A Photo History of the Space Shuttle Program

Columbia Disaster
On Feb. 1, 2003, tragedy struck the shuttle program again, as NASA Mission Control lost contact with space shuttle Columbia during the re-entry phase of its mission. The shuttle broke up over Texas, and all seven astronauts on board died in the crash. Debris from Columbia was found all over Texas and Louisiana. In this photo, recovered debris is arrayed in a grid on the floor of a hangar at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for NASA's attempt to reassemble the craft to learn what caused it to break up.

• NASA's New Mars Rover 'Curiosity'