蜜芽传媒

On 1 February 2003 the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas and Louisiana as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven crew members.

Dr Jonathan Clark's wife Laurel was on board the shuttle and he knew several days earlier that there was a serious problem on board.

He is now an associate professor at the Center for Space Medicine in Houston, Texas, and focuses on the neurological effects of extreme environments and crew survival in space.

He was medical director of the Red Bull Stratos project which saw Felix Baumgartner jump to earth from a height of 24 miles.

Dr Clark says there's no way that tragedies such as the Columbia disaster should be allowed to stop space exploration: "To say we shouldn't do this any more is ludicrous. Why would we want to stop doing something that pushes the frontier of human experience?"

This clip is from 5 live Daily on 5 February 2015.