Columbia Space Shuttle Explosion and Space Exploration
Chapter 1 Rosario Torres WRDY News Reporter 4
I took a deep breath then another one I stood up straighter and squared my shoulders I was a professional and people all over the viewing area were waiting for me to tell them what was happening I was a reporter and I had to be able to report regardless of how upset I might be feeling Okay Rosie shouted Raj my cameraman Ready You’re on in 3 2 1 I watched his fingers count down the last seconds As he said 1 I saw the camera focus tightly on my face This is Rosario Torres for WRDY News reporting live from the Kennedy Space Center I began I was relieved that my voice sounded Television and print journalists must respond quickly to national events 5
much stronger than I felt inside Just moments ago the space shuttle Columbia exploded during reentry I paused for a moment to steady my voice At the time it was flying at 18 times the speed of sound and was about 201,000 feet 61,265 meters above Dallas Texas I continued According to NASA reports the explosion was caused by a problem originally observed during the shuttle’s launch 16 days ago Apparently a laptop-sized piece of foam fell off of the shuttle’s external fuel tank 82 seconds after liftoff The foam struck the shuttle’s left wing and punched a hole as well as cracking some of the wing’s heat resistant tiles During reentry superheated air entered through the Second Source Find a video that shows what happened that day How does the information in that source compare to the information in this source 6
The Space Shuttle program operated 135 missions between 1981 and 2011 7
