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Cause and Effect: The Colombia Disaster

The Columbia shuttle crashed on February 1, 2003. Tragically, seven astronauts were killed including the first Israeli astronaut. What caused this catastrophe? Several theories are known; however, none have been proven with un-circumstantial evidence. Two of the most popular theories are the foam theory and the paint thinner theory. The Columbia disaster, a tragedy that took seven lives, has several theories for the cause.
The first theory is the foam theory. When the space shuttle took off, a two foot, two pound piece of foam broke off the rocket and struck the wing. Traveling at 438 miles per hour, the foam exerted much force on the wing. This great amount of force could have caused great structural damages on the wing.
Through most of the mission, the wing gave normal readings and worked up to NA...

Posted by: Jason Pinsky

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