Sixteen minutes from landing, mission control lose contact with the crew of Columbia. On the shuttle landing strip, families waiting to welcome their loved ones back home are swiftly ushered away. In the skies over Texas, locals hear a loud explosion, and debris strikes the ground in multiple locations. The fears of some Nasa engineers are coming true: Columbia is lost and there are no survivors. Following the disaster, Nasa comes under increasing pressure from the media to provide answers.