M A I N   N E W S

Columbia crashes over Texas
Kalpana Chawla among 7 astronauts feared dead

Washington, February 1
The space shuttle Columbia today broke up on return to earth from a 16-day mission with a crew of seven, including Indian Kalpana Chawla, amid fears that all aboard had been killed.

The National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) declared an emergency, announcing communication was lost some 100 miles south of Dallas as the shuttle hurtled into the earth’s atmosphere at six times the speed of sound at an altitude of around 200,000 feet.

Television pictures showed several vapour trail streaks in the Texas sky, clearly indicating that the space shuttle had broken up en route to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Karnal-born 42-year old Chawla was on her second space mission in the space of five years.

Search and rescue teams were mobilised in Dallas and Fortworth areas amidst reports that debris was seen falling and sounds of boom were heard.

NASA had never lost a space crew during landing or the ride back to orbit. In 1986, space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff.

Security had been tight for the 16-day scientific research mission fearing possible terrorist attack because of the presence of the Israeli astronaut.

NASA were yet to declare whether the shuttle had exploded, broken up or crashed but preliminary reports suggested that the Columbia mission appears to have ended in a tragedy.

Earlier, Mission specialists Kalpana Chawla, Michael Anderson and Laurel Clark, Commander Rick Husband and pilot William McCool made final observations of sprites — the electrical activity above the thunderstorms with the Mediterranean Israeli Dust Experiment (MEIDEX), NASA said.

It may be recalled that the mission had taken the first pictures of sprites from space earlier during the mission.

During the mission which began on January 16, the crew conducted over 80 experiments that included the study of the human body, analyses of growth of cancer cells and responses of different insects to weightlessness.

Astronauts onboard the spacecraft on Wednesday had termed the mission a success with many experiments performing exceedingly well.

Television pictures showed several vapour trail streaks in the Texas sky, apparently indicating that the space shuttle — which had a crew of seven — had broken up.

Local witnesses reported hearing a loud boom where the craft appeared to break up, around 160 km south of Dallas.