Add the pilots dying in more routine training flights and civilians killed on the ground in launch accidents, and the numbers are likely well past 150, according to space historian Roger Launius, associate director of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. An investigation later found that foam that fell off the shuttle's external tank during launch damaged the delicate tiles that protect the shuttle from getting too hot on re-entry. The crew was Commander Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kaplana Chawla, Laurel B.