Space shuttle blows up over Texas
Last Updated Sat, 01 Feb 2003 12:46:46

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA - The space shuttle Columbia blew up over Texas and crashed Saturday morning as it headed for a planned landing in Florida. The seven-member crew was killed.

Streaks were seen in the sky after what witnesses in northern Texas described as a loud boom at 9 a.m., the same time controllers lost contact with the shuttle.

U.S. government officials said there was no immediate indication the Columbia had been attacked. There were no threats made, and the shuttle was too high for a surface-to-air missile to reach it.

NASA said the shuttle had crashed, and advised the public to stay away from debris because the shuttle uses toxic substances as propellants.

Debris was strewn across a large area in Texas and neighbouring states, some of it scorching the ground where it landed.

The shuttle was due to land at 9:16 a.m. ET at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

Controllers lost contact with the shuttle at about 9 a.m. as it soared over Texas at an altitude of about 61,170 metres, travelling at about 20,000 km/h.

Crew of the Columbia

The shuttle crew members are:

Commander Rick Husband,
Willie McCool,
Michael Anderson,
Kalpana Chawla,
David Brown,
Laurel Clark,
Ilan Ramon.

RELATED: Crew bios

Gary Hunziker in Plano told the Associated Press he saw the shuttle flying overhead. "I could see two bright objects flying off each side of it," he said. "I just assumed they were chase jets."

RELATED: Witnesses spot shuttle debris

"I was getting read to go out and I heard a big bang and the windows shook in the house," added John Ferolito, of Carrolton north of Dallas. "I thought it was a sonic boom."

White House officials said there was no immediate indication Saturday that terrorism was involved.

President George Bush was at the presidential Camp David retreat in Maryland. He was told about the incident, and was waiting to hear more from NASA.

"There is no information at this was a terrorist incident," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the Homeland Security Department. "Obviously the investigation is just beginning but that is the information we have now."

The shuttle flight began on Jan. 16 under heightened security. Among the seven-person crew was Israeli Col. Ilan Ramon, the astronaut from his country.

Ramon's presence on the flight, officials feared, would make the shuttle's takeoff and landing more a target for terrorists.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office released a statement. "The government of Israel and the people of Israel are praying together with the entire world for the safety of the astronauts on the shuttle Columbia," it said.

FROM JAN. 16, 2003: Shuttle on its way to orbit

A piece of insulation came off the shuttle's external fuel tank during liftoff, and was thought to have hit the shuttle's left wing.

Engineers considered any damage the foam could have done to be minor and not a safety hazard, said Leroy Cain, the lead flight director in Mission Control on Friday.

James Oberg, a former mission control worker told CBC Newsworld that sort of thing had happened before.

NASA has never lost a crew on landing or on the approach to landing in 42 years of space flight.

The space shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986 shortly after liftoff.

Columbia was the oldest of the space shuttles, making its first flight into orbit in 1981. It made 28 space flights.

Written by CBC News Online staff

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