On the morning of February 1st, 2003 I was surprised to hear my wife yell from the other room that she'd just read an email that said the space shuttle had blown up on reentry. I was skeptical at first, but turned on the news to see what had happened. I was shocked and saddened to learn that it true indeed. The shuttle had blown up.
This was a sad day indeed. I watched the news on and off during the day to see if anything new happened, but there was nothing substantial. I noticed the reporters doing their normal "chit-chat" about the disaster, which always means they have no information of any value, but believe they must talk or inform us or something. I watched the Bush address, which was not bad for a speech that had been put together on such short notice.
NASA Television reported Saturday morning that communications were lost with Shuttle Columbia at approximately 8 a.m. EST over north-central Texas. Columbia was at approximately 200,000 feet altitude. Debris has been sighted in north central Texas. Search and rescue has been dispatched in Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The STS-107 Crew (from left to right): Mission Specialist David M. Brown, Mission Commander Rick D. Husband, Mission Specialist Laurel Blair Salton Clark, Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla, Payload Commander Michael P. Anderson, Mission Pilot William C. McCool, and Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon (Photo by Rick Stiles 2003)
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Unless otherwise noted, all photos and text is Copyright © Richard G Lowe, Jr.