Columbia astronauts’ chilling final words before they learned they were about to die

The crew of Space Shuttle Columbia had no idea they were about to die as they made final preparations for their return to Earth on February 1, 2003 – but NASA’s mission control suspected something was terribly wrong

On February 1, 2003, NASA’s mission control team had concerns about the safety of the Space Shuttle Columbia, but the astronauts on board were left in the dark until their terrifying final moments.

The seven crew members were preparing to return home after a 16-day space mission, having been told that a piece of foam insulation had broken off from the external tank and struck the port wing of the craft during launch.

However, they were reassured that the damage was minor and the heat shield would still function properly.

Tragically, this assessment proved to be incorrect. With the heat shield compromised, the shuttle had little chance of surviving re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, sealing the fate of everyone on board.

The doomed astronauts were commander Rick Husband, pilot Willie McCool, mission specialists Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson, David Brown, and Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first astronaut.

The shuttle was too far from the International Space Station to receive help and lacked a robotic arm that could have enabled repairs. Even if another shuttle had been sent, it would have arrived too late, reports the Mirror.

Despite being given assurances that there was no cause for concern, the astronauts were unaware that they had only minutes left.

After a 10-minute warning for their descent, those on board the shuttle were expecting a hero’s welcome upon their return home.

The doomed crew members suited up and donned their protective gloves as the spacecraft journeyed back towards the US over the Pacific Ocean, preparing for what they believed would be a routine landing.

Footage of these final, heartbreaking moments shows them remarkably composed as they awaited the end of their extraordinary mission, occasionally sharing a laugh and friendly banter amongst themselves.

At one point, they even admired the ‘amazing’ rose-hued glow visible through their cockpit windows.

Their earthbound colleagues could only look on in despair as erratic data revealed missing temperature readings from the left wing sensors, along with vanished tyre pressure measurements.

Just before 9am EST, Husband made his last communication with Mission Control, responding ‘Roger’ followed by another incomplete phrase before contact was abruptly cut off.

A NASA crew survival investigation in 2008 concluded that the astronauts likely survived the initial disintegration of the spacecraft before realising the severity of their situation and losing consciousness shortly after the cabin depressurised.

High-altitude exposure and severe impact trauma were cited as the causes of their deaths, according to the investigation’s findings.

Debris rained down across eastern Texas and western Louisiana in chilling scenes for those looking up from the ground below.

Following an extensive search operation, the remains of all seven crew members were discovered.

One astronaut was found not wearing their pressure suit helmet, while three others hadn’t put on their spacesuit gloves.

Despite these findings, the investigation didn’t attribute the spacecraft’s destruction to crew error and concluded that it was an unsurvivable incident.

NASA’s Wayne Hale, who later ascended to the role of space shuttle programme manager, shared the heart-wrenching predicament faced by the team that day on his blog.

He penned: “If it has been damaged it’s probably better not to know. I think the crew would rather not know. Don’t you think it would be better for them to have a happy successful flight and die unexpectedly during entry than to stay in orbit, knowing that there was nothing to be done, until the air ran out?”.

A new three-part documentary titled The Space Shuttle That Fell to Earth delves into the mistakes made by NASA leading to the tragic loss of the crew. The series is now available for streaming on BBC iPlayer.