Columbia STS-107: Recovering and Identifying the Crew’s Remains

On February 1, 2003, Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart at about 8:59 a.m. Eastern Time, roughly 16 minutes before its scheduled landing at Kennedy Space Center. All seven crew members of STS-107 died. Their remains, along with the wreckage, fell across an area of approximately 2,400 square miles of Texas and Louisiana, setting off one of the largest recovery operations in American history.

The flight and the foam strike

Columbia had launched on January 16, 2003, and spent 16 days in orbit on a science mission. The crew were Commander Rick Husband, Pilot William McCool, mission specialists Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark, and payload specialist Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut.

Eighty-two seconds after liftoff, a piece of foam insulation broke from the external fuel tank and struck the leading edge of the left wing, damaging the reinforced carbon-carbon panels that protected it from reentry heat. Engineers who saw the strike on launch footage requested additional imaging. Program managers, who believed foam impacts were not serious safety concerns, denied the requests.

The breakup

During descent, superheated plasma entered the wing through the hole and the aluminum supports began melting. At about 8:53 a.m. the crew received a last routine communication about tire pressure; Husband began to respond but was cut off mid-sentence. At about 12,500 mph and an altitude of around 207,000 feet, Columbia broke apart.

NASA's Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report, released in 2008, found that the crew compartment separated early in the breakup and stayed relatively intact for perhaps 20 to 30 seconds. The cabin lost pressure rapidly, and the suits were not designed for such conditions. The investigation determined the crew likely lost consciousness from hypoxia and physical trauma within seconds of the initial failure.

The search

The search was coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and involved thousands of personnel from NASA, the FBI, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Guard, local law enforcement and volunteer organizations. Searchers eventually walked over 1.5 million acres. NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe made clear that bringing the astronauts home was paramount.

Searchers were told to treat every fragment with the utmost respect: evidence flags were placed, locations documented, and trained personnel called to recover the remains. Counseling was offered and teams were rotated to limit exposure.

Identification and burial

The Armed Forces Medical Examiner's Office led identification, with DNA analysis as the primary tool. Reference samples had been collected from the astronauts before the mission, and family members also provided samples. By early February, NASA announced that remains of all seven had been recovered and positively identified. They were taken to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for preparation.

Husband was buried in Amarillo, Texas, and McCool at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. Chawla was cremated and her ashes scattered according to her family's wishes. Ramon was buried on a hillside overlooking Jerusalem. A national memorial service was held at the Johnson Space Center, attended by President George W. Bush.

Findings and what survived

Searchers recovered approximately 38% of Columbia's weight, including both main engines. The investigation confirmed the foam strike created the breach. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board criticized NASA's safety culture, saying the agency had treated foam strikes as maintenance issues.

A fragment of a drawing of Earth as seen from the moon, made by a child who died at Auschwitz and loaned by Yad Vashem, was recovered from the debris field and now resides at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. In Hemphill, Texas, a memorial park and the Patricia Huffman Smith NASA Remembering Columbia Museum preserve artifacts and tell the story of the recovery.