what happened to the columbia space shuttle

On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it reentered the atmosphere over Texas and Louisiana, killing all seven astronauts on board. The Columbia disaster occurred when the shuttle broke apart over northeast Texas, near Dallas, shortly after reentering Earths atmosphere and minutes before it was due to land. The cause of the disaster was determined to be a piece of insulating foam that broke loose from the external propellant tank and struck the leading edge of the left wing approximately 81 seconds after liftoff. When Columbia reentered the atmosphere of Earth, the damage allowed hot atmospheric gases to penetrate the heat shield and destroy the internal wing structure, which caused the orbiter to become unstable and break apart. After the disaster, Space Shuttle flight operations were suspended for more than two years, as they had been after the Challenger disaster. Construction of the International Space Station (ISS) was paused until flights resumed in July 2005 with STS-114. The Columbia disaster directly led to the retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2011.