Columbia: What's in a name?

Ever since I was an eyewitness to the beginning of the space shuttle Columbia accident on Feb 1, 2003 and put up a web page with my observations, I've had lots of conversations with people about the accident and space shuttle Columbia itself. One thing that seems to keep coming up is that a lot of people don't realize where the space shuttle Columbia got its name, or how common the name is across America. So I went looking for examples...

The name Columbia is a derivation of Christopher Columbus' name for the first permanently-sustained discovery of the Americas. As such, it has been called "the personification of the United States of America."

The shuttle orbiter Columbia, was NASA serial number OV-102. OV stands for "orbiter vehicle", as opposed to a "test article" such as the was used for the test frames Enterprise and Pathfinder which were never built to go into space. According to NASA Kennedy Space Center's page about Columbia, it was named after a sailing exploration ship. It lists some ships which previously held the name Columbia. And in the list shown below, I found some more. As history has shown, the significance of the name has put some of these ships with the name Columbia into some high-profile or dangerous situations. So you'll see other ships named Columbia in history have been damaged or lost before.

Ships named Columbia

• A privately-owned sailing ship, which the shuttle orbiter Columbia was named for, sailed out of Boston in 1792. It explored the Pacific coast of North America, including the mouth of the Columbia River, which was named for it. (The Columbia River today forms most of the border between the states of Washington and Oregon.)
• A 44-gun sailing frigate for the US Navy was burned while under construction in the Washington Navy Yards in 1814 to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy as the British took the city of Washington DC.
• The first USS Columbia was a 50-gun sailing frigate, and one of the first US Navy ships to circumnavigate the globe in 1838. It served as the flagship of the Home Fleet until 1856, after which it was stored at the Norfolk Naval shipyard in Virginia. It was destroyed by retreating Union forces to avoid falling in Confederate hands when the Norfolk shipyards were captured in 1861 when Virginia seceded during the Civil War. After the war, the ship was raised, restored and sold in 1867.
• The sixth USS Columbia was in service from 1942 to 1946. It participated in the allied island-hopping campaign against Japan. Columbia was hit by 3 kamikaze planes in two separate battles in January 1945. It was saved by heroic efforts of the crew, completed its mission to provide fire support for landing troops, and then repaired to return to the war by June 1945.
• The NASA Apollo 11 command module on the first lunar landing mission in July 1969 was named Columbia.
• The NASA space shuttle orbiter Columbia was the world's first reusable spacecraft. It flew into space 30 times from 1981 to 2003. It was lost on re-entry with its crew of 7 astronauts on Feb 1, 2003.

The US Navy's current ship named Columbia is the seventh one to hold the name. It's a nuclear-powered Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Columbia SSN 771. Its home port is at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (Currently US Navy attack submarines are named after large American cities. The current USS Columbia was named after Columbia, South Carolina.)

Cities and Counties named Columbia

• Washington, District of Columbia
  • our nation's capitol
  • Did you forget what "DC" stands for?
  • founded as a planned city for the nation's capitol in 1790
• Columbia, South Carolina
  • state capitol
  • founded as a planned city for the state capitol in 1786
  • University of South Carolina is at the core of downtown Columbia (state capitol is at a corner of the campus)
  • Columbia Metro Airport (CAE)
  • Columbia Owens Downtown Airport (CUB)
• Columbia County, Florida
• Columbia County, Gerogia
• Columbia County, New York
• Columbia County, Oregon
• Columbia County, Pennsylvania
• Columbia County, Washington
• Columbia County, Wisconsin
• Columbia, Howard County, Maryland
  • founded as a planned city in 1966
• Columbia, Boone County, Missouri
  • county seat
  • University of Missouri, Columbia
• Columbia, Maury County, Tennessee
  • county seat
  • home town of James Polk, 11th President of the United States
• Columbia, Monroe County, Illinois
• Columbia, Marion County, Mississippi
  • Columbia-Marion County Airport (0R0)
• Columbia, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
• Columbia, Houston County, Alabama
• Columbia, Tuolumne County, California
  • founded in the 1849 California Gold Rush
  • quickly became the second largest city in California
  • now only a small mountain town with a big history
  • Columbia State Historical Park
  • Columbia Airport (O22)
  • STS-107 Columbia space shuttle re-entry on Feb 1, 2003 was visible high in the pre-dawn sky from Columbia, CA (25 miles north and 42 miles up)
• Columbia, Tolland County, Connecticut
• Columbia, Caldwell County, Louisiana
  • Columbia Airport (F86)
• Columbia Station, Lorain County, Ohio
  • Columbia Airport (4G8)

• British Columbia (BC), Canadian province on the Pacific coast
• Columbia River, state border between Oregon and Washington
  • Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area
  • Fort Columbia State Park at the mouth of the Columbia River
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) - national TV network
• Columbia University, New York City, New York