A Fall to Earth
As trouble developed aboard the Columbia, it was making an apparently normal shuttle re-entry: plunging belly first into the upper atmosphere at 12,500 miles an hour. The nose-high position allows the craft’s heat-resistant base to take the brunt of air friction, which generates temperatures as high as 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Lost in Space
The half-built international space station consists of housing and laboratory modules flanked by solar panels. Now occupied by a crew of three, it depends on the space shuttle to ferry parts and provide an occasional boost so that its orbit 240 miles high does not decay.
Final Journey
The oldest of the fleet, Columbia made the first space shuttle flight in April 1981 and departed on its final journey on January 16. View the time sequence that chronicles how the flight went wrong in its last minutes.
Production by Jonathan Sullivan
Graphics by Rob Cady, Rod Little, Stephen Rountree, Doug Stern--USN&WR
For a complete list of articles included in Fallen Stars, a special newsstand issue of U.S. News, please click here.
