A decade has passed since the ill-fated Columbia space shuttle orbiter and its seven-person crew ended their journey in catastrophe. During its Feb. 1, 2003 plunge back to Earth, the vehicle broke apart, with wreckage strewn across east Texas and western Louisiana.
Painstaking work by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) later identified the physical cause of the disaster as damage to Columbia's left wing that occurred just 81.9 seconds after launch.
A piece of insulating foam separated from the left "bipod ramp" that connected the shuttle's fuel tank to the orbiter, gouging a hole in a reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) panel on the leading edge of Columbia's left wing.
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