Like any other spacecraft, the Columbia had to conduct a series of "nominal entry preparation" tasks before heading back to Earth, as previous Columbia mission commander Scott Altman describes in an archived Associated Press video. At 500,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean crew members check clipboards, review instruments, put on gloves, and so forth. They converse amongst themselves for about 13 minutes before audio and video feed cuts out. Willie McCool, Kalpana Chawla, and Laurel Clark are in the video, and it's the last time anyone on Earth ever saw them or heard them speak. Commander Rick Husband shows up in the video, as well, and he alone would go on to represent the Columbia in its final minutes.
Sometime after the video ended and 23 minutes before Columbia was supposed to touch down, folks at NASA began to notice odd thermal readings coming from the craft. Maintenance, mechanical, arm and crew Systems (MMACS) officer Jeff Kling, entry flight director LeRoy Cain, and others contacted the Columbia to get more information. As we can see in a transcript of these conversations on CBS News, Husband calmly states, "We're checking that. We've got the flight controller power on. We're working through the rest of it as well. Thanks." After a couple more exchanges, NASA points out that the Columbia looks like it's lost pressure in both of its tires. To this, Husband merely replies, "And Houston, roger, buh," before dropping out. That's the last anyone heard from the Columbia.
[Featured image by NASA via Wikimedia Commons| Cropped and scaled]
