Twenty years ago, one of the greatest disasters in space exploration history unfolded in the sky above Texas.
On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia was making its way back home after a 16-day mission.
Locals knew to look out for its contrails as it headed towards the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
But soon after the bright streak of the shuttle was spotted, hope turned to dismay.
As it entered Earth's atmosphere, the craft disintegrated.
A small hole in one of the wings sent superheated atmospheric gases flooding into the shuttle interior, vaporising the craft and killing all seven astronauts onboard.
Meanwhile, halfway around the world in Melbourne, 16-year-old Greg Carstairs was unaware that a research project he and his classmates had worked on for more than three years had also come to a tragic end.
"I think most of us were probably asleep. I had friends in America that called my house to let me know what was going on," Mr Carstairs recalls two decades on.
As part of a global outreach initiative, private company SpaceHab had engaged Glen Waverley Secondary College in Melbourne to design and build an experiment for Columbia.
A select group of students decided on an experiment that would send eight Australian garden orb weaver spiders (Hortophora transmarina) into orbit where the astronauts would observe if and how spiders build webs in microgravity.
Bronwyn Pratt was one of the school teachers who helped get the "Spiders in Space" project off the ground.
"For the kids, it was an amazing time, for the staff, it was an amazing time, for the school, it was an amazing time," Ms Pratt says.
Students prepare for space mission
Columbia's final mission (named STS-107) was originally scheduled to launch in December 2000, but was delayed until January 2003.
So what started as a six-month activity for the Glen Waverley students turned into a three-year commitment for the dedicated few who volunteered their lunchtimes and afternoons.
During this time, they worked with zoologists, engineers, and astronomers to learn about everything from animal husbandry to astrophysics.
Aerospace engineer Lachlan Thompson from RMIT University taught the group about the complexities of space travel.
"We talked about how risky space was," Dr Thompson says.
"We did the Apollo 13 mission movie night with the kids to show them that things could go wrong.
"But that, of course, is a feel-good, happily-ever-after type of film."
The team of students and mentors flew to Florida to ready the spiders for their journey.
Triumphantly, they watched Columbia lift off, then returned home to Australia.
The mission, until the landing flight, was a resounding success.
Ilan Ramon, the mission's payload specialist, and the first Israeli astronaut in history, looked after the Australian spiders, and collected samples of space-spun silk.
"[Ilan Ramon] was a character. You couldn't help but have affection for him," Dr Thompson says.
"He was interviewed on Israeli state TV while he was up on the mission. He was supposed to be talking about this crystal growth experiment that he was doing for one of the Israeli universities, but all he could talk about was spiders."
Sending spiders into space
There have been several attempts to study spiders in space. The first was in 1979 when two orb-weaving spiders were sent to live aboard Skylab, NASA's first space station.
The most recent was in 2011, when two jumping spiders were sent to the International Space Station.
Each of these projects was designed as an educational initiative, where the appeal of spiders engages children and schools with real space exploration.
Early missions struggled to keep spiders alive in space.
The Glen Waverley students designed and prototyped new enclosures and feeding methods, making this the most successful attempt at studying spiders in space so far.
But the tragic accident was also a harsh lesson in the risks of space travel.
Despite its sad ending, the Spiders in Space project had a lasting impact on its young Australian contributors.
"It was quite unbelievable and as you get older you realise how lucky you were to be involved in such an amazing opportunity," says Mr Carstairs, who is now a human performance scientist for the Defence Science and Technology Group.
"To this day, my best mates are people that were on that project."
Their shared experience has kept the project's team together and their teacher Ms Pratt, now retired, still keeps in touch with her students.
"We've got a robotics expert, we've got a physical therapist, we've got a doctor. They've all gone on to do amazing things," she says.
"The kids haven't forgotten. It's a moment in their life that they'll never forget. I'll never forget."
