The space shuttle Columbia broke up on return to earth from a 16-day mission with seven crew on Saturday amid fears that all aboard had been killed.
The National Aeronautic and Space Administration (Nasa) declared an emergency, announcing communication was lost some 100 miles south of Dallas as the shuttle hurtled into the earth’s atmosphere at six times the speed of sound at an altitude of around 200 000 feet.
Television pictures showed several vapour trail streaks in the Texas sky, clearly indicating that the space shuttle had broken up en route to the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
The Washington government called what was termed a ”domestic event conference” in a move usually preceding a possibly grave announcement.
Search and rescue teams were on alert in Texas, and Nasa put out an appeal to people in the state not to approach anything which might possibly be debris. Local witnesses reported hearing a loud boom.
On board the shuttle — which was on its 28th mission -‒ were commander Rick Husband, pilot Willie McCool, mission specialists Dave Brown, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla, payload commander Mike Anderson and payload specialist Ilan Ramon, the first ever Israeli astronaut representing the Israeli Space Agency.
Columbia’s 16-day mission was dedicated to research in the
space, life and physical sciences. It was on the 113th mission to date by the various shuttle vehicles. – Sapa-DPA