The Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart during reentry into Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003, killing all seven crew members on board.

The disaster occurred as Columbia was returning from a 16-day scientific mission in space. The shuttle disintegrated over Texas at approximately 9:00 AM Eastern Time, just 16 minutes before its scheduled landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

All seven astronauts aboard the shuttle perished in the accident: Commander Rick Husband, Pilot William McCool, Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, and Laurel Clark, Payload Specialist Michael Anderson, and Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, who was making his first spaceflight.

The Columbia disaster marked the second fatal accident in the Space Shuttle program's history, following the Challenger explosion in 1986 that killed seven crew members during launch. The incident prompted a suspension of shuttle flights and led to extensive investigations into the cause of the accident.

Columbia was NASA's first operational space shuttle, having made its maiden flight in 1981. The loss of the orbiter and crew represented a significant setback for the U.S. space program and raised questions about shuttle safety protocols.