It had smashed into the shuttle's wing during take-off and left a hole in the protective tiles, leaving the shuttle vulnerable on re-entry.
Hale is the only person at NASA who publicly accepted blame, according to ABC News.
NASA flights resumed two years later and the shuttles were retired in 2011.
The oldest son of Columbia's pilot is now a Marine captain with three young children of his own.
The son of astronaut Dr Laurel Clark, Iain Clark is a young man on the cusp of college with a master's rating in scuba diving and three parachute jumps in his new log book.
His mother loved scuba and skydiving. So did her flight surgeon husband and Iain's dad, Dr Jonathan Clark, who since the accident, has been a crusader for keeping space crews safe.
Neurologist Dr Clark told the Associated Press: 'It's tough losing a mom, that's for sure. I think Iain was the most affected.
'My goal was to keep him alive. That was the plan. It was kind of dicey for a while. There was a lot of darkness - for him and me.'
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