Truemors
On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia (NASA Orbiter Designation: OV-102), on its 28th mission, STS-107, disintegrated during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere over Palestine, Texas, killing all seven crew members. On February 2, 2004, a living memorial to the STS-107 crew members was dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery.
The STS-107 mission, launched on January 16, 2003, was a a multi-disciplinary microgravity and Earth science research mission with a multitude of international scientific investigations conducted continuously during 16 days in orbit. The loss of Columbia was a result of damage sustained during launch when a piece of foam insulation the size of a small briefcase broke off the Space Shuttle external tank (the main propellant tank) under the aerodynamic forces of launch. The debris struck the leading edge of the left wing, damaging the Shuttle's thermal protection system (TPS), which protects it from heat generated with the atmosphere during re-entry.
The lost crew consisted of Commander Rick D. Husband, Pilot William C. McCool, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Michael P. Anderson, Laurel B. Clark, and Ilan Ramon.
Arlington National Cemetery, a military cemetery directly across the Potomac from Washington, D.c., was established during the Civil War on the grounds of the Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna (Custis) Lee, a descendant of Martha Washington. By 1864, the military cemeteries of Washington and Alexandria were filled with Union dead. After Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs quickly selected Arlington as a replacement, in part to prevent the Lee's from ever returning, the government confiscated the land claiming unpaid property taxes. Today, more than 300,000 people, including veterans and military casualties from every one of the nation's wars, are interred in the 624-acre cemetery administered by the Department of the Navy.
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