NASA reveals insane mission that could have saved space shuttle Columbia

In 2003, the space shuttle Columbia was lost when an accident at launch conspired to destroy it upon re-entry. It was a great tragedy, and one that spurred NASA to develop a contingency plan which could have saved the stricken crew. It reads like a movie script that would make Apollo 13 look like a kids movie. The Columbia’s demise was put down to a busted tile on the shuttle’s wing, which failed to protect the ship from the intense heat generated by returning to the earth’s atmosphere from space. That tile was broken during launch.