All language subtitles for Secrets.of.the.Space.Shuttle.Part.2.1080p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

Narrator: When they launch
in 1981, the space shuttles
take the world by storm.

Ken: And it was just one of the
most spectacularly beautiful
things I'd ever seen.

Narrator: But their fatal
flaws are soon revealed.

Male: Rso reports
vehicle exploded.

Narrator: Yet the shuttles will
go on to be a part of some of
the greatest scientific

Discoveries of our age.

Milt: I was looking at a
huge amount of galaxies.

Narrator: The shuttles
become symbols of peace.

Robert: I'm the person
who ended the cold war.

Narrator: And at the end of
their mission, the shuttles set
the scene for the next chapter

In man's conquest of space.

Dick: That was one of the
great days of our lives.

Male: And lift-off.

Lift-off for the 25th
space shuttle mission and
it has cleared the tower.

Narrator: At the start of the
1980s, the space shuttles
promise to be a new,

Safe and cost-effective
way of getting into space.

But that dream dies on
the 28th January 1986.

Just 73 seconds into its
mission, the shuttle challenger
blows up on live television.

Male: Flight fido: Rso
reports vehicle exploded.

Narrator: The crew of seven,
including a school teacher,

Perish as their families
watch in horror.

Jeff: The challenger disaster
was definitely a turning point,

Not just for the shuttle
program but for nasa itself.

Narrator: Nasa's shuttle
fleet is grounded.

Robert: Our world
turned completely upside
down in an instant.

Narrator: The challenger
disaster shows that the shuttls
are much harder to maintain

And more dangerous than
nasa ever imagined.

Rowland: Having sewn the idea
that the shuttle was something

That was going to deliver
routine access to space,

In the most desperate,
conspicuous way possible,

The shuttle had been proven
not to be that machine.

Narrator: The future of nasa's
shuttle fleet is in doubt.

But 5000 miles away,
a shuttle is secretly
being prepped for flight.

This one isn't american.

This is a russian shuttle.

They call it the "buran",
which means blizzard.

At first glance, it looks almot
identical to nasa's shuttles.

Jeff: The similarity was
not coincidental for sure.

Tom: When I saw it, I
said, they copied it.

The structure of details
were exactly the same
thing that the shuttle had.

Narrator: From the moment nasa
started building their shuttle
fleet in the early 1970s,

Soviet spies are sent
to steal the plans.

Rowland: The russians were
supporting a very extensive
kgb exercise to get hold of

Technical material in order
to build their own shuttles.

Narrator: Soviet leaders
know from the beginning

The pentagon has a hand
in the shuttle's design.

Jeff: The russian's clearly
thought that the shuttle was
giving us some sort of great

Military advantage.

Narrator: The soviets conclude
the american shuttles have
been built to attack them.

Rowland: The russians assumed
that this was a machine that was
going to be capable of dropping

A bomb on moscow,
before soviet defenses
had any chance to react.

Narrator: President reagan has
no love for the soviet union.

President reagan: They
are the focus of evil
in the modern world.

Narrator: And he frightens the
russians even more, with his
plan to use nasa's shuttle flet

To build a missile
defense shield in space.

Robert: For us to be able
to pick off their weapons,

That sounded to me like a
very good idea.

Narrator: Realizing, that if
reagan's plans work, it will
give the us an overwhelming

Strategic advantage,
the soviets have to act.

On the 15th November 1988, the
russians launch one of their
own shuttles into orbit

For the first time.

And the americans are stunned o
see, it's better than theirs.

Milt: One thing that
really impressed me, the
fact it was unmanned.

That was really significant.

Narrator: Not only can buran
be flown remotely,

It can carry more than its
american counterparts.

Robert: Their orbiter didn't
carry the main engines to orbit.

They threw them away
with the booster vehicle.

Wayne: We looked at
some of the things that
they did and we thought,

Wow that was pretty smart,
maybe we should have designed
a vehicle like they did.

Narrator: But the cost of
matching nasa's fleet with
five shuttles of their own

Sets the soviets back $30
billion.

Jeff: They discovered something
that we had discovered, and that
was that it's pretty expensive

To operate.

Narrator: And it isn't just
the shuttles the russians
are trying to keep up with.

There are new american
war planes, ships and
submarines as well.

Robert: We just ran
them out of money.

Our technology, our
capabilities, they just
couldn't keep up with us.

Narrator: The russians
face financial ruin.

Within a year of the buran's
flight, the berlin wall comes
down and the soviet union stars

To collapse.

After flying a buran just
once, the fleet is abandoned.

The russians are forced
to go back to using
conventional rockets.

Rowland: They poured what money
they had, and it was scarce,
into trying to build and support

The mir space station.

Narrator: The focus now for the
russians is using their mir
space station to master

Long term space flight.

To keep their shuttle program
alive, nasa has to come up
with a new purpose for them.

After the challenger disaster,
the shuttles are believed to
be to risky to carry out

Any mission that can be done
using conventional rockets.

Wayne: All this talk of flying,
all the commercial satellites,
all the military satellites,

That all went away.

And so to justify our continued
existence we had to launch a lot
more scientific satellites and

Do more scientific missions.

Narrator: Nasa knows the
shuttles have to deliver a
big scientific breakthrough.

And they hope launching
this the largest and most
powerful space telescope

Ever built, will do it.

Male: Three, two, one, and
lift-off of the space shuttle
discovery with the hubble space

Telescope, our window
on the universe.

Jeff: People were really excited
about the idea that this was
going to be this incredible

New instrument that would
be able to unlock the
secrets of the universe.

Rowland: Nasa depended on
capturing the public's
imagination for funding.

They desperately needed
it to be a success.

Commander: Max.
Astronaut: Go.

Commander: Ers.
Astronaut: Go flight.

Commander: Eva.
Astronaut: We're go.

Commander: This is
mission control, houston.

Commander: Discovery,
go for hubble release.

Narrator: Flying 380 miles aboe
the earth, higher than any
shuttle has ever flown before,

Discovery flawlessly
deploys the giant telescope.

Commander: Thank
you for a good day.

Narrator: Three weeks later
hubble beams back its first
images of distance stars.

Jeff: It's one of these
situations where I see it
but I can't believe my eyes.

The images were blurry.

You know, this is a billion
and a half dollar telescope
and it can't focus straight.

Narrator: Hubble's optics
are the wrong shape,

Which effectively leaves the
telescope near-sighted.

Milt: Really embarrassing,
obviously to the agency,
to the nation, you know,

To all the people who
were involved with it.

Jeff: It was a disaster.

Narrator: Nasa's reputation
is once again in tatters.

Dick: It became a touchstone
for everything wrong with nasa.

Rowland: It's hard to imagine
anything more humiliating.

It was a really stupid error,
uh, it was something which they
could and should have checked.

Narrator: American
politicians are furious.

Milt: The senate committee told
us, nasa if you are not able to
do what you say you can do

To repair hubble and get
it back in good condition,

There's a good possibility
that funding will be cut.

Narrator: But nasa realizes
there is much more to do

Than just correcting hubble's
faulty lens.

A host of other components
will also need replacing.

Repairing the telescope will
be the most complex mission
nasa has ever attempted.

Jeff: This mission was going to
require five space walks of a
degree of complexity far greater

Than anything that nasa
had ever done before.

-And could you roll a little be
more up right, please...

Narrator: For the next 11
months, the astronauts plan and
practice the dozens of intricae

Procedures they'll perform
on the telescope in space.

Male: Continue to come forward.

Jeff: We spent about 400 hours
underwater, a tremendous
amount of training.

Narrator: The repairs are so
complicated, the fear is the
astronauts will run out of powr

And oxygen before they
can all be completed.

To help them train, nasa makes
a giant inflatable telescope

Complete with an inflatable
astronaut.

Every aspect of the mission
is carefully timed to ensure

It can be done before the
astronaut's supplies are
exhausted.

Male: It's faster
than the last time.

Milt: We spent an awful lot
of time talking about what
if, what if this happens,

What if that happens.

I knew we had to be
ready for anything.

Narrator: Finally,
on December 2nd 1993, three
years after hubble launched,

The astronauts are
ready for their 11 day
mission to repair it.

Before they leave, the head of
nasa gives them a stark warnin.

Jeff: He looked at us and he
said, I hope that you realise
that the future of nasa's

Human space flight depends
on the success of your mission.

Like, thank you sir,
like we didn't know this.

Narrator: At 4:27am, the
shuttle endeavour blasts off.

Male: Lift-off of the space
shuttle endeavour to service
the hubble space telescope.

Narrator: Endeavour races to
rendezvous with the telescope
orbiting 380 miles

Above the earth.

Dick: My big role was gonna be
to get us in the right position

To be able to capture the
telescope.

Narrator: Travelling at
17,500mph, the shuttle
joins hubble in orbit.

Commander dick covey has to
fly close enough to grab the
telescope with the shuttle's
robotic arm.

Dick: When you get close to the
telescope, it's intense, you're
making very precise maneuvers.

Narrator: One wrong move will
send the telescope spiraling
out of orbit and destroy it.

Dick: Looking through the top
windows of the orbiter until
it gets to a point

Where it transitions low
enough to the telescope for
a robotic arm to grab it.

(music)

(music)

Houston, endeavour has
a firm handshake with
mr. Hubble's telescope.

Female: We copy that
covey, there are smiles
galore down here.

Great work up there you guys.

Dick: And we were very,
very happy when we finally
got the telescope captured.

Now we had five days of space
walks that the whole crew was
going to start focusing on.

Male: Mission specialists story
musgrave and jeff hoffman

Go through the first steps of
getting ready for their
spacewalk.

Narrator: The first task for te
astronauts is to replace some f
hubble's delicate instruments,

Housed deep inside
the telescope.

Jeff: We had to open these big
doors and I basically pushed
story underneath and I would

Undo the bolts and he would pull
out the unit, hand me the old
one, I'd hand him the new one.

Narrator: With limited
oxygen and power supplies,

Mission control focuses on
sticking to the timetable.

Milt: I'll never forget
that first spacewalk.

I was determined to
stay on a timeline, do
what we needed to do.

Narrator: After almost eight
hours the astronauts manage
to replace all the faulty
instruments.

Jeff: And it worked perfectly,
just the way it had done, so we,

We were really
feeling pretty good.

Narrator: All that's left
is for hoffman to close
the telescope doors.

I won't use all the words which
went through my mind because
we're on television here,

But you know, this is the
most complicated mission that
nasa has ever undertaken

And I can't get
the doors closed.

I mean, what is going on?

Narrator: If hubble's
doors remain open,

The sensitive electronics
inside will be destroyed

By the extreme
conditions of space.

Despite 11 months of
preparation, nasa engineers
didn't plan for this.

Jeff: They kept sending us
suggestions from the ground,

We were describing
the problem but it was clear
that they didn't quite get it

Because none of the things
that they suggested worked.

Narrator: Engineers on the
ground are out of ideas.

Everything hinges on the
astronauts finding a solution.

Milt: Well story came up with
the idea to take a strap to be
able to act as another hand,

To put it into place where it
could part of the doors together

While they worked on the other
areas to get it to latch.

Narrator: But the concern is, f
the strap is pulled too tight,

The delicate telescope could be
irreparably damaged.

Jeff: The people who were in
charge of hubble were worried
because this thing can exert

Up to 2000 pounds of force and I
think they had these visions of
the hubble collapsing

Like an aluminium beer can.

Narrator: With oxygen
supplies running out, mission
control has no choice,

They have to let
the astronauts try and use the
strap to force the doors shut.

Milt: As the flight
director, I made a decision
to tell story, go do it.

Narrator: Finally, hubble's
doors are firmly shut.

The first marathon eight
hour spacewalk is a success.

Jeff: Good work guys.

Milt: And that was a huge amount
of relief in the control center
cause we got back on track.

Narrator: Over the next four
days, the team completes a
record-breaking

35 and a half hours
of space walks.

Narrator: And they manage to
finish all the repairs to the
telescope with just a few hours

Of oxygen and power to spare.

Narrator: But it will be anothr
6 weeks before the astronauts
know if their mission

Has been a success.

Nasa releases the
new data from hubble.

Ken: I remember just being
desperate to see what
it was going to look like.

Narrator: When the images
emerge, they are extraordinary.

Milt: I'm not an astronomer,
but I said, wow man we have
fixed this thing.

Narrator: Hubble's spectacular
pictures transform our
understanding of the universe.

Milt: I was looking at a huge
amount of galaxies in that
one picture, crystal clear.

I mean, you could see the
shapes and you could tell
that they were galaxies.

Jeff: They looked like
the creations of some
psychedelic artists.

Dick: That was one of the
great days of our lives.

Narrator: The most
complex shuttle mission ever
attempted has been a success.

Nasa's reputation is salvaged.

But sending a shuttle to repair
the $1.5 billion telescope cost
nasa another billion dollars.

The shuttle's future
is far from secure.

1994 the us has a new president
and a new threat to the progra.

President clinton
is concerned about the
shuttles' spiraling costs.

Wayne: The clinton
administration told us that they
considered the space shuttle

Program very expensive and
it nearly got cancelled.

Narrator: The shuttles'
salvation comes from an
unlikely place.

Russia.

Since the fall of the soviet
union, the russians have
been struggling to keep mir,

Their prized space
station in orbit.

Rowland: The russian space
program was on its knees,
absolutely starved of funds,

And in danger of
collapsing completely.

Narrator: President
clinton is warned, if the
russian space program ends,

It can have grave security
implications for the us.

Wayne: There was a lot of
concern that the russian rocket
scientists were going to start

Building missiles
for rogue states.

Jeff: There was this feeling
that it would be in the interest
of the united states to engage

The soviet space program
personnel, and what better
way to do that than

By a joint project?

Narrator: The us
offers russia a deal.

The shuttles will fly
regular supply missions
to keep mir going.

In return, the russians
have to let us astronauts
on-board their space station,

To carry out experiments.

Rowland: No country on earth
had greater experience of long
duration space flight

Than the russians, and america
wanted a piece of that as it
looked ahead to building

Its own space station.

Narrator: The russians agree
to the american proposal
and in an historic move,

Nasa sends a team of
astronauts to star city, just
outside moscow, for training.

Britain's only shuttle
astronaut, michael
foale is one of them.

Michael: A lot of military
american astronauts felt
this was (bleep).

This was not something
we should be doing,

And when I met russian
instructors,

They were disgusted
with their government.

They did not want to give us
their crown jewels, they did
not want to tell us

How their spaceship was built.

Narrator: But the russian
and american governments
are determined to have

Their astronauts work together.

Former us navy fighter pilot
robert "hoot" gibson, is in
charge of picking the crew

For the first shuttle
mission to mir.

Robert: The press kept asking
me, are you going to assign
yourself to the mir docking?

And I said, absolutely not.

I had trained to shoot down
russian migs and had been a
participant in this cold war.

Narrator: But nasa
has other ideas.

On June 27th, 1995, hoot
finds himself in the driver's
seat, in the first shuttle

Scheduled to dock with the
russian space station.

220 miles above the earth,
hoot guides the shuttle
atlantis towards mir.

Hoot: It was the most complex,
it was the most demanding
mission that I ever got to fly.

Narrator: A special adaptor has
been fitted to the shuttle,

To allow it to dock with the
russian space station.

At 9am eastern daylight time,
the two spacecraft connect.

Robert: It just went
off like clockwork.

Everything worked perfectly.
Everything went just fine.

Narrator: It's the first time
a shuttle has ever docked with
another spacecraft

And when hoot opens the
hatch, he makes history.

Hoot: Valdimir dezhurov, the mir
commander, one of those russian
fighter pilots that I had been

Training to shoot down
all those years, and now the
two of us cold war warriors,

Shook hands...

And the president of the
united states that day said,

This handshake means
the cold war is over.

So I'm fond of telling people
that hey, I'm the person who
ended the cold war.

A new era of international
cooperation in space.

Nasa plans to send a shuttle
to mir every four months.

But a series of accidents
on-board the russian space
station fill the nasa
astronauts with dread.

Michael: I was worried. They had
had a fire on-board the mir,

A very bad fire, it almost
caused them to abandon the mir
station.

Narrator: Determined to use mir
to help them understand the
effects of spending long perios

In space, nasa pushes ahead.

Three months after the fire,
michael foale will serve his
stint on the space station.

Michael: Looking at
the mir as we approached
it, I was just thinking,

I've got to steel myself
to do the hardest thing
I've ever done in my life,

Get through four months
on the mir station.

Narrator: Life on mir is a
million miles away

From the highly organized
world of the shuttles.

Michael: You're in
a tunnel complex.

You're like a mole.

And ah, because the
mir had been there for
13 years at that point,

They'd never really
thrown stuff away.

It was extraordinary.

Narrator: Michael's job
on-board is to conduct
experiments for nasa.

A month into his stay, his
worst fears come true when
mir collides with an unmanned

Russian supply module.

Michael: We'd had a space
collision, a lot of loss of
power, a de-pressurization.

Basically, the situation had
changed dramatically from one
that we'd expected to surviving.

Narrator: As the russian
cosmonauts assess the damage,

Michael is stuck on the ailing
space station until the next
shuttle arrives.

Michael: When finally the space
shuttle approaches, I'm just
thinking, that is so beautiful.

The shuttle is a gorgeous
looking vehicle in space and as
you see it coming up

To save you, (laughs) all of
that emotion kind of washes
over you

And I had tears in my eyes as
it, it came up closer and
closer.

And of course I'm as excited as
can be to see my new crew-mates
who are going to take me home.

Narrator: Serviced by the
shuttles, mir is repaired
and survives until 2001

When it is finally taken out
of orbit and sent crashing
into the pacific ocean.

For nasa, the russian space
station has served its purpose.

Rowland: Mir provided a
stepping stone towards
nasa's true ambition.

They built the space shuttle
with the hope that one day they
might build a space station.

Narrator: At the start of the
new millennium, nasa preps
the shuttle fleet

To begin construction on a
450-ton space station.

Barbara: It was a huge
and really, really
important endeavour.

Narrator: Working 200 miles
above the earth, the shuttles
are going to build

The most expensive
machine ever created.

Rowland: Nasa had always had
ambitions to build a space
station and the shuttle

Was the vehicle through which
that could be made possible.

Narrator: When completed, the
space station will be enormous.

For nasa, the shuttle fleet
will finally be doing what
it has been designed for.

Male: A shuttle to carry men
and equipment to orbiting space
stations is one of nasa's goals
for this decade.

Narrator: Since the early
1970s, nasa's dream has been
to use the shuttles

And a space station for an
even more ambitious project.

Wayne: The shuttles' role in
exploration would be as a ferry
to the space station

Where the great explorers would
take off to the moon and mars

And other destinations in the
solar system eventually.

Narrator: But as the costs soa,
nasa is forced to concede

It can't afford to build a
space station of its own.

Rowland: They realized
that a better way of
making this program real,

Was to make it international,
and so the international space
station program was born.

Narrator: Otherwise known as
the iss, america joins 14 other
countries, including russia,

Japan and britain, to
share the cost of the
$150 billion project.

Over the course of the next
decade, the space station
will be built in sections

And carried into orbit piece
by piece by the shuttles .

Michael: One of the wonders is
that you can get 16 different
countries with its own engineers

Working in those countries,
designing really complicated
space equipment

That comes together only
once, and that's in space.

Narrator: Starting in December
2000, the first shuttles head
into orbit to begin assembling

The huge structure.

Michael: The space shuttle
carries a robotic arm and that
was essential for delivering

These modules that are
part of the international
space station core systems.

And so we would never have the
international space station
today with the space shuttle.

Narrator: Over the next 16
shuttle missions, the space
station starts to take shape.

Barbara: It's kind of like a
lego game, you put the first
piece up and you keep adding on.

Narrator: By 2003, the
permanently manned space
station is half built.

To complete construction,
nasa schedules an additional
30 shuttle flights.

On January 16th, 2003, the
space shuttle columbia
prepares to blast off

On a rare science-only mission
that will not dock with the is.

Led by commander rick
husband, the crew will
spend 16 days in orbit.

For four of them, this will
be their first time in space.

Three, two, one.

We have booster ignition and
lift-off on space shuttle
columbia with a multitude

Of national and international
space research experiments.

Narrator: The launch
appears to go perfectly.

But the next day, a standard
review of the launch footage
shows something alarming.

Wayne: There was video evidence
of a debris strike on the wing,

And some of the engineers had
been off looking at the video,

Which was not very good, and are
trying to draw some conclusions.

Narrator: The video shows a
piece of lightweight foam
insulation breaking away

From the shuttle's fuel tank.

The concern is it could
have hit the shuttle's
vital heat proof tiles.

Tom: A tile is not designed
to be impacted by anything.

Not water, not debris,
not a bird, not anything
that's in the atmosphere.

Narrator: During re-entry, the
underside of the shuttle is
exposed to temperatures

Twice as hot as lava.

If the foam has damaged
a tile, the consequences
could be catastrophic.

Tom: We knew that if we would
lose a tile there, we could
lose the entire vehicle.

I mean it was just
that straightforward.

Narrator: The columbia crew,
unaware of what has happened,
continues with their mission.

Onboard the partially completed
international space station
is us astronaut ken bowersox.

He can't see the shuttle
but he can talk to the crew.

Ken: It was almost like being
home, to hear their voices,
to hear what they were doing.

We started off talking about
our different missions and it
sounded like typical nasa speak.

Rick: Everybody's been
busy with all kinds of
different experiments,

I'll let kc kind of tell
you some of the things

She's been doing with the
combustion module real quick.

Ken: One of the crew members,
laurel clark, came up
and said, hey enough of that,

Let's talk about our families.
How are your families doing?

And switched the whole
tone of the conversation
and it was really sweet.

Laurel: Don, I was kind of
wondering how your twins are
doing, how's that going?

Don: They seem to remember me.
They, they know who I am and...

Narrator: But as columbia's
mission progresses,

Ken starts to sense mission
control is worried about the
shuttle.

Ken: We sort of felt that
the gaze of houston had moved
from us over to sts-107,

And we just noticed a little
less intensity on the part
of the ground controllers.

Narrator: Back on the
ground, nasa has been
carefully analyzing footage
of the foam strike.

Wayne: Engineers felt it was
a glancing blow and they had
some mathematics that said

It probably was not critical.

Narrator: This isn't the
first time this has happened.

Rowland: Foam falling off
the tank occurred on kind
of almost every flight,

It was so common that people
barely remarked on it at all.

Narrator: Nasa concludes it's
unlikely the foam caused any
serious damage to the shuttle

And columbia is
cleared for re-entry.

Male: Columbia, houston,
good burn, no trim required.

Narrator: After a successful
16 day mission,

The crew prepares for what
should be a routine landing.

Male: The guidance officer
confirming that columbia's right
on track towards landing

At the kennedy space center
at 8:16 am central.

Narrator: At first,
all seems fine.

But 10 minutes into re-entry,
nasa ground controllers notice
the temperature sensors

In the shuttle's left
wing have failed.

Male: Flight max...

Fyi I've just lost four separate
temperature transducers on the
left side of the vehicle,

Hydraulic return temperatures,
and there is no commonality.

Male: No commonality. Copy.
-Thank you.

Narrator: Instrument
malfunction is not unusual.

Mission control isn't
concerned until suddenly...

Female: In-flight e-comm.
Male: E-comm.

Female: I've got four
temperature sensors on the
bottom line data that are all
off scale.

Narrator: More sensors start
failing all over the shuttle.

Male: And columbia, houston, we
see your tyre pressure messages
and we did not copy your last

Male: This is instrumentation
narrator: Then shuttle commandr

Rick husband abruptly
cuts off in mid-sentence.

Rick: ...Roger...

Male: Flight controllers
are continuing to stand by

To regain communications with
the spacecraft.

Male: Columbia,
houston, uhf comm check.

Milt: The body language that we
could see down there and some of
the voices we were hearing

In the communication,
something wasn't right.

You could tell.

Male: Flight, I'd like
to state where we're at.

We did go a little erratic
for a little bit before
they went away,

So I do believe it's
instrumentation.

Male: Okay.

Male: Columbia,
houston, uhf comm check.

Male: Fido, when do
you expect tracking?

Male: One minute ago, flight.

Narrator: 10 minutes before
the scheduled touchdown, there
is still no sign of columbia.

Male: Okay.

Tom: When you can't communicate
with a vehicle and it's not
there, then it's, it's gone.

Narrator: Then television news
coverage shows what appears

To be columbia breaking
apart in a shower of flames.

Male: Tc, flight. Tc, flight.

Flight, tc...Lock the doors.
Copy.

Milt: John walked behind
me and I said, I said
john, what's happened,

And I'll never forget this,
he said, we lost them.

President bush: My
fellow americans, at nine
o'clock this morning,

Mission control in houston
lost contact with their
space shuttle columbia.

A short time later, debris
was seen falling from
the skies above texas.

The columbia's lost.

There are no survivors.

Narrator: What is left of
the shuttle columbia is taken
back to nasa for analysis.

Ken: I remember going to visit
the columbia debris and when I
saw it for the first time,

The thing that made the
biggest impression on me
was the window frames,

And thinking that I had sat
behind those window frames
on columbia on an entry

And just seeing the melted
edges of the metal frame, I
mean I can still see that image.

Narrator: Investigators are
brought in to find out why
columbia burned up on re-entry.

Evidence points to
a hole in the shuttle's thermal
protection system as the cause.

All attention turns back
to the video of the launch.

Dick: The investigation board
determined we're zeroing in

On the lightweight foam
insulation on the external tank.

Narrator: Enhancing the launch
footage reveals the foam
insulation from the fuel tank

Didn't strike the fragile part
of the shuttle's wing at all.

It hit the wing's
leading edge, which is
made from a super strong,

High-tech material
called carbon-carbon.

Tom: So a piece of foam hits the
leading edge, how could that
cause something to fail

That's probably as strong as
steel?

Narrator: To nasa, it seems
impossible that a lightweight
piece of foam could have

Penetrated one of the toughest
parts of the shuttle.

Investigator: Right now, it just
does not make sense to us that a
piece of debris

Would be the root cause for the
loss of columbia and its crew.

There's got to be
another reason.

Narrator: But accident
investigators aren't convinced.

They force nasa to test the
leading edge of the wing by
smashing blocks of foam into I.

Dick: They actually fired it
from a canon at pieces of the
leading edge

To see what would happen.

Narrator: They discover a
piece of lightweight foam fired
at a speed of 500 miles per hur

Easily punches a
hole in the wing.

Dick: Instead of this being
a sponge hitting a leading
edge, it was a brick.

That was it. Everybody
knew it then. There was
no other question about it.

Narrator: Nasa is forced
to admit they had been
wrong all along.

Investigator: In four simple
words, the foam did it.

It ultimately led to the
destruction of the orbiter
and the loss of crew.

Narrator: For the second time
in the shuttle's history, a
crew didn't make it back alive.

The loss of another seven
astronauts underlines

How dangerously fragile and had
to maintain the shuttles are.

Nasa is forced to consider
grounding its three
remaining shuttles...

Permanently.

Wayne: The columbia accident
happened and there was talk of
not flying the shuttle again

But in an historical sense, you
know, any, any great

Endeavour like this has come
with casualties.

You don't want to see people,
you know, die, but if we're
gonna do some great things,

We're gonna take some risks.

Narrator: Nasa decides, despite
the inherent danger, there is
one project the shuttles

Should complete before
they are retired.

The international space statio.

Orbiting 250 miles
above the earth, the
iss is only half built.

The remaining sections of the
multi billion dollar project
are still on the ground.

The only way to get them into
orbit is on the shuttles.

Wayne: There was no other
vehicle available in the world
that could carry those

Large pieces into space.

We would have had to trash those
and build a completely different
set of space station hardware

That would have taken many,
many, many more years.

Narrator: In July
2005, nasa prepares the
shuttle fleet for flight.

They estimate it will take
another five years and 21
shuttle missions

To finish assembling
the giant space station

Among the astronauts getting
ready to go is barbara morgan

21 years earlier, in a blaze of
publicity, barbara was selected

As the back-up for school
teacher christa mcauliffe,

Who was to be nasa's first
ordinary citizen in space.

Christa: When that shuttle goes,
there might be one body, but
there's gonna be 10 souls

That I'm taking with me.
Thank you.

Narrator: After months of
training together, in 1986,
barbara watched christa

And the rest of her crew
perish as challenger exploded.

Barbara: Nasa asked if I would
continue on in christa's shoes,

When the shuttles were ready to
fly safely again and nasa was
ready,

That I would fly on a
shuttle mission.

Narrator: Quitting her
teaching job, barbara becomes
a professional astronaut.

Barbara: So even though the
going on was difficult...

Male: And lift-off.

Barbara: I felt it was
just really, really
important that we,

That we keep exploration open.

Narrator: Now barbara finds
herself working on the most
ambitious building project

Ever attempted in space.

Barbara: So we were a
construction crew,

We got to help build the
international space station.

You now, it's not fun
and games, it's fun and
really, really hard work.

Narrator: Over the coming
years, thanks to the shuttles,
the iss doubles in size.

Barbara: If we were to bring
it back down to earth

And lay it out on a standard
football field,

It would slightly
spill out over the edges.

Narrator: By the end of the
decade, the international space
station is almost complete.

Male: The final
lift-off on atlantis.

Narrator: July 15th, 2011.

The space shuttle atlantis
blasts off and heads to the
iss for its final mission.

Dick: I made sure that I
was there to watch atlantis
on that last flight.

Robert: It was a very
much bittersweet day.

I think everyone had
tears in their eyes. I did.

Narrator: 30 years
earlier the shuttles were
symbolic of the cold war.

Now they are ending their
days as great symbols
of global cooperation.

Wayne: I think people look
at it as a technological thing

When it's really a sociological
triumph.

Narrator: Since the
first crew arrived at the
turn of the millennium,

Over 200 astronauts from
18 different nations have
served on-board the iss.

Milt: I think it is a
zero-gravity united nations

And it works a hell of a lot
better than the one in new york
city.

Narrator: After clocking
more than half a
billion miles in orbit,

The era of the space
shuttle is over.

Male: A ship like no other, its
place in history secured,

The space shuttle pulls into
port for the last time.

Narrator: Although they were
never as cheap or as safe as
nasa had hoped, in the end

The space shuttles prove to
be a giant leap towards a
much bigger goal.

Barbara: Now we have new
generations working on

Reusable spacecraft that
will get us much further.

Ken: What we were doing was
laying one of the bricks

For the road that was going to
lead humanity out into our solar
system.

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