On February 1, 2003, excitement from onlookers turned to horror as debris from the Space Shuttle Columbia was spotted plummeting back to Earth. Of the seven astronauts on board, there were no survivors. Just an hour and a half after the disaster occurred, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) was formed to thoroughly investigate the cause of the accident. Frequent press releases from the CAIB documented their findings, as increased transparency was one of the main goals of the board. Recovery of debris was an arduous task, as pieces of the shuttle were found from Texas all the way to Louisiana. After examination of the recovered components, it was concluded that damage to the left wing was the cause of the disaster. Around 81 seconds after Columbia’s liftoff, a piece of foam used to insulate the external fuel tank broke off and struck the shuttle’s left wing. The impact was strong enough to punch a hole in the thermal soaking protective layer, meant to prot...