Columbia’s final flow

Last time I talked a little bit about Columbia’s final time at the launch pad and why it had to extend over the annual year-end holiday period. This time I’d like to take you back to those days 14 years ago and recall it in more detail.

The final Launch Team training exercise for STS-107 happened on Friday, December 6, 2002. It was the last chance for the whole team to practice together in an environment that simulated launch countdown conditions as closely as possible. It was also the ‘cert...