February 1, 2003 was a Saturday. It was shaping up as a slow news day. Saturdays usually are. At the cable and broadcast network newsrooms the arrival and landing of Shuttle Columbia was just another small story–really not much more than a time filler on that winter’s day.
Of course that’s not what actually happened. A small incident, virtually unnoticed at launch, doomed Columbia’s reentry.
“…a large piece of insulating foam from Columbia’s external tank (ET) had come off during ascent and struck the leading edge of the left wing, causing critical damage.”
Though preliminary conclusions were published in 1983in 2003 and the remaining shuttle fleet resumed missions in 2005 it wasn’t until this past Tuesday that we got the full story of the Columbia accident. It is a chilling and often gruesome report told in technical terms, but with little left to the imagination. Because the flight was so well monitored and documented this forensic retelling is factually weighty.
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