Houston, we see your tire pressure messages and we did not copy your last. HUSBAND: Roger, uh—

The loss of Columbia was the nail in the proverbial coffin for the shuttle program. NASA kept the other three orbiters flying without incident until 2011, but... we were supposed to go further. The shuttles were meant to be the dawn of the new age of spaceflight. We were meant to keep new shuttles, better shuttles, flying higher and higher for thirty more years. We were meant to get back to the Moon by 2011, and Mars by now. And instead, the swans of the space age were grounded. We're making a halfhearted, direly underfunded push for the Moon only now.

CAIN: FDO, when you expecting tracking? JONES: One minute ago, Flight.

I hope all this waiting has been worth it. I hope the contractors that NASA has been forced to buy spacecraft from (instead doing everything in-house like they always have) did not cut corners. I hope we make up for lost time, and we get to touch the sky again without losing anyone else.

CAIN: GC, Flight. GC, Flight. FOSTER: Flight, GC— CAIN: Lock the doors. FOSTER: ...Copy.

Lock the doors. The most horrible sentence in spaceflight. It means no information leaves the building. It means the emergency protocols are kicking in. It means the mission is over because everyone died, and now all we can do is try to figure out what happened so that it doesn't happen ever again.

I hope I never hear that phrase spoken in my lifetime.

Thunder on, STS-107.

[brickett6]

thank you space shuttle external tank for killing the colonizer 🙏

[ui-alcoholic]

Space Shuttle Columbia Cockpit (1981)

source: https://airandspace.si.edu/multimedia-gallery/2001-984hjpg

[davebriggs007]

Learning how to fly

[filmjunky-99]

s t a r t r e k t h e n e x t g e n e r a t i o n created by gene roddenberry [unification, part I, s5ep7] 'Picard's Last Visit with Sarek'

[callmeanxietygirl]

[kirbyddd]

first thing you learn about piloting is that planes dont just fall out of the sky without power and basically any civilian aircraft can glide to a safe landing provided the pilot planned the flight with contingencies and always kept the plane at sufficient altitude to reach them

the second thing you learn is airport standards are fucking insane and most modern airports are built and run with the philosophy of "you'd better HOPE you dont have any problems because we are NOT going through the trouble of maintaining powerloss-safe approaches and takeoff failure contingencies. Flock of birds decide to show up you're landin in the suburbs man."

[indiankitchenreddeer]

[lonestarflight]

Space Shuttle Columbia Tragedy

"Artwork of the Space Shuttle Columbia just before it broke up on re-entry on 1st February 2003, killing its seven astronauts. The bright area on the left wing is where the heat shield is starting to fail, as shown by the initial investigation. Columbia, on mission STS-107, was at an altitude of around 65 kilometres and it was travelling at 20,000 kilometres per hour. Debris from the explosion was scattered over a wide area of the southern USA. STS-107 lifted off on 16th January 2003 to carry out scientific experiments. On board were astronauts Husband, McCool, Ramon, Anderson, Clark, Chawla and Brown."

Date: February 1, 2003

Science Photo Library: S540/0808, S540/0806

[gusgrissom]

Sixteen minutes from home. Remembering the crew of Columbia STS-107, twenty years ago today.

Colonel Rick Douglas Husband, USAF (July 12, 1957 – February 1, 2003)

Commander William Cameron McCool, USN (September 23, 1961 – February 1, 2003)

Captain David McDowell Brown, USN (April 16, 1956 – February 1, 2003)

Kalpana Chawla (March 17, 1962 – February 1, 2003)

Lieutenant Colonel Michael Phillip Anderson, USAF (December 25, 1959 – February 1, 2003)

Captain Laurel Blair Salton Clark, M.D., USN (March 10, 1961 – February 1, 2003)

Colonel Ilan Ramon, IAF (June 20, 1954 – February 1, 2003)

[kemetic-dreams]

Joseph “Uncle Joe” Clovese was the last known surviving African soldier of the Union Army in the American Civil War, and lived in Pontiac at the time of his death in 1951. Clovese, who lived to be 107 years old, was born into slavery on a plantation in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, and escaped slavery in his teens to join the Union Army during the Siege of Vicksburg. He stayed with the Northern Army, first as a drummer, later as an infantryman. He was a private in Co. "C", 63rd Colored Infantry Regiment.

Following the war he worked on Mississippi river steamboats, and he later worked on the crew stringing the first telegraph wires between New Orleans and Biloxi, Mississippi. At the age of 104, Clovese moved from Louisiana to Pontiac, Michigan to be near family. Once the community learned about “Uncle Joe,” the citizens of Pontiac embraced him. Large gatherings were organized for his 105th, 106th and 107th birthdays on January 30th.

For his funeral, more than 300 people were packed into Newman A.M.E. Church in Pontiac (their former location, in downtown) for the service. Hundreds more gathered at the gravesite in Pontiac’s Perry Mount Park Cemetery. Veterans from the Oakland County Council of Veterans served as pall bearers. A firing party from Selfridge Air Force Base fired the final salute and taps was sounded over the cemetery. Pontiac even named a road in his honor, that ran through the Lakeside Homes complex.

[soberscientistlife]

Joseph “Uncle Joe” Clovese was the last known surviving Black soldier of the Union Army in the American Civil War, and lived in Pontiac at the time of his death in 1951. Clovese, who lived to be 107 years old, was born into slavery on a plantation in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, and escaped slavery in his teens to join the Union Army during the Siege of Vicksburg. He stayed with the Northern Army, first as a drummer, later as an infantryman. He was a private in Co. "C", 63rd Colored Infantry Regiment.

Following the war he worked on Mississippi river steamboats, and he later worked on the crew stringing the first telegraph wires between New Orleans and Biloxi, Mississippi. At the age of 104, Clovese moved from Louisiana to Pontiac, Michigan to be near family. Once the community learned about “Uncle Joe,” the citizens of Pontiac embraced him. Large gatherings were organized for his 105th, 106th and 107th birthdays on January 30th.

For his funeral, more than 300 people were packed into Newman A.M.E. Church in Pontiac (their former location, in downtown) for the service. Hundreds more gathered at the gravesite in Pontiac’s Perry Mount Park Cemetery. Veterans from the Oakland County Council of Veterans served as pall bearers. A firing party from Selfridge Air Force Base fired the final salute and taps was sounded over the cemetery. Pontiac even named a road in his honor, that ran through the Lakeside Homes complex.

Source: African Archives