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Columbia burns up over Texas: All 7 astronauts killed

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Frame grab taken from CNN affiliate WFAA, shows three trails left by the space shuttle Columbia as its descends into the atomsphere, seen over Texas on Saturday.

Washington Feb. 1. The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over the state of Texas today, minutes before its scheduled landing in Florida, killing all seven astronauts on board. Six of them were Americans, including the Indian American, Kalpana Chawla and one Israeli air force officer. Calling it as indeed a ``tragic day'' for the NASA family, the top administrator of the agency, Sean O'Keefe, told a press briefing that the terrible tragedy was not caused ``from the ground''. A full investigative process has been initiated, including the setting up of a Mishap Investigation Board.

The last communication from the shuttle was ``garbled''. First efforts are on to study the circumstances leading to the disaster. Soon after the accident, Mr. O'Keefe said that he got in touch with the President, George W. Bush, who immediately offered full and immediate support. The President is said to have spoken to the family members of the astronauts.

NASA is cautioning people against going near or touching debris from the shuttle that is believed to be spread over an area of about 120 miles and perhaps across several states. At the speed and height of the disintegration, no one held out any hope of survivors on board the shuttle. In its final stages it was at a height of 207,000 feet and travelling at a speed of 12,500 miles per hour. Senior officials of the Bush administration said that there was no immediate information that could suggest that terrorism was a factor in the tragedy that hit Columbia. ``There is no information at this time that this was a terrorist incident. Obviously the investigation is just beginning, but this is the information we have now'', said a spokesman for the newly-created Homeland Security Department.

Unnamed senior law enforcement officials have also been quoted as saying that there was nothing ``troubling'' by way of intelligence about this particular flight, which included an Israeli astronaut. That being the case terrorism was being ruled out. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is yet to be formally brought into the picture.

Security was extraordinarily tight because of the presence of the Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, the first person from the Jewish state to fly into space. Some feared that the presence of Mr. Ramon would make the shuttle a terrorist target. Apart from Ms. Chawla, the only other person in the shuttle who had been in space before was the commander, Rick Husband — the rest of the five were first-timers.

Mr. Bush, who was first informed of the tragedy by his Chief of Staff, Andrew Card, returned to the White House early afternoon to keep track of the developments. The President is expected to talk to the Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, to express condolences for the loss of Mr. Ramon.

Senior officials of the administration, including the Vice President, the Secretaries of State and Defence, the National Security Adviser and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were also immediately notified of the accident.

The President is expected to address the nation later. The nation is already in a state of mourning. Flags are flying at half-staff at the White House, the Capitol Hill and the Kennedy Space Center. The 16-day shuttle flight was due to end in Florida at 9:16 a.m. Eastern Time. But some 16 minutes before this was to happen Mission Control lost contact with the spacecraft and soon thereafter television footage showed signs of the craft disintegrating.

The speed and distance from the ground are two major things that are being taken into account by experts as they have initially ruled out terrorism — the shuttle was out of range for a surface-to-air missile, a senior official has been quoted as saying. But what is being paid close attention to in the initial hours of the tragedy is what took place when the shuttle lifted off on January 16 — a piece of insulating foam on the external fuel tank cane off and is said to have hit the left wing of the craft.

At the time engineers felt that this was of minor consequence and posed no danger to the mission. Also under scrutiny is the age of the shuttle.

The Columbia is NASA's oldest shuttle and the last flight was the 28th for the craft. But what has to be kept in mind is that in the four decades-plus of human space flight, there has not been an accident during descent or landing. In 1986 the space shuttle Challenger exploded barely one minute into lift-off.

Ironically only this past week NASA observed the anniversary of the earlier twin tragedies — the Challenger explosion of January 28,1986 that killed seven astronauts and the fire aboard an Apollo spacecraft on January 27,1967 that killed three.

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