Space Shuttle Columbia

2000-2023 | 23 years

This episode is the first season’s finale, and it leaves the viewers on a dramatic cliffhanger. One side plot of this episode is that Toby’s brother is an astronaut, which comes up again later in the series, and on the space shuttle Columbia, which is having a problem with the payload doors, which eventually turns into a problem with the engines. Toby is stressed about this, telling the President, “It's space travel, and I don't believe any problem is minor.”

In the episode, the staff uses secret hand signals to spread the good news, the Space Shuttle Columbia landed safely. Unfortunately, 20 years ago today - on February 1st, 2003, 3 years after this episode came out, the Seven astronauts on board the real Columbia Space Shuttle were attempting to return home, but instead of landing safely, the shuttle disintegrated. The reason for this was foam shedding, a piece of foam coming off the external tank and hitting the left wing when the shuttle took off at the beginning of the 16-day scientific mission.

After this tragedy, the Space Shuttle fleet was grounded for 29 months, and President Bush had the fleet permanently retired after the completion of the International Space Station. More safety programs were also implemented for all future flights. Now, NASA relies on SpaceX and Boeing, private companies, for the development of astronaut vehicles. SpaceX has already delivered 30 people safely into space. NASA has also started to venture out more lately with its’ Artemis program(which I covered in a different post about the episode Galileo, another episode which contains the theme of space).

There are ongoing arguments as to whether or not humans should continue to go into space. According to NASA, “Human space exploration helps to address fundamental questions about our place in the Universe and the history of our solar system.” This argument is made throughout the series by different characters. However, some argue that that is not enough to justify the costs. Space travel requires money, physical resources, and intelligent people who could be doing other things. They also point to the space race and commercialization of space as being problems. And, they disagree with the notion that humans should currently be exploring space, pointing to the fact that 65% of the Earth is still unexplored and arguing that that should be our first priority. Others disagree with this take and say that the exploration of space is essential given the way humans have treated the planet. They also argue that going to space gives us concrete benefits, like new scientific knowledge that benefits our lives, and new inventions that no one would have otherwise been pushed to think of.  The inventions humans have sent into space also are a part of our daily lives.

But looking at the tragic accidents that have happened as part of the push into space makes it hard to not think that space exploration isn’t worth it. Interestingly, it is the astronauts themselves who are often the ones who express disagreement with this sentiment. It was Gus Grissom, the Apollo 1 Commander who died in the mission’s pre-launch test that said “If we die, we want people to accept it. We're in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us, it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life”