19. space shuttle columbia

Space shuttle Columbia was the first space shuttle to go to space. It was a spacecraft that changed peoples lives on its first mission. Its first mission was on April 12, 1981. everyone was amazed to see NASA'S first reusable rocket to fly into space for the first time!

Columbia was destroyed in its last flight that went for 16 days. Its final mission was to do science experiments. Columbia successfully completed 27 missions before this major destruction. On its 28th flight it got destroyed in re-entry. Columbia was destroyed when it went through Earth's atmosphere for the last time on Jan. 32, 2003.

Columbia's first flight was the first flight in the shuttle program and that was a massive achievement for the Americans and for everyone who loves space.

The reason why Columbia burnt up is that a piece of insulation from the external tank broke off during the last launch and took a lot of the tiles off the left wing of the orbiter (the thing that goes to space) But the astronauts didn’t notice so, they kept rising until they were in space. When they were in orbit they did their mission (putting a satellite into orbit) then they stayed up in space for 16 days until it was time to come down. As they were coming down, the pressure at the place where the tiles fell off got SO hot that it burned the left wing right off. The space shuttle started spinning out of control. The wreckage of the left wing took off more tiles that lead to the payload bay breaking up and loss of the shuttle.