THE HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT BLOG: From the Space Shuttle to Beyond

STS-107: 10 Years Ago Today... At 7:39 AM, Pacific Standard Time on January 16, 2003, space shuttle Columbia launched on a 16-day flight to conduct various international scientific experiments in the SPACEHAB module inside her payload bay. What should've been a standard laboratory mission [and Columbia's last solo flight before she was to join Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour in continuing assembly on the International Space Station (ISS)] turned into a tragedy that, a decade later, resulted in the three remaining orbiters (mentioned above) now on display in museums after being retired more than a year ago, and NASA striving to make progress on the shuttle's successors, the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. The loss of STS-107's 7-member crew was not in vain, as the ISS is now complete, the Space Shuttle Program safely and successfully came to an end after Discovery's Return to Flight on STS-114 almost eight years ago...and, if the funding for SLS and Orion holds true, astronauts will be venturing back to the Moon as early as 2021. Hail Columbia and her crew... Your memory will live on.


NASA