By Associated Press, 02/01/03

Full coverage of the crash  TODAY'S GLOBE NASA e-mails show worry over wing  PROFILES The crew of shuttle Columbia  GRAPHICS Shuttle Columbia statistics Columbia's final approach Map of shuttle debris area How a shuttle returns to Earth Debris strikes Columbia Keeping heat outside shuttle Focus on shuttle tiles Trouble in the left wing The private sector in space Spinoffs from space  MORE COVERAGE Deadly accidents in space program Timeline of Columbia's last flight Glossary of space shuttle terms  REALVIDEO | NECN.com | Help with video | Latest in the investigation Sen. Kennedy reacts to tragedy The future of shuttle program Searching for debris in Texas Debris leads to hospitalization John Glenn on the tragedy Radar captures falling debris NASA lowers flag to half-staff Witnesses heard a 'big bang' Profiles of the Columbia crew NASA official: 'A tragic day' Video clips require RealPlayer and Windows 98 or higher.  PHOTO GALLERIES Memorials to the astronauts Images from the mission  ON THE WEB Space shuttle Columbia About the mission (Needs Flash) Space shuttle reference manual Shuttle facts, activities, and history How the space shuttle lands Virtual tour of shuttle Columbia. Background on the Columbia NASA www.nasa.gov Space Shuttle Encyclopedia (unofficial site) www.shuttle.org  THE CHALLENGER DISASTER From the Globe archives: Challenger explodes Profiles of crew members Final words of crew Profile of Christa McAuliffe

Milestones and other notable events in the US history of human space exploration:

-- May 5, 1961: U.S. launches first American, astronaut Alan Shepard Jr., into space, on a 15-minute, 22-second suborbital flight.

-- May 25, 1961: President Kennedy declares the American national space objective to put a man on the moon.

-- Feb. 20, 1962: John Glenn becomes first American to orbit Earth.

-- Jan. 27, 1967: Three U.S. astronauts die when a fire sweeps the Apollo I command module during a ground test at Kennedy Space Center.

-- Dec. 21, 1968: First manned spacecraft to orbit moon, Apollo 8, comes within 70 miles of lunar surface.

-- July 20, 1969: Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin of Apollo XI spend 21.5 hours on the moon, 2.5 of those outside the capsule.

-- Dec. 7-19, 1972: Apollo 17 mission that includes the longest and last stay of man on the moon -- 74 hours, 59 minutes -- by astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmidt.

-- May 14, 1973: Skylab I, first U.S. orbiting laboratory, launched.

-- July 17-19, 1975: U.S. astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts participate in Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, docking together in space for two days.

-- April 12, 1981: Shuttle Columbia becomes first winged spaceship to orbit Earth and return to airport landing.

-- June 18, 1983: Sally Ride becomes first American woman in space.

-- Feb. 7, 1984: Astronaut Bruce McCandless performs man's first untethered spacewalk with a Manned Maneuvering Unit off the Challenger space shuttle.

-- Jan. 28, 1986: Challenger shuttle explodes 73 seconds after launch, killing its crew of seven.

-- March 14, 1995: Norman Thagard becomes first American to be launched on a Russian rocket. Two days later, he becomes first American to visit the Russian space station Mir.

-- June 29, 1995: Atlantis docks with Mir in first shuttle-station hookup.

-- Sept. 26, 1996: Shannon Lucid returns to Earth after 188-day Mir mission, a U.S. space endurance record and a world record for women.

-- Oct. 29, 1998: Glenn, now 77, returns to space aboard shuttle Discovery, becoming the oldest person ever to fly in space.

-- May 29, 1999: Discovery becomes first shuttle to dock with the international space station, a multinational, permanent, orbiting research laboratory.

-- Nov. 2, 2000: An American and Russian crew begins living aboard the international space station.

-- Feb. 1, 2003: Shuttle Columbia breaks apart over Texas, 16 minutes before it was supposed to land in Florida.