![]() Local residents volunteered by the hundreds to participate in search efforts coordinated by the U.S. These ground crews searched every square foot of the 681,000-acre debris field in three months. Each camp held roughly 1,000 searchers, who were rotated out every two weeks. The Texas Forest Service and US Forest Service established four search camps in Palestine, Corsicana, Nacogdoches, and Hemphill during the second phase of recovery operations. It became America’s largest peacetime coordinated agency effort.įire crews gather for a morning briefing in a warehouse in Palestine, Texas on Februbefore venturing out to search for Columbia debris. FEMA, the EPA, NASA, the FBI, the Texas Forest Service-and eventually more than 150 federal, state, and local agencies-established a disaster field office in the civic arena at Lufkin, Texas. A Mishap Investigation Team from Houston and KSC flew to Barksdale Air Force Base near the Texas-Louisiana border to take command of the debris recovery effort. That first day, the astronaut corps mobilized from Houston to the debris field to aid in the search for their colleagues. Bush declared a state of emergency early in the afternoon. ![]() ![]() The magnitude of the grim situation quickly became apparent. ![]() Within an hour of the accident, the first remains of a Columbia crew member were found. Local law enforcement and emergency responders immediately began to assess the situation and protect the public. Among the 40 tons of material that made it to the ground were pyrotechnic devices and storage tanks that still held toxic chemical propellants. Pieces of Columbia fell from the sky for the next half hour along a path 250 miles long and 20 miles wide, stretching from Dallas to Ft. While managers at NASA scrambled to determine what had happened to Columbia, the residents of east Texas were jarred by a continuous cacophony of earth-shaking blasts and booms that lasted for several minutes. The scheduled landing time came and went. Meanwhile, the crew’s families and the NASA welcoming party at KSC waited and listened for the telltale sonic booms to announce Columbia’s arrival. Mission controllers at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, attempted for 16 minutes to contact the crew, but they heard only silence. Anderson, all mission specialists and Ilan Ramon, payload specialist representing the Israeli Space Agency.Ī successful re-entry burn targeted Columbia to land at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, at 9:16 am.Īt 9:00 am, communications with the ship suddenly stopped. Standing are (from the left) astronauts David M. Husband (left), mission commander Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist and William C. STS-107 crew members included astronauts Rick D. Whatever happened, there was no chance of survival when the cabin struck the ocean at 207 miles per hour.STS-107 crew members lost when space shuttle "Columbia" broke up during reentry on February 1, 2003. For what it's worth, per NBC News, three-time shuttle commander Robert Overmeyer, who participated in the cabin's recovery, is certain that the Challenger astronauts were conscious. However, Kerwin noted that the PEAPs may have been activated "instinctively" due to depressurization right at breakup, in which case they wouldn't have kept the astronauts awake, as they only provided regular air. Of the four personal egress air packs, or PEAPs, that were recovered, three had been activated before the impact. There is one chilling indicator of the crew's fate. Given the damage, it couldn't be determined whether there'd been any breach in the cabin before the crash. On the ocean floor, the cabin was a mangled mess, but that was due to its impact. If it did so right away, the astronauts would've been mercifully unaware of their descent after only a few seconds. The central question is how quickly the cabin depressurized. After the orbiter was torn apart, the sturdy crew cabin (pictured) began to free fall.
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