SteveS sent me a link to the Kennedy Space Center's mission information page for STS-107. A Web designer by the name of Jim Dumoulin stayed at his post and completed the official record of STS-107:
STS-107 (113)
Columbia (28)
Pad 39-B (52)
KSC Landing (62) (Planned)
113th Shuttle Mission
Loss of Vehicle and Crew
...
Landing:
KSC February 1, 9:16 a.m. 2003 (Planned)
Deorbit burn occured at 8:15 a.m. EST (1315 GMT) for a planned landing on KSC Runway 33. Shortly after Roll Reversal #1 (8:53 a.m. EST) at MET 15 days 22 hours 17 min 50 seconds while Columbia was traveling at Mach 20.9 and 224,390ft, flight directors saw a loss of sensor data (offscale low) from the hydraulic systems on the left wing. Initial indications were loss of sensor data near the left inboard part of the wing, followed by sensors on the left outboard area of the wing. At 8:59 a.m. there was a loss of sensor data (Tire pressure offscale low) which caused an onboard alert that was acknowledged by the crew. Communication with the crew and loss of data occured shortly after while Columbia was at a Mission Elapsed Time (MET) of 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes 22 seconds. The vehicle broke up while traveling at 12,500 mph (Mach 18.3) at an altitude of 207,135ft over East Central Texas resulting in the loss of both vehicle and crew. (Reference: JSC Ron Dittemore Post flight Technical News Conference 2/1/2003 3:30pm EST).
That could not have been easy to write.
--Robert
The work goes on
