Astronaut William McCool, a victim of the 1st February 2003 disaster in which the space shuttle Columbia exploded on re-entry, killing the seven astro

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Astronaut William McCool, a victim of the 1st February 2003 disaster in which the space shuttle Columbia exploded on re-entry, killing the seven astronauts on board. This was McCool's first space flight. He was the pilot of this mission (STS-107), which lifted off on 16th January 2003 to carry out scientific experiments. Columbia was around 65 kilometres up and travelling at 20,000 kilometres per hour when it exploded. Debris was scattered over a wide area of the southern USA, mostly in Texas and Louisiana. It is thought a heat shield failure may have led to the explosion. Photographed in 2001.

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Photo credit: © NASA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 2003, american, astronaut, columbia, dead, disaster, february, male, man, manned, mccool, shuttle, space, spaceflight, states, sts-107, united, usa, victim, william