The catastrophic explosion was tragic, but not a total surprise because, as Hart put it, "it's just hazardous to fly a spacecraft in orbit." NASA went on to suffer another deadly setback with the space shuttle Columbia in 2003. But on his week-long mission to space, the first set of seals failed, although fortunately, the hot gases were contained by the second set. "None of this was known to the astronaut office at the time, but it came out during the failure investigation." Following his mission, Hart returned to work at Bell Laboratories, where he began his career in 1968, and continued to fly with the New Jersey Guard when the Challenger exploded.