NASA mission control harboured grave concerns about Space Shuttle Columbia’s safety – yet the astronauts on board remained oblivious until their final, terrifying moments.

On February 1 2003, the seven-strong crew were preparing for their return journey following a successful 16-day space mission.

They had been notified that a piece of foam insulation had broken away from the external tank, striking the port wing during launch, but were told the damage was negligible.

Ground control believed the heat shield remained fully operational.

This judgement, devastatingly, was wrong. With the shield compromised, the shuttle stood virtually no chance of surviving re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, sealing the fate of all those aboard, reports the Mirror.

The doomed astronauts were commander Rick Husband, pilot Willie McCool, mission specialists Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson, David Brown and Ilan Ramon, Israel‘s first astronaut.

The shuttle’s position meant it was too distant from the International Space Station for rescue, and it lacked the robotic arm necessary to conduct repairs.

Even launching another shuttle would have proved futile – it simply wouldn’t have reached them in time.

Nevertheless, the crew had been assured everything was fine, completely unaware that mere minutes of life remained.

After receiving their 10-minute descent warning, those aboard fully anticipated they would soon be receiving a hero’s reception upon their homecoming.

The doomed crew members put on their suits and protective gloves as the vessel journeyed back towards the United States across the Pacific Ocean, preparing themselves for what they expected would be a routine landing.

Footage from these final, heartbreaking moments shows them appearing remarkably composed as they awaited the end of their remarkable mission, occasionally laughing and engaging in friendly conversation with one another.

At one point, they even admired the ‘amazing’ pink-hued glow they could observe through their cockpit windows.

Their ground-based colleagues could only look on helplessly as abnormal data showed missing temperature readings from the left wing sensors, alongside vanished tyre pressure measurements.

Shortly before 9am EST, Husband contacted Mission Control for the last time, replying ‘Roger’ followed by another incomplete sentence before communication was lost.

A NASA crew survival investigation in 2008 concluded that the astronauts likely survived the spacecraft’s initial break up before understanding the severity of their situation and losing consciousness moments after the cabin lost pressure.

High-altitude exposure and catastrophic impact trauma caused their deaths, the investigation found.

Debris rained down across eastern Texas and western Louisiana in harrowing scenes for those looking upwards from the ground below.

Following an extensive search operation, the remains of all seven crew members were discovered.

One astronaut was found not wearing their pressure suit helmet, while three others had neglected to put on their spacesuit gloves.

However, the investigation did not attribute the spacecraft’s destruction to crew error and concluded that it was an unsurvivable incident.

NASA’s Wayne Hale, who later ascended to the role of space shuttle programme manager, shared the heart-wrenching predicament faced by the team that day on his blog.

He penned: “If it has been damaged it’s probably better not to know. I think the crew would rather not know. Don’t you think it would be better for them to have a happy successful flight and die unexpectedly during entry than to stay in orbit, knowing that there was nothing to be done, until the air ran out?”.

A new three-part documentary, The Space Shuttle That Fell to Earth, delves into the mistakes made by NASA leading to the tragic loss of the crew. The series is available for streaming on BBC iPlayer.