Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Space Shuttle Columbia disaster

Space Shuttle Columbia disaster

 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page.

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/February 1, 2023 by Gog the Mild (talk) 21:12, 2 January 2023 (UTC)



The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster was a fatal accident in the NASA Space Shuttle program on February 1, 2003. During the launch of the STS-107 mission, foam insulation from the Space Shuttle external tank fell and damaged the thermal protection system of the orbiter. During reentry at the end of the mission, the orbiter broke apart inflight, killing all seven astronauts on board. Debris was scattered over eastern Texas and Louisiana, and a massive recovery effort was launched to recover debris and crew remains. The accident resulted in a two-year hiatus for the Space Shuttle program, and an investigation into its cause discovered that NASA had become accustomed to insulation foam hitting the orbiter on previous missions. The accident contributed to the eventual cancellation and retirement of the Space Shuttle, which last flew in 2011.
 * Most recent similar article(s): Apollo 17 on December 11, 2022
 * Main editors:
 * Promoted: December 16, 2022
 * Reasons for nomination: February 1, 2023 is the 20th anniversary of the disaster.
 * Support as nominator. Balon Greyjoy (talk) 12:40, 17 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Support. Was surprised that this was only promoted to FA status yesterday. (Also, I can't believe it's already been 20 years.) Vida0007 (talk) 14:31, 17 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Support: Feels appropriate since 20th anniversary seems to be a nice round anniversary.
 * -- Birdienest81 talk  09:16, 18 December 2022 (UTC)


 * Support: As someone who grew up in Florida and was alive when this occurred, it is sad to look back on and I cannot believe it has already been 20 years. An important and an interesting topic with a nice round anniversary. Aoba47 (talk) 23:48, 19 December 2022 (UTC)