There are things that happened on this mission that the press really latched on to: the gap filler sticking out, the fact that we had great video of the belly of the shuttle and saw the little pieces flying off.

NPR: Former Astronaut on NASA Risk Assessment

The official said that while the president was receiving his usual intelligence briefing, Card was watching NASA Television, awaiting the shuttle landing, when he saw that NASA had lost contact with Columbia.

CNN: Bush: 'Our entire nation grieves' for astronauts

An eventful Tuesday saw Nasa order the shuttle back to its hangar to protect it from an approaching storm and then reverse the decision just hours later.

BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Atlantis is locked down for storm

The event saw two Eurostar trains and a Hitachi Bullet Train, which will shuttle spectators to and from the 2012 Olympic Park, arriving at St Pancras.

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