Name: The Failure That Led to the Columbia Tragedy
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During the construction of the ISS, tragedy struck the Space Shuttle Columbia and its seven-member crew.

A small piece of insulation caused catastrophic damage.

The Failure That Led to the Columbia Tragedy

Failure That Led to the Columbia Tragedy

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During the construction of the ISS, tragedy struck the Space Shuttle Columbia and its seven-member crew.

A small piece of insulation caused catastrophic damage.

Space & Flight

The Failure That Led to the Columbia TragedyPublished: December 10, 2025NARRATOR: After more than two weeks conducting experiments in orbit, Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates on reentry, killing all seven crew members.ROBERT CURBEAM: Those were my friends. I knew them personally. I knew them professionally. Some of them were in my class. I miss them every day. It caused us to lose seven very incredible people. And believe me, they were incredible.CREW: This is amazing. It's really getting really bright out there. Yup. Yeah, you definitely don't want to be outside now.ROBERT CURBEAM: The Columbia disaster we later found out was due to foam shedding off of the external tank.NARRATOR: During launch, a falling piece of insulating foam struck the shuttle's left wing, damaging the thermal protection tiles designed to shield it from extreme heat during reentry.ROBERT CURBEAM: And what that did was that allowed very hot plasma to get inside of the wing and basically melt the inner structure of the spacecraft.NARRATOR: Test simulations back on the ground reveal the devastating impact of this seemingly small briefcase size chunk of foam traveling at high speed.

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The Failure That Led to the Columbia Tragedy

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Support Provided By

Explore More

Operation Space Station: Science and Survival

Operation Space Station: High-Risk Build

How Astronauts Avoided Disaster Building the International Space Station