Oh, is that it . There it is thats it right there. There it is. Yeah, i see it. I saw it. There it is. Oh, its cool. Yeah. That is cool. Oh, check that out, man. Its going really fast. Whoa. What the heck is that . I dont know. Wow. Look at the chunks coming off of it yeah, i saw that. Yeah. I see what youre saying. That thing looks like its flipping all over the place. Oh, yeah. I can still see it, but im losing it. It was a saturday morning. It was a beautiful day. And as i turned onto park street, i heard a loud boom. [ rumbling ] our house just shook. We looked at each other, and we said, what is that . When i looked up, i saw a bright white ball. [ Sirens Wailing ] the phones were ringing off the hook, much more than our Dispatch Staff could handle. I didnt know if we were being attacked. Search and rescue teams are warning people not to touch any debris, should they come across it. There are some disturbing pictures that are coming up from the broadcasters. Were waiting for more details as to how this happened, maybe the beginnings of why it happened. Nasa has declared a State Of Emergency over texas. There is something amiss. We are watching mission control. Nasa has gone through this before, 17 years ago with Space Shuttle challenger. You can see in their eyes. If you work in human space flight, this is the worst possible thing that could ever happen. Lean in. Bunch up. Arms. Bunch up. Bunch up. Whole nine yards. Lean in there, ilan. Alright. Yeah. Here we go. [ Camera Shutter Clicks ] alright. Very good. [ Camera Shutter Clicking ] i was an astronaut crew secretary. Grinning, grinning, grinning. Smiles. Alright. [ laughter ] i would see the crew daily. Perfect. Let me take my glasses off. Thatll be in here. [ laughter ] im not a starstruck kind of person, right . But you fly 12,500 miles an hour . I was like, yeah i like you. [ laughs ] whoohoo, baby [ laughter ] when they got selected as a crew, i went and got their Astronaut Bio and i read what they did, what they liked. [ laughter ] i went over and im like, ah, doctor. Ah. Dr. Dave brown, surgeon. Dr. Kalpana chawla, phd. Laurel laurel was a submarine doctor. I thought that was so cool. Mike hes air force pilot. And then willie he was like a test pilot. Rick hed already been up to space. And then there was ilan. You know, he was already a hero in his country. So i was like, wow we have the juice here this will work. And they came together to start training. Welcome aboard. Four of us are flying for the first time. Roll camera. And that could be seen as a disadvantage. In some ways, its an incredible advantage because we have a wealth of enthusiasm and excitement that other, more seasoned crews may not have. I was married to laurel clark, who was on the Columbia Mission. We met in navy dive school. She beat us in swimming the guys and that was kind of irritating. She was just tenacious. She always had a smile on her face no matter what happened. It was really beautiful. [ both laugh ] i feel very fortunate to be assigned to this mission. Im expecting it to be the experience of my lifetime so far. Ready, ready, mark. We were so excited. I remember going into nasa taking a series of photos with my mom and dad after school. I was 7. I was worried. I was, like thinking, like, how is her hair gonna fit in there . [ chuckles ] she made everything joyful all the time. She was my whole world. I remember the Columbia Mission being announced. I mean, i knew them all. In my class was laurel clark, dave brown, and willie mccool. We were all there at the same time. You get your blue flight suit. Thats pretty exciting. I mean, yes ive spent 54 days in space over four missions. Most fun thing ive ever done by far. Theres a lot of risk involved. I really believe that humans are explorers. And in this country, were really good at this stuff. I mean, think about this for a second. We sent people to the moon in the 1960s. Think about how hard that was. Americans like that were a country that does hard things. [ applause ] and nasa does some hard stuff. They got the flag up now. Its about what it means for us as a nation to lead in space. You know, we have a record of success. Colombia will open a new chapter in American Space travel. This is a onceinalifetime happening, the Maiden Voyage of the Space Shuttle. I had an emotional feeling with columbia because she was the number one. She was paving the way to the utilization of space in a more practical way, cheaper, better. Previously, rockets were expendable, onetime use, but the Space Shuttle was reusable in its design up to 100 times. It was a Quantum Leap Forward in space travel. T minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4. We have main engine start. And its up and away. Go. Go, columbia, go. [ all cheering ] people had seen apollo launches exploring the moon. The Space Shuttle reignited that interest. It was the pride of the united states. Columbia, houston. I still think its one of the most complex machines ever built by the human race. In the beginning, there were four Operating Shuttles columbia, challenger, atlantis, and discovery. One of the goals was to fly 20 missions a year. Sometimes they were sending satellites, quite a few classified missions for the department of defense. Eventually they were used for assembling and building the International Space station. But reusability puts demands on the design that it has to be robust and resilient and come back intact and fully operational. Its a huge demand. And there were numerous problems. The mission aboard the orbiter columbia is a 24 7 science marathon. In all, there are more than 59 experiments. My husband rick was the commander of the Space Shuttle columbia. Howdy [ laughter ] never in My Wildest Dreams did i think id ever meet an astronaut, much less marry one. And so he told me. He said that he wanted since he was 4 years old that he wanted to be an astronaut. My name is rick husband. Im the commander of sts107. Were going to be flying a 16day science mission. I was, i think, probably 10 or 11. I knew it was a big, incharge position and that he would be the leader of the team. You think of Something Like buzz lightyear, star command. Youre like, wow, dads the commander of a shuttle. [ laughs ] okay, lets do like this, you know . Yeah. While they were in training, dave brown, one of the astronauts, came to rick and asked if it was okay if he recorded footage of the crew throughout the mission. Were trying to ignore our best pal, dave, whos busy documenting our journey toward space. Dr. Dave yeah. Man, this is above and beyond. I know. 6 30. Yeah. Dave, your camera is affecting me. It is . [ laughing ] yeah. Kalpana was definitely one of her kind. And what Everybody Knows about her is the first female astronaut from india. She was intelligent. She was hardworking. She was unstoppable. Rolling. Take 3, dave and laurel. Action were here in the wind River Mountains with the crew of sts107. Brought to you by the National Outdoor leadership school. Well, laurel, are you ready . Dave, my palms are sweaty. My knees are weak. Im ready for an outdoor adventure. [ all cheering ] the crew went on an outdoor teambuilding trip in wyoming. Now, willies not safe until were all safe, right . It was, i think, close to two weeks long. And it comes around. Right down in this valley. My dad had come up with the idea to help them bond, and dave filmed the crew while they were doing that. [ laughter ] this is such a nightmare. Im trying to make these stupid brownies because everybody wanted brownies for breakfast. Youre not hungry . Im not that hungry. No . But i would love to have some breakfast brownies. That would be delicious. Well, theres some right here. [ laughs ] wow looks kind of like bear scat. [ laughs ] well, you know. On the trip in wyoming, they had to Work Together as a team. Mnh [ laughter ] when youre on the Space Shuttle, you really have to have a high level of what they call behavioral health. And what do you think, willie . Mmmmm . Where youre not just technically competent, but youre lowmaintenance. cause you are inherently in a confined space. You cant say, im just gonna take a time out and go outside and not deal with your, you know, b. S. Anymore. So, nasa had started to realize, we got to get a handle on this, and its really important. [ all cheering, whooping ] when they came back, it was like their bond was forever. They walked in sync with each other. It was like left, right, left, right. They were the columbia crew. They were sts107. They were a unit. One, two, three. One, two, three. Excellent. Whoohoo. Michael anderson was my husband. We got to go watch the underwater trainings to simulate zero gravity. He was excited, but if you looked at him, you would think calm and collected, but he was excited. He would tease the kids we were Gonna Go To Mars as a family. Halfway, he was joking, but halfway, he was thinking, hmm, this would be kind of cool. Check o2 actuator is in eva. He loved it. It was his dream. But he thought about it. I mean, he thought about the safety issues, and he knew he was in a dangerous career field. Im probably different than most astronauts. I really dont enjoy launches, you know . I think a launch is a terrible way to get to space. When you launch in a rocket, youre not really flying that rocket. Youre just sort of hanging on. Even though weve gone to great pains to to make it as safe as we can, theres always the potential for something going wrong. You know, so we try not to think about those things. We train and try to prepare for the things that may go wrong. But theres always that unknown. And i guess its that unknown that i dont like. I went with Michael To Florida For The First Time and actually saw the shuttle. And when i saw it, i was like, you really want to get up in this . You really, really, really want to do this . [laughs] i remember saying to him because somehow it didnt look as glamorous as it did on television. I was like, wow, thats, you know, the oldest one in the fleet. Mnh, i dont know about this. It looked smaller to me, you know . It looked a little older. I was like, okay, this is getting really real. And then i remember thinking about what happened to challenger. [ cheers and applause ] Space Shuttle challenger is just a few seconds away from blasting off from the Kennedy Space center near cape canaveral, florida. Tminus 15 seconds. Tminus 10, 9, 8. 7, 6. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 [ cheers and applause ] liftoff confirmed. Liftoff. Engines throttling up, three engines now at 104 . Challenger go at throttle up. Challenger go at throttle up. [ all gasping, screaming ] business. Its not a ninetofive proposition. Its all day and into the night. Its all the things that keep this world turning. The gotos that keep us going. The places we cheer. And check in. They all choose the advanced Network Solutions and round the Clock Partnership from Comcast Business. See why Comcast Business powers more Small Businesses than anyone else. Get started for 49. 99 a month plus ask how to get up to an 800 prepaid card. Dont wait call today. Vehicle has exploded. I hear from Launch Control he vehicle has exploded. Thats the orbiter itself. The Shuttle Challenger has exploded. We must assume that the crew is not alive. This is unheralded in the history of the space program. Ladies and gentlemen, i have covered Space Shuttle launches since the very first launch, since before the first launch itself, going way back, and nothing like this has ever happened. [ woman screams ] it was a sad day for all americans. This was our space program. This was our National Space program. And here they lost their lives doing it for our country. When i thought about challenger, i talked to michael. I said, you know what . Youre doing what youre doing, and im glad youre loving it and liking it, but you got a wife and two little kids here if something happens. We prayed a lot about it. He talked to us about his faith, and he was like, hey, god has got me. Like, if something happens, like, god is gonna take care of me, hes gonna take care of, you know, you guys as a family. Youll be okay. There are risks to this. Like, i chose a profession that, you know, is dangerous sometimes. He was like, but we dont want to be fearful about it. How do you stop somebody from doing something that theyve worked so hard to do and achieved and was so dedicated and committed to . I wouldnt have stopped him. I was working at nasa then. I had done this threat assessment. Any commercial airliner, your chances of a bad outcome are one in a million, probably closer to one in ten million. Scuba diving and flying in general aviation, Military Flying is 1 in 100,000. The shuttle was 1 in 100. Your chances of a bad outcome are 1 in 100. You know, if somebody told me, hey, you can go on this roller coaster ride, and theres 1 in 100 chance that youll die, well, theres no chance in the world, no chance in hell i would do that. Flying on the Space Shuttle . The benefit we get for our country is enormous. You know, i think a lot of us feel that this is a tremendous amount of risk and, you know, there will be, you know, accidents and people will lose their lives, but i also think that people generally think its not gonna be them. Nasa has grounded its four shuttles until at least september because of small cracks that have been found in the fuel lines. The concern is the cracks could grow and splinter into hazardous chunks of metal. They got a bunch of us, like a dozen engineers, to go fly down to Kennedy Space center to go look at cracks. There was Copious Amounts of Engineering Discussion and testing going on. Stop. Thank you. If a main engine were to explode, that would destroy the vehicle, itd be out of control, wed lose the vehicle and the crew. Its too dangerous to fly any shuttle until we get a handle on this. It grounded the entire fleet, including columbia. It was, like, delayed and delayed and delayed. [ breathes deeply ] youre kind of glad that theyre dealing with whatever the issue is, and youre hoping that everythings okay. And, you know, it makes it a little bit more nervewracking. Nasa management and engineering came up with solutions. Once these Propulsion Cracks were fixed and repaired, we can resume flight. But i had oversight into all the missions, and there were numerous problems. Well, the other Shuttle Fleet they were just one after another. It just wouldnt end, the damages and things that were out of whack. The tiles were being damaged every flight. One time, a large piece of foam from the gigantic fuel tank dented the Solid Rocket Boosters on liftoff. Another time, a vulture hit the tank. If it hit the windows, catastrophe. This is a complex vehicle that always needs a lot of caretaking. Every Single Mission that i was there for was scrubbed, rescheduled, delayed because something wasnt exactly right. What did catch my attention, in terms of trouble, from the very first time i saw them up close was this was 1970s technology. This was a lot of moving parts, a lot of mechanical, moving parts. And anytime you have that happen, its challenging to keep it flying. These werent ancient by any means, but they were getting up there. We dont have too much time cause launch is coming. 36 or 37 days to launch, and its starting to get exciting. Why is it exciting . What do you mean, why is it exciting . Were going to space. Well, for the first time, at least, for us. For me, its exciting. This was an amazing, amazing opportunity. There were a lot of israeli Fighter Pilots that could have been chosen to take this role. But it was my father that was chosen to be the first israeli astronaut. Im just really looking forward to being able to spend that much time up in space. But i tell my son all the time that my most important job is being his mother. Motherhoods been incredible. I relied on my mom for so much. So much. Three weeks from the launch, we were flying from houston To Albuquerque for christmas, Iain And Laurel and i. It was my dad flying the plane and me and our dog in the back seat. And we start hitting some of this turbulence, and all of a sudden the plane gets into this, like, downwash. Its going down like this. Well, i mean, we just crashed. It was just, you know, bam, slapped down. And the fact that we survived is, to this day, something i cannot explain. I think it messed iain up because the closer we got to the flight itself, he kept saying, i dont want you to leave, mom. I want you to stay here on earth. Basically, he said, i dont want you to go. I, uh, begged her pretty desperately not to go. I was. I was very emotional, and i was crying to stop try to stop her from leaving. These guys have trained, you know, forever for this mission, and the last thing they want is for them to catch something and be sick. That just would be catastrophic for the mission. So they put them in quarantine a week prior. The children werent allowed to be around them. I had to say goodbye to him before he went to quarantine. And i remember hugging his waist cause t