On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia crashed from the sky. Thousands of people watched as debris scattered from California to western Louisiana. Hundreds caught the event on videotape. Rarely has a tragic moment of such importance been documented from so many different points of view, in real time and largely by amateurs. Miles Above stitches these pieces together, using first-hand video to present Columbia’s final moments, from its reentry into the atmosphere to its destruction minutes before landing. The film takes us from witnesses’ back yards to the NASA control room and aboard the shuttle itself, where video shot by the astronauts survived the crash.

The film asks the simple questions: why do we explore, and what do we hope to find, all the while preserving the earthbound sense of wonder of those of us who must ponder from the ground. At a time when the the idea of manned space exploration is in question, _Miles Above_ warns us what could be lost if we stop searching our frontiers.