The 2003 Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster

This is an image and piece of history that I had forgotten about until having my memory refreshed by a music video featuring the image of an exploding rocket.
The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry on its 28th mission on 1st February 2003. All seven crew members were killed.
I feel it is iconic because it shows how malfunctions in technology and engineering can have fatal consequences, and the content of the image is very emotive (as are all major disasters shown in media.)



I don't know how well other people know of this event but here's some links off to various reports and images.

http://www.io.com/~o_m/clfaq/clfaq.htm
http://www.spaceshuttlememorial.com/space-shuttle-columbia.php
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/default_archive.asp?fpArchive=020203
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2716567.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2717239.stm

Wow.
I find the photos of those empty helmets themselves to be a really frightening image... :S

Yeah, when i found those images i thought they were a lot more visually striking than the shot of the shuttle breaking up in the sky..

I agree about the helmets, for some reason they are more moving than the image of the shuttle. Perhaps because of the human element, that they were 'somebodies helmets'