Watch an exclusive clip from the CNN’ ‘Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight’ finale (video)

Other than the national tragedy of the Apollo 1 command capsule fire that took the lives of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chafee on Jan. 27, 1967 during a launch rehearsal at Cape Kennedy, NASA’s darkest hour up to that point occurred 19 years later when the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch on Jan. 28, 1986, causing the deaths of all seven astronaut aboard. 

Then on Feb. 1, 2003 disaster struck once again after the space shuttle Columbia broke apart during its reentry flight over Texas, sadly killing its STS-107 crew of seven brave astronauts, bringing the program to a shuddering halt.

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