Schoolteachers across the nation grappled this week with how to talk with students about the Columbia shuttle.

The only time more people turned out was on the Fourth of July in 1982, when President Reagan welcomed the returning Columbia shuttle.

But as the Columbia shuttle tragedy proved, and the fuel tank fire that claimed an earlier Concorde, technology ages out with dangerous results.

But the explosion of the Columbia shuttle last week has prompted questions about space exploration to appear in the most unlikely places.

Further tragedy followed in 2003, when a problem with its heat shield meant that the Columbia shuttle disintegrated on re-entry.

January 11: What is known is that four seconds after 8 o'clock on the morning of 1 February 2003, the Columbia shuttle started to break up.

The space agency said today that it would try to launch the shuttle Discovery on Oct. 6 while the search goes on for mysterious hydrogen leaks that have grounded the Columbia shuttle.

If an event like the recent launching of the Columbia shuttle is scheduled, the news departments can be counted on to break in on the proceedings with live coverage.

The space agency has announced that two military space shuttle flights planned for the summer will be delayed, one of them for at least three months, because modifications to the Columbia shuttle are taking longer than expected.

Four times the Columbia shuttle was in the final hours of a countdown, but never got off the ground.