Macleans
Nasa's Columbia Shuttle Disaster
This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on February 10, 2003. Partner content is not updated. FOR LONG MINUTES, the crowd of family, friends, dignitaries and spectators stood at the end of the airstrip in Cape Canaveral, Fla., waiting and hoping for a familiar white speck in the distant blue sky. By the time the countdown clock reached zero, it was clear the reunion would never come.