Space Shuttle Columbia disaster Space Shuttle Columbia disaster On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle "Columbia" disintegrated upon reentering Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven crew members. The disaster was the second fatal accident in the Space Shuttle program after Space Shuttle "Challenger", which broke apart and killed the seven-member crew 73 seconds after liftoff in 1986. During the launch of STS-107, "Columbia"'s 28th mission, a piece of foam insulation broke off from the Space Shuttle external tank and struck the left wing of the orbiter. A few previous shuttle launches had seen damage ranging from minor to nearly catastrophic from foam shedding, but some
Space Shuttle crew members to the ISS, to stay docked for 180 days, and then return them back to Earth. These spacecraft were to become operational in the 2010s. Space Shuttles have been features of fiction and nonfiction, from children's movies to documentaries. Early examples include the 1979 "James Bond" film, "Moonraker", the 1982 Activision videogame "Space Shuttle: A Journey into Space" (1982) and G. Harry Stine's 1981 novel "Shuttle Down". In the 1986 film "SpaceCamp", "Atlantis" accidentally launches into space with a group of U.S. Space Camp participants as its crew. A space shuttle named "Intrepid" is featured in the 1989