Columbia Space Shuttle

On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia came crashing down from space, killing all seven crew members that were present in the shuttle. The crew was an ethnically diverse group of seven, consisting of, Rick Husband, commander; Michael Anderson, payload commander; David Brown, mission specialist; Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist; Laurel Clark, mission specialist; William McCool, pilot; and Ilan Ramon, payload specialist from the Israeli Space Agency. During the 16 days in space NASA investigated a piece of foam that fell from the shuttle at its initial takeoff, it attached the external tank to the shuttle the foam fell off and struck the left wing of the shuttle. On February 1, 2003, the shuttle made its landing approach to Houston,

The Columbia was different from other spacecraft because it was the first reusable spacecraft. The Columbia had completed a total of 28 missions, and spent a total of 300 days in space. The Columbia disaster led to the retirement of the shuttle fleet, and eventually led to the end of the space shuttle program. On August 31, 2011 the space shuttle program officially ended. From the space shuttle program came many new technologies. One of these emerging technologies is the Vascular Assist Device (VAD) for heart transplants. The device keeps the heart pumping they are waiting for a doctor for the transplant. A famous heart surgeon named Michael DeBakey, doctor George Noon, and David Saucier, worked with Houston-based MicroMed Technology to develop a low cost, low power implantable heart pump. More than 450 lives have been saved due to this technology. The shuttle program has influenced vehicles on the road as well as in the sky. The space shuttle’s design helped improve the aerodynamics of the vehicles on the road, especially large vehicles like trucks. Most vehicles you will see on the road today will have physical similarities to the space shuttles in NASA’s space shuttle

The space shuttle had chemicals that needed to stay at extremely low temperatures. A substance called aerogel is used in thermal insulation. There are now insulations inspired by the space shuttle program for insulation in the walls of houses, insulation in clothing for extreme weather, and insoles for foot wear. The space shuttle program by NASA has also provided a solution for motion blur in video and photo