Columbia: The Tragic Loss

Lending a strong human dimension to the disaster that befell the space shuttle Columbia as it attempted to land following a 16-day mission in 2003, Naftaly Gliksberg's Israeli documentary Columbia: The Tragic Loss draws on the words of Israel's first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, whose reconstructed journal entries are combined with archival footage, personal letters, and broadcasts from the shuttle to provide a chronological account of the doomed mission. But the program also goes further, including observations from some involved with mission control who allege that NASA did not take seriously enough evidence of damage to the spacecraft during takeoff, and so failed to thoroughly investigate the problem, or prepare a rescue plan. Special focus is placed on Ramon's family—his father, brother, wife, and two sons—some of whom are seen on Israeli television awaiting Columbia's landing, and interviews with them (particularly the two boys) are deeply poignant; juxtaposed with the real-time footage of NASA controllers losing contact with the shuttle, these scenes can't help but have powerful emotional impact. Recorded on video, Columbia: The Tragic Loss is technically ordinary, but it puts a real human face on the tragedy. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)