The shuttle has been in service since April 1981.
It was the first shuttle built and used in the shuttle fleet.
It was the heaviest of the shuttles.
It was recently refurbished.
It was designed as the first reusable space vehicle.
The space shuttle is the most complex machine ever built by humans.

This was the 113th flight of the shuttle program.
On launch, a piece of foam insulation fell off one of the fuel rockets.
The insulation apparently hit the left wing of the shuttle.
This was not the first time a tile came off during launch.
The shuttle crew did not have the capablility to go out into space to look at the impact spot of the foam tile.
The crew did not have the capability to replace the heat resistant tiles on the underside of the Columbia.
NASA did not create a special project to gather information about the damage caused by the insulation.

The re-entry phase of the mission puts the craft in the greatest degree of motion and temperature stress.
The Columbia disintegrated on re-entry to Earth's atmosphere.
The shuttle was scheduled to land in Florida at 9:15 eastern time.
It broke up over Texas at around 8:53 eastern time.
When it broke up, it was travelling at 207,000 feet above sea level, or approximately 40 miles.
When it broke up, it was travelling at 18 times the speed of sound, or mach 18, or 12,500 miles per hour.

An early indication of trouble was that the sensors on the left wing began to fail.
The temperature sensor cut out at above its normal temperature of 3000 degrees farenheight.
The air pressure sensor in the left tire stopped functioning.
Sensors on the structure of the craft indicated that there was a problem.
Ground control commmmunicated with the shuttle about the loss of the sensors.
The shuttle's last communication was to acknowledge the reciept of the previous message, and confirmed loss of the sensors.

People in Texas reported hearing two loud explosions early on Saturday morning.
Some people on the ground filmed the spacecraft breaking up on home video.
The debris field on Saturday was reported to be 60 miles.
On the news Saturday night, there was film of people standing watch near pieces of debris.
Most of the pieces that were shown were smaller than a suitcase.
Some pieces were that were shown were smaller than a cassette tape.
The pieces were generally surrounded by yellow caution tape.
On Sunday, the debris field was reported to be 500 square miles.
On Sunday, there were reports of human remains located in the debris.
On Sunday, there were reports of shuttle debris listed for sale on EBay
On Saturday, cautions were broadcast about staying clear of potentially toxic shuttle debris.
On Sunday, there were reports of people being treated for contact with the toxins on the debris.

It was the first time during the 42 year space program that an accident occurred during landing.
Seventeen years earlier to the week, the Challenger shuttle exploded on liftoff.
The nation was experiencing an unusually cold period in Florida.
The Launch of the Challenger was delayed several times in the days before before it finally was cleared for launch.
The cause of the Challenger failure was blamed on an O ring between sections of the solid rocket fuel booster.
After the Challenger, the shuttle program was grounded for nearly three years as the incident was studied.
The Challenger crew included Christa MacAuliffe, a teacher from New Hampshire.
The Challenger launch was promoted heavily and was broadcast live to many of the nation's classrooms.

There was a 7 person crew on the shuttle.  They were incontact with earth bound people via email during the mission.
They included an African American man, a woman born in a small villiage in India, an Israili Air Force pilot and four americans.
Rick Douglas Husband wanted to be an astronaut since he was four years old.
Laurel Blair was a flight surgeon trained to work in hyperbaric conditions.  She had one child.
William McCool was on his first flight on the shuttle.
Elan Ramon was an Israili fighter pilot, he was the first Israili in space. He had four children.  He was a pilot on a mission to bomb a nuclear reactor in Iraq during the early 1980's.
David Anderson was a US Navy flight Surgeon.  He spent a year flying around the western United States and Alaska, taking a year off from medical school.
Complana Chavla was from Carnal 80 miles from New Delhi.  She was from a family of modest means.  She emigrated to the us in the 1980's.  She sponsored trips to the us for Indian schoolchildren.  She became a US citizen during the 1990's.

NASA was scheduled to release its budget for the next year on Monday, after Saturday's accident.

October 4 1957, the Soviet Union was the first nation to launch a sattelite, named Sputnik.
Sputnik orbitted the Earth and emitted a beeping signal that could be recieved by some radios.
That the Soviets could launch a sattelite meant that they could also be working on a launch vehicle for nuclear missiles.
The Soviet union developed a Nuclear bomb and Hydrogen bomb soon after the US
NASA was begun 1 year after Sputnik as a response to the Soviet space program.
After Sputnik, the United States put a great deal more emphasis on science and mathmatics education.
In April 1961, Yuri Gregarian was the first human in space.
Freedom 7 was the first american space vehicle to launch a person.
John Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth.  He later was a Senator, presidential candidate and Shuttle astronaut.
Early in the 1960's, President Kennedy challenged the nation to put a man on the moon before the decade was done.
In 1967 there was a fire in the cabin of a rocket onthe launch pad.  Three astronauts died in the blaze.  Their dying cries were heard in the mission control room.
The apollo 11 mission was successful in landing on the moon.
Neil Armstrong was the first to step on the moon.
Less than a year later Apollo 13 encountered an oxygen tank explosion on the way to the moon.
The astronauts had to use the gravitational pull of the moon to get back to the earth.

Skylab was the first orbital workshop and was launched in the 1970's.
Skylab was allowed to fall into the atmosphere and burn up.
It may have landed over Austraila.

Mir was a Russian based space station.
The duration record for a human in space was set by a russian on board the Mir.
During the fall of the Soviet government, a russian cosmonaut was aboard the Mir.
He was put into space by one government and brought down by another government.
At the end of its service, there were many technical problems with the Mir.
There was a fire on board the Mir while an American astronaut was in the station.
An unmanned supply rocket rammed into the Mir during a docking manuever.
The Mir could have been fatally damaged by the failed docking manuever.
At the end of its usable life, Mir was allowed to fall into the Pacific Ocean.

The international space station was developed during the 1990'sto maintain a human presence in space.