Neil Armstrong’s spacecraft floated evenly in the sky near Houston, Texas. The craft, called the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV), looked something like a big cricket flying over the land. Mr. Armstrong was practicing his moon landing skills. The LLRV was famously hard to fly. Some have compared it to balancing a dinner plate on a broomstick! Suddenly, one of the craft’s thrusters failed. The LLRV blew up in midair! Mr. Armstrong was going down.

Mr. Armstrong pulled a ring. That threw him out of the craft. His parachute opened. He sank to the ground. He bit his tongue hard on the way down. Mr. Armstrong could have died. But an hour later, he was sitting at his desk. He wanted to try flying the craft again. A year later, in 1969, he was landing on the actual moon.

Space is very dangerous to humans. But in many cases, spacecraft are dangerous too. On February 1, 2003, the Columbia space shuttle was returning to Earth. No one knew that a hole had appeared in the shuttle’s wing. Unlike Mr. Armstrong, the astronauts did not escape. Because of the hole, the shuttle didn’t survive the hot trip back into Earth’s atmosphere.

After the accident, scientists thought hard. What had gone wrong? How could they give astronauts more protection? They designed new seats that fit the human body better. That way, astronauts would have more cushion in a crash. New seatbelts were added too. Scientists even redesigned the spacesuit. The Columbia crash happened fast. The astronauts didn’t have time to pressurize their suits. The new suits pressurize by themselves.

No one knows whether the new changes would have prevented the accident. But everyone wants astronauts to escape danger. Can you think of other ways to make space shuttles safer?