The CNN Original Series “Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight” uncovers the events that ultimately led to disaster. The four-part documentary premieres at 9 p.m. ET/PT Sunday.
Upon its inception, NASA’s space shuttle program promised to usher in a new era of exploration, keeping astronauts space-bound with a reusable and relatively cheap ride into orbit. It was a project that forever altered the course of spaceflight with its triumphs — and its tragic failures.
Deemed an “engineering marvel,” the first of five winged orbiters — the space shuttle Columbia — made its inaugural flight in 1981.
Twenty-two years and 28 trips to space later, the same shuttle broke apart during its final return to Earth, killing all seven crew members on board.
The tragedy spelled the end for the US space agency’s transformative shuttle program. And its memory continues to reverberate in the halls of NASA today, leaving a lasting mark on its consideration of safety.
“Human history teaches us that in exploration, after accidents like this occur, we can learn from them and further reduce risk, although we must honestly admit that risks can never be eliminated,” said then–NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe, who ran the agency from 2001 to 2004, in a speech before members of Congress shortly after the Columbia disaster.
After the shuttle program was retired, no US astronaut would travel to space on an American-made rocket for nearly a decade.
Reimagining rocketry
The space shuttle project was forged in the optimism of NASA’s Apollo program, which landed 12 astronauts on the surface of the moon and bested America’s Soviet rivals during the Cold War.
Apollo was, however, extraordinarily expensive: NASA spent $25.8 billion (or more than $200 billion when adjusted for inflation) — according to a cost analysis from space policy expert Casey Dreier of the nonprofit Planetary Society.
With financial constraints on the horizon, by the mid-1970s, engineers within NASA were building an entirely new means of space transportation.
CNN
