Editor’s Notice: The CNN Unique Sequence “Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight” uncovers the occasions that finally led to catastrophe. The four-part documentary continues at 9 p.m. ET/PT Sunday.
CNN
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When NASA’s Columbia shuttle launched on January 16, 2003, it carried a crew of seven astronauts who had spent practically three years attending to know each other earlier than venturing on a 16-day science mission into area.
NASA chosen astronauts Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel B. Clark, Rick D. Husband and William C. “Willie” McCool, in addition to Ilan Ramon of the Israeli Area Company for the mission in July 2000.
Throughout the day, the crew educated collectively, engaged on the camaraderie that might assist them as a crew. After work, the crew members and their households would collect for cookouts and laser tag at each other’s properties.
The STS-107 mission crew included 5 males and two girls of various backgrounds, religions, pursuits and hobbies. However reasonably than let the variations divide them, the trainees got here collectively and inspired each other, mentioned Laura Husband, daughter of STS-107 Commander Rick Husband.
“I grew up with seeing this stunning image of all these totally different views, and so they liked one another and labored so effectively collectively,” Laura advised CNN. “They celebrated one another.”
Earlier than the launch, the crew went on an outside team-building journey in Wyoming. Because the shuttle commander, Rick thought it could assist the crew bond.
“I watched my dad actually construct a crew, and he did that with our household, too,” Laura mentioned. “He was a superb chief and a superb crew participant.”
Crew member Brown filmed the journey. Earlier than changing into a medical physician and astronaut, he was a collegiate varsity gymnast who carried out as an acrobat, 7-foot unicyclist and stilt walker.
The footage Brown captured exhibits crew members laughing and joking with each other, making enjoyable of campfire brownies that regarded like bear scat and anticipating their mission with an infectious hopefulness.
“Once they got here again, it was like their bond was endlessly,” mentioned Rosalind Hobgood, NASA secretary for the crew, within the CNN docuseries. “They walked in sync with one another. It was like left, proper, left, proper. They had been the Columbia crew. They had been STS-107. They had been a unit.”
After launching to area, the crew cut up into two groups to conduct dozens of round the clock experiments and collect invaluable science knowledge whereas taking time to change emails and revel in a few video calls with their households.
When Columbia reentered Earth’s atmosphere on February 1, 2003, the shuttle broke aside over Texas on account of injury from a foam strike on the shuttle’s left wing after liftoff, and the crew was tragically misplaced.
Now, greater than 20 years after the lack of the Columbia astronauts, their members of the family proceed to honor the recollections and legacies of their family members.
Jonathan Clark first met his future spouse, Laurel, at a US Navy diving course for medical officers on the Naval Diving and Salvage Coaching Heart in Panama Metropolis, Florida, in February 1989. However he joked it wasn’t like the enduring bar scene from the 1986 film “Prime Gun.”
Jonathan and Laurel every teamed up with a diving buddy, and the 2 pairs had been subsequent to one another throughout coaching. She had a tenacious spirit and was a pure within the water, outswimming all the boys within the course “like a race boat,” he mentioned. She was extremely calm below strain, even when her diving helmet system flooded and she or he practically died.
After finishing the course, the 2 went on dive journeys collectively and shaped a friendship that bloomed right into a deeper relationship constructed on mutual respect and admiration, Jonathan mentioned.
Laurel turned one of many first feminine submarine medical officers and aced quite a few achievements earlier than changing into an astronaut. She was an outdoorsy individual and avid sailor who liked tenting and nature. And he or she was at all times smiling.
“She was only a enjoyable, cheerful, optimistic function mannequin,” he mentioned. “And fairly actually, I absorbed a whole lot of who she was as a result of I noticed that’s a greater method for me, not simply being that type of machismo, cocky man, however to consider issues and care about different folks. She was very emotionally clever and had a beautiful capacity to learn folks and have the ability to make any scenario higher.”
Laurel additionally loved being a mom and excelled at it, Jonathan mentioned.
“She made all the things joyful on a regular basis,” mentioned her son, Iain Clark, within the collection. “She was my complete world. I relied on my mother for a lot.”
The knowledge and perception that Jonathan gained from Laurel helped him course of his grief after shedding her, he mentioned. She taught him to simply accept actuality however by no means abandon hope, and that people develop and be taught from loss and hardship.
“What I’m doing now’s working to make human spaceflight safer by specializing in what classes we will be taught after catastrophic occasions,” Jonathan mentioned. “It’s not about discovering who’s at fault. It’s about discovering the trigger and addressing and coping with that.”
Jonathan Clark was a flight surgeon in mission management at Johnson Area Heart in Houston throughout the ultimate Columbia mission. After the tragedy, he turned his efforts to the restoration and investigation that adopted. He turned a member of the crew survival working group to find out the implications and classes of what may need enabled the crew to outlive, and the way these classes may very well be utilized sooner or later.
“I type of have a look at the legacy of Columbia as not simply the science that they recovered from the mission, but in addition the crew survival enhancements discovered,” he mentioned. “Spaceflight is a lot safer now than it was.”
Since leaving NASA in 2005, Jonathan has labored with corporations relating to crew security for area missions and different high-stakes operations. And he has found the “greatest job he by no means knew existed”: changing into a grandfather.
Iain Clark now has a daughter named Laurel, and she or he has lots of her namesake’s attributes, together with a love of nature, water and the outside, “with a bubbly character such as you wouldn’t imagine,” Jonathan mentioned.
“God gave Laurel again in a small method,” he mentioned.
Rick Husband and his future spouse, Evelyn, grew up a mile down the highway from each other in Amarillo, Texas.
They went to the identical highschool, however they didn’t start courting till after operating into every one other in school throughout a basketball sport at Texas Tech College. Their first date was on January 28, 1977, and instantly, Rick knocked over a glass of water and bumped his head on a light-weight attempting to wash up the mess.
Quickly after, he advised Evelyn he wished to be a Dallas Cowboys soccer participant or an astronaut, however he didn’t assume being a soccer participant was lifelike, which made her giggle. Rick had labored towards the purpose of changing into an astronaut since he was 4 years outdated.
The 2 married after school, specializing in rising their religion collectively.
Rick was extremely humble, Evelyn mentioned. When folks requested about his job, he merely mentioned he labored for NASA, and solely would admit to being an astronaut after additional questioning, she mentioned. For Rick, religion got here first, household second and his job was third, Evelyn mentioned.
Regardless of how demanding his job was, Rick at all times made time to spend along with his household, his daughter Laura mentioned. He adorned her ceiling with glow-in-the-dark stars, acted out skits together with her at church and took her on father-daughter tenting journeys, creating candy recollections that she nonetheless cherishes. She liked how goofy he was and favored to listen to him sing as a result of it was considered one of his favourite issues to do.
Religion helped Evelyn and Rick navigate tough patches of their marriage, she mentioned. When Rick entered a quarantine to stop crew members from getting sick earlier than launch, he advised Evelyn, “I really feel like we’re in the very best place we’ve ever been in our marriage,” she recalled. And he or she advised him she felt the identical method.
From area, Rick and his household shared a video name on January 28, 2003, and Rick wished Evelyn a “glad courting anniversary.” It was the final time they ever spoke.
Evelyn and Laura relied on their religion to navigate their grief after the catastrophe, and so they felt like God protected them by way of a few of the worst days, they mentioned.
Eight months after her loss, Evelyn learn the accident investigation report that was launched. She remembers struggling together with her anger, realizing that NASA knew the froth strike could have prompted a difficulty and that perhaps one thing may have been carried out to avoid wasting the crew. She prayed that she wouldn’t be bitter.
Evelyn has since attended seminars hosted by NASA to recollect the Columbia tragedy and share classes discovered, in order that historical past by no means repeats itself once more.
“I’ve a ton of buddies at NASA, and I nonetheless do,” Evelyn mentioned. “No one did this on function. NASA needed to do a very exhausting take care of (the) Challenger (explosion in 1986), after which they wanted to do a very exhausting take care of Columbia. So it was tremendous necessary to me to not be bitter and to take care of this relationship with them, and it’s actually paid off.”
Throughout the previous 10 years, Evelyn has turn into the one feminine board member of a ministry known as Fathers within the Area, a program that pairs mentor fathers with fatherless boys for a three-year dedication. She needs that her son, Matthew, may have had that have after shedding his father.
Laura was 12 when her dad died, forcing her to develop up shortly. Now, she displays on how intentional her dad was along with his time. Religion and her love of storytelling, singing, dancing and appearing have helped her alongside the way in which, she mentioned.
“My need is to reside and foster magnificence on the earth and deliberately do one thing along with different folks to convey hope ultimately,” Laura mentioned.
Rising up with the opposite crew youngsters, Laura remembers the adults speaking over barbecue whereas the children went upstairs and performed for hours.
Laura and Tal Ramon, son of Ilan Ramon, had been solely a few 12 months aside in age, and they’d paint or play piano collectively. Now, Tal is a singer-songwriter, pianist and composer. And most of the Columbia youngsters are artistic in a wide range of methods — one thing that connects them past tragedy.
“It’s one thing that existed in all of us, and perhaps it’s as a result of we watched our dad and mom do massive issues,” Laura mentioned. “That gave us stability and safety to dream massive.”