Space Shuttle Columbia

[camoclad]

Youth conference. Accepted Christ there. The 2000s have been wild....so far

[kry226]

I was in Nac at SFA then. Debris covered the campus and I had a buddy whose land was covered as well. I've held one of Columbia's tiles in my hand. Like Steve said, the next few months were ridiculous! But I was also proud of the team and leadership on display in Nac. They represented us well.

Cannot believe it has been 10 years.

[SJP51]

More like 20-years ago. But anyway..... I was out south of Quanna on a hog hunt when it happened. Didn't know what I'd heard for several days after that.

As I recall, those tiles came off and people died because NASA switched to a more "environmentally friendly" adhesive.

[Hogmauler]

Sad day for sure. We were in college station and I think we were watching the reentry on T v when it broke up.

[cva34]

My lease on Angelina river just 5m from Douglas had Lots of stuff scattered all over..I was not there at time..was at home...They flagged stuff all over...most picked up...by them...we found stuff missed years later...

[stickerpatch59]

i was in Florida when it lifted off and got pictures of it.

i was on the hiway in Texas when it made its re-entry and exploded, got pics of it also.

sad, sad day for sure.

[Buckshot-73]

More like 20-years ago. But anyway..... I was out south of Quanna on a hog hunt when it happened. Didn't know what I'd heard for several days after that.

As I recall, those tiles came off and people died because NASA switched to a more "environmentally friendly" adhesive.

Your recollection is wrong. A large chunk of ice broke off the booster, punched through the tiles on the leading edge of the wing.



I was on the Fire department at that time, several weeks later we got a call to recover a tile, it was located between Burleson and Joshua. Had to document location and deliver to Joshua FD. I was skeptical at first, but the numbers on the tile proved me wrong. Still can’t believe it travelled that far from the scene.

I was shocked, as big a piece as it was, how light it was.

[Froggy]

I was working for the Forest Service and was assigned to FEMA. I spent 6 weeks flying back seat in a Bell 206 L Model helicopter grid searching over East Texas. We were based out of the airport in Lufkin. We found some debris.

I spent three more weeks marking drop spots for fire crews from all over the U.S. who were doing ground searches.

One of my co-workers was leading a team of DPS troopers who found one of the Astronauts. He said they immediately pulled back an a FBI forensics team was sent in. Very somber and respectful.

[Huntingfool]

was in my Polaris ATV that morning on a ranch we owned near Lampasas. Beautiful morning as I was driving around. I hear something loud and stop and look up into the sky - it looked like a massive shooting star with streaks of fire like a sparkler kids light on the 4th.

So I head back to our house and go inside and tell my wife what I saw - had no idea until they came on TV talking about the event - I will never forget that day

pieces of it were found all around Central Texas as I recall

[kry226]

I was in Nac at SFA then. Debris covered the campus and I had a buddy whose land was covered as well. I've held one of Columbia's tiles in my hand. Like Steve said, the next few months were ridiculous! But I was also proud of the team and leadership on display in Nac. They represented us well.

Cannot believe it has been 10 years.

More like 20-years ago. But anyway..... I was out south of Quanna on a hog hunt when it happened. Didn't know what I'd heard for several days after that.

As I recall, those tiles came off and people died because NASA switched to a more "environmentally friendly" adhesive.

Yup, I fat-fingered the keyboard... 20 years.

Your recollection is wrong. A large chunk of ice broke off the booster, punched through the tiles on the leading edge of the wing.



I was on the Fire department at that time, several weeks later we got a call to recover a tile, it was located between Burleson and Joshua. Had to document location and deliver to Joshua FD. I was skeptical at first, but the numbers on the tile proved me wrong. Still can’t believe it travelled that far from the scene.

I was shocked, as big a piece as it was, how light it was.

I believe it was actually a chunk of foam that broke off the main external fuel tank that hit the left wing, impeaching the integrity of the leading edge heat tiles.