On February 1, 2003, NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry, just 16 minutes before landing. The hidden damage from launch — a small hole in the left wing caused by falling foam — turned deadly as superheated air entered at over 1,650°C, ripping the shuttle apart over Texas skies. Among the seven astronauts who perished was Kalpana Chawla, the first woman of Indian origin in space, whose legacy continues to inspire millions. This video explains the step-by-step events of that

35 YEARS LATER: On this day in 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board. The Challenger broke apart at 11:39 a.m., falling into the Atlantic Ocean. Investigators would later discover the disaster was caused by the failure of an “O ring” seal in one of the two solid-fuel rockets. As a result of the horrific accident, NASA did not send astronauts into space for more than two years as it redesigned a number of space shuttle features for improv