Twenty years after the Columbia disaster, a NASA official reflects on lessons learned
Seven astronauts died when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon reentry on Feb. 1, 2003. NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy looks back on the tragedy and how it shaped the agency.
Updated February 1, 2023 at 10:11 AM ET
It's been exactly 20 years since the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it returned to Earth, killing all seven astronauts on board: commander Rick Husband, pilot Willie McCool, mission specialists Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson, David Brown and payload specialist Ilan Ramon of Israel.
Their mission — the 28th , which became NASA's first shuttle to fly in space some two decades earlier — was focused on research on physical, life and space sciences. The crew spent their 16 days in space
