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The Columbia space craft lifted off on January 16, 2003 going on a 16 day science mission. There were seven astronauts onboard for the journey, including Israel’s first man in space. Then the unexpected happened. About 15 minutes before the Columbia would land in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the shuttle went to pieces. All seven of the astronauts were lost. The Columbia was going Mach 18, or 18 times the speed of sound, at an altitude of over 200,000 feet when contact was lost. The cause is currently unknown, but there are a couple scenarios. There was a problem at liftoff. After about a minute passed, a piece of insulation foam broke off of the fuel tank and hit the bottom of the left wing. No one knew this until about a day later. If it would have been noticed at liftoff the mission may have been aborted.
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