By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo Credit: Sierra Space
Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight is a documentary series that covers and tells the story of the heartbreaking disaster of Space Shuttle Columbia breaking apart in the sky over Texas.
The documentary series has four episodes. Each episode keeps you focused. Every episode leaves you with questions that you want to ask and you want to know more details. It makes you feel angry and sad simultaneously because of the families and everyone who worked at NASA.
The event of this tragedy took place in January 2003. Seven astronauts lost their lives. The families of the victims participated in the documentary and they shared details of the personal lives of their loved ones. Hearing the husbands, wives, and children describe their relationship with the astronauts is emotional.
A tragedy like this one could’ve been prevented. The leaders at NASA could’ve executed things better if they had paid more attention to the debris. There was debris on the shuttle’s left wing. The astronauts weren’t aware of the risk during their 16-day mission, but people at the NASA headquarters saw the warnings and some failed to listen to their colleagues.
It is tough and sad for people to witness and envision when the debris was falling from the sky. During the documentary series, the director did a good job interviewing the witnesses living in Texas when they described the scene of the action. Some felt that the country was being attacked again, like in 9/11, but this was a different situation.
It’s unimaginable to imagine how it felt to tell all of those families that the astronauts didn’t make it. Their lives were changed forever, and the state of disbelief was immense.
After the tragedy, NASA faced much pressure, and media members questioned the safety culture and examined management’s poor decision-making. A lot of lessons were learned after this event. We hope we don’t have to witness something like this again.
Overall, this documentary series is phenomenal and intriguing to watch. It takes you on a learning journey. Rating score: 4.6 out of 5 stars.
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com and themmmjournal@gmail.com
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