Which mission code identified Columbia's 2003 final flight?
Answer
STS-107
Answer
STS-107
Columbia's final flight was identified by the mission code STS-107. Launched on January 16, 2003, STS-107 was Columbia's 28th flight and the 113th mission overall in NASA's Space Shuttle program.
The mission was dedicated primarily to microgravity, life-science, physical-science, and Earth-science research. Its seven-person crew included Commander Rick Husband, Pilot William McCool, mission specialists Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark, and Michael Anderson, and payload specialist Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut.
After a 16-day research mission, Columbia was destroyed during reentry on February 1, 2003, over east Texas, about 16 minutes before its scheduled landing at Kennedy Space Center. Investigators concluded that insulating foam struck the orbiter's left-wing leading edge during launch, damaging reinforced carbon-carbon panels and allowing heat to penetrate the wing during reentry. STS-107 is sometimes confused with STS-109, Columbia's previous mission, or STS-114, the later return-to-flight mission.
Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026