CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (WBAP/KLIF News) – It’s been 15 years since the seven NASA astronauts were killed aboard the space shuttle Columbia.
The crew was returning home after a 16-day research mission when the shuttle began to break apart as it reentered Earth’s atmosphere.
Investigators learned that shuttle’s left wing was damaged during launch when foam struck it at high speeds and caused a breach, which allowed atmospheric gases to penetrate the ship.
It burned up over Texas during reentry causing parts of the shuttle to fall from the sky.
Astronauts Rick Husband, Willie McCool, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, David Brown, Mike Anderson and Ilan Ramon will never be forgotten.
During a special tribute to the crew Thursday, NASA invited Ramon’s singer-songwriter son Tal Ramon from Israel, to attend the ceremony at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral ,Florida, according to the Associated Press.
His father represented the Israeli Space Agency during that fateful trip.
It was Tal Ramon’s second trip back to the center since his father was killed on Feb. 1, 2003.
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You can listen to a special feature about the fateful trip here.