Picture from http://www.nasa.gov/columbia/home/index.html

The final flight of the space shuttle was unique even before it left the ground. There were people from differing races and backgrounds.

Photo from http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/memorial/

The crew names clockwise from top: Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla-India, Commander Rick Husband-USA, Mission Specialists Laurel Clark-USA and David Brown-USA, Pilot Willie McCool-USA, Payload Specialist Iian Ramon-Israel and Payload Commander Michael Anderson-USA.

Mission patch from the Columbia tragedy

Photo from http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/02/01/shuttle.columbia/

A link to the flight history of the shuttle Columbia http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/resources/orbiters/columbia.html