Timeline: Columbia Disaster
POSTED: 2:27 pm EST February 1, 2003
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A timeline of events in the last flight of space shuttle Columbia. All times EST.
- Jan. 16, 10:39 a.m. - Columbia rockets into orbit from Kennedy Space Center. Feb. 1, 8:15 a.m. - Columbia fires braking rockets, streaks toward touchdown. 9 a.m. - Mission Control loses all data and contact with Columbia crew. 9 a.m. - Residents of Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana report hearing "a big bang" and seeing flames in the sky. 9:16 a.m. - Columbia's scheduled landing. 9:29 a.m. - NASA declares emergency. 9:44 a.m. - NASA warns residents to stay away from possibly hazardous debris. 11 a.m. - NASA lowers flag next to its countdown clock at Cape Canaveral, Fla., to half-staff. 2:05 p.m. - President George W. Bush: "Columbia is lost; there are no survivors."
