RICHARD DOUGLAS HUSBANDColonel Rick Husband was mission commander and one of seven astronauts who died when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated in the sky above Texas during re-entry on 1 February, 2003.Born Richard Douglas Husband on 12 July, 1957, in Amarillo, Texas, he gained a degree in mechanical engineering from Texas Tech University in 1980 and later a Masters in the same field at California State University in 1990. He was a devout Christian and devoted to his wife and two children.Becoming an astronaut had been his lifelong dream and he joined the United States Air Force with that aim in 1980. He trained to fly various aircraft and became an instructor at George Air Force Base, California, in 1985.Two years later he became a test pilot at Edwards in California, the home of shuttle testing. After several years flying F-15s and also a spell at RAF Boscombe Down, England, he was eventually accepted onto NASA’s astronaut training programme in 1994.He flew his first space mission in 1999, spending over 200 hours in orbit as pilot of the space shuttle Discovery, performing the first docking with the International Space Station.His role on board Columbia was to command the ill-fated STS-107 mission which was charged with carrying out more than 80 experiments into microgravity. Before the flight he was famously quoted as having said of landing the prestigious job: "I think a lot of it has to do with being in the right place at the right time."After his death, the international airport in his home town of Amarillo was named in his honour, as was an auditorium at Squadron Officer School at Maxwell AFB in Alabama and a hall at Florida Institute of Technology. There is also an asteroid called 51823 Rickhusband and a Husband Hill on Mars.The mission had already been beset by various problems, with the launch being delayed for more than two years. The disaster occurred after a small foam insulation panel broke loose during take-off on 16 January. The debris struck the left wing, damaging the shuttle’s thermal protection system.Although engineers suspected that Columbia had been damaged, NASA managers decided that, even if this was the case, there was nothing that could be done about it and did not order an investigation. They attempted to bring the shuttle back to earth as planned, but hot gases in the atmosphere penetrated the craft’s structure and caused it to break up, scattering fragments across the Texas countryside from an altitude of 38 miles.After the tragedy an investigation was heavily critical of NASA flight managers for not observing safety protocol and the Space Shuttle programme was set back over two years. President George W Bush said the death of the crew had “brought terrible news and great sadness to our country”.
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