Begin Columbia News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

♪ ♪ ♪ -my wife, laurel, was on the shuttle. she was a scientist primarily involved with life sciences. one day during the mission, i was reviewing the notes, and then here's this foam issue. during launch, a large piece of foam had come off the external tank and impacted the left wing. me and my colleague had this discussion of, "hey, you can use a family conference to talk to laurel and find out what she knew." -oh! -you got to remember the hat you're wearing is your flight-surgeon hat, not your family hat. it would have broken protocol for me to bring up an issue to a crew me...

T nt you to know how much we at nasa appreciate how you cover space." i was worried about her and her kids. anytime a shuttle is going to come to earth, i'd be worried. in this case, i had a little more worry. ♪ -columbia, houston, good morning, and we're looking forward to our last day on orbit with you. ♪

No big weather issues when you're landing. -flight director leroy cain discussing weather conditions at present with forecasters here. -leroy was the person in charge. so everybody on their consoles are monitoring their own systems, and they're all reporting into leroy what they're seeing. -columbia, houston. -go ahead, houston. -hey, rick, i guess you've been wondering, but you are go for the de-orbit burn. we are happy with the weather at ksc. you are go for the burn. -de-orbit burn is a major decision in the process. once that de-orbit burn is made, you are committed to landing. they're com...

-right now, nasa will be trying to make sense of what happened in the skies over texas. -searching for wreckage from the columbia shuttle, they've already made hundreds of finds, from tiny scraps of metal to whole panels... and the tragic, but inevitable discovery of human remains. ♪ -a spacecraft breaking up at 190,000 feet -- it's something you couldn't, like, get out of your mind. and i'd been in space before. this was something i was about to do again. and then this horrific thing happens to my classmates, my co-workers, friends. ♪ so i call a constable, and i said, "hey, i need a heli...

This was the very last thing i had thought that i would be reporting to the president, on this day or any other day. i called the white house, told him that "we don't know a lot, but we have just lost shuttle columbia." this was my duty, to be responsible for this accident. ♪ my fellow americans, this day has brought terrible news and great sadness to our country. the columbia's lost. there are no survivors. ♪ all americans today are thinking, as well, of the families of these men and women who have been given this sudden shock and grief. you're not alone. our entire nation grieves with yo...