Seven astronauts - Ian Ramon, Michael Anderson, Willie McCool, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Rick Husband, and David Brown - were part of the crew that was going on a sixteen-day mission into space aboard the Columbia. They launched on January 16 to begin their mission. Everyday in space they checked the hundred knobs and switches to make sure everything was going as plan. Unfortunately, they didn't realized that when they launch, foam that was insulating Columbia's external fuel tank broke loose and hit the left wing of the shuttle. This foam could have stripped off some protective tiles, making the shuttle vulnerable to excessive heat. This may be one reason or cause for the unsuccessful landing of Columbia. It was a little after 7:45 a.m. at Mission Control when the shuttle exploded in the atmosphere. A shower of shuttle parts fell landing in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana. This disaster resulted in the deaths of all seven crewmembers.
This tragic downfall of seven people made many question if there should be future missions of sending people in space. This explosion left a mark in if there will be future manned missions or robot-protocol missions. Columbia made people ask if the lives of humans are worth gaining knowledge about the universe. This terrible act has taught them the consequence of not equipping the shuttle with everything. Columbia did not have a collar built in to dock with the space station if an emergency had come up. They could have possibly fixed the missing tiles if they had this collar and if they have known that parts have fell off of the shuttle.