UNITED STATES 1 February 2008 Nation observes fifth anniversary of NASA shuttle explosion that killed seven astronauts

On 1 Feb 2003 the NASA shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere over the state of Texas, with the loss of all seven crew. It happened as Columbia was ending its 28th mission, STS-107. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board concluded in Aug 2003 that politics, budgets, schedule pressure and managerial complacency all played roles in causing the tragedy.

It was the second space shuttle disaster and the first shuttle lost on landing.

There will be official tributes in Washington DC, at NASA, in the home towns of US astronauts -- David M. Brown, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, William McCool and Michael P. Anderson -- and the countries of the two foreigners who died, Kalpana Chawla from India and Ilan Ramon from Israel. Ramon was the first Israeli astronaut to fly in Space.

Since 2003, McCool has been honored in his home town, Lubbock, Texas, with a larger-than-life bronze statue. Michael P. Anderson has also been honored in with a statue in his hometown of Spokane, Washington.

By the time the board concluded its five-month investigation, there was little, if any, doubt among investigators that the physical cause of the accident was the attempted re-entry of Columbia with a breach in its left wing that had been inflicted some 16 days earlier by a breakaway chunk of foam just seconds after. Oct/07