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Chinese students who designed an experiment for US space shuttle Columbia expressed shock on Feb.2 over the breakup of the spacecraft.

Li Taotao, leader of the program from Beijing Jingshan School, simply couldn't believe her ears when she was waken up by her parents and told the news on the early hours of Sunday ( Feb.2).

"This is utterly out of my imagination. I'm saddened," she told Xinhua.

However, she said the tragedy would not shake her confidence in space experiments. "I will work even harder and be more actively involved in space experiments programs."

Two other members of the program, Zhao Chen and Yu Mengyang, both grade 10 students at the school, were also shocked and regretted the accident.

Zhao said he was anxiously looking forward to the successful landing of the shuttle.

Chen Maozhang, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, expressed deep regret over the tragic incident.

He told Xinhua that there might be four possible reasons for the tragedy: damage of the heat insulation device upon entry into the atmosphere; excessive shock from the atmosphere; ill positioning when entering the atmosphere and the collision with space debris.

Chen said, however, such a tragedy would not shake mankind's ambition in exploring the space. Mankind's endeavor to explore the space is a great cause during which setbacks are inevitable, he said.

"But mankind will not give up the dream of exploring the universe. Facing the setbacks, we need to find out the cause of the accident and make improvements."

US space shuttle Columbia broke apart into flames as it streaked over Texas toward its landing strip at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb.1, killing all seven astronauts on board -- six Americans and one Israeli. Four of the astronauts were on their first shuttle flight.