The Year in Pictures 2003

When NASA Fell to Earth
Neighbors gather at Marlin Hughes' chicken farm in Nacogdoches, Texas, to glimpse a piece of debris — probably a tank of liquid propellant — from the destroyed shuttle Columbia. The shuttle broke up as it re-entered the atmosphere in February, sending wreckage streaking across the Texas sky and killing all seven astronauts aboard. An investigating board blamed the crash on a chunk of insulating foam that blew a hole in the spacecraft's wing, and cited NASA's "broken safety culture" for failing to catch the shuttle's flaws

• Person of the Year 2003
• Famous Kisses: 2003