On February 1st, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated during its re-entry into the atmosphere. The seven
astronauts were killed.
82 seconds after the launch of shuttle (STS-107), a sizable piece of foam struck the leading
edge of Columbia’s left wing, at a speed between 650 and 950 km/h, making a hole in the protective tiles made of reinforced
carbon-carbon (RCC), close to the landing gear area.
During the re-entry into the atmosphere, plasma at 1500 °C
penetrated through this hole in the left wing protective shield, and progressively destroyed the inner part of the wing.
The crew lost the control of the shuttle. A few second later, the vehicle disintegrated.
1 - If you want to download this video, you need to enable Javascript on your web browser. If Javascript is disabled, you may be able to watch this video, but not to download it.
2 - If you are unable to download or watch the video, this may be cause by missing software or unadequate codecs installed on your computer, making your computer unable to read this kind of video files (.mp4). Some network protective devices may also prevent you from downloading some video files.
However, you should still be able to watch the video by clicking below on the link Watch video.