Columbia's terrible fate throws Nasa's entire space programme into doubt

The Columbia shuttle mission, STS-107, took more than 80 experiments up to the International Space Station (ISS), each intended to use the low-gravity conditions on the orbiting platform "as a funda- mental, versatile tool to gain insights in space and improve life on Earth as well as enable future space exploration".

The 16-day mission was a mixture of commercially sponsored and academic research into space, life and physical sciences. This included researching how bacteria grow in space; developing drugs to fight cancer; examining changes to the body during space flight; and looking at ways of putting out fires.

It went well. But now the ISS's entire rationale, as an outpost of Earth in space, which was always shaky because of its huge costs – about £66bn over 10 years – looks more fragile than ever.

If, as expected, Nasa grounds its shuttle fleet to examine them and its own management procedures, then the astronauts aboard the orbiting station (which has had a permanent crew since October 2000) will have to rely on Russian-launched rockets for replenishment.

While the Russians have plenty of experience, their ropy finances mean that foreign astronauts will be wary. They always preferred to fly American, given the choice. But it could take a while before they get the option. After the 1986 Challenger disaster, it was nearly three years before the next shuttle mission.

Nasa has anyway been dithering over the idea of crewed travel to other planets, notably Mars. The whole idea of space travel has come into question: why do it when it is hugely expensive, carries huge risks and doesn't seem to bring many benefits? Especially when it can be done by robots or photographed in beautiful detail by the Hubble space telescope?

There will certainly now be another mammoth upheaval inside Nasa, similar to that which followed Challenger, when in the 12 months after the accident almost every top manager was replaced or moved on. For Nasa is still capable of gross errors: in October 1999 the £78m Mars Orbiter spacecraft burned up in that planet's atmosphere after travelling 670 million km, or 416 million miles. The reason? Lockheed Martin, the contractor which provided the data for its control thrusters, gave imperial units – but Nasa assumed they were metric.

No one should forget that this organisation did, after all, land a man on the Moon. Nor had it ever before lost anyone on a return mission to Earth.

But this upheaval is unlikely to lead to an organisation that is braver, more sure of itself, readier to take on breathtaking missions. Those who believe that mankind should be making a bolder step into space are unlikely to thrill to what is to come.