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It was a clear morning. The shuttle was supposed to be visible as it flew overhead. I got up early in hopes to see it. I was standing on my balcony with the TV on as they had news crews set up throughout Dallas to report on it passing by. I heard the huge boom. It was a sad day. By 9am Mission Control had lost contact - those in Dallas and East Texas knew something went horribly wrong.

Space shuttle Columbia had disintegrated reentering the Earth’s atmosphere. It's debris hit from south of Dallas into East Texas.

Today in Hemphill Texas, a new 3400SF Museum commemorates Columbia.

http://dallasrealestate.citybizlist.com ... uttle.aspx

http://jacksonvilleprogress.com/local/x ... a-disaster

Another day I will never forget where I was.

At work as usual. Such a tragic event.

Sail on Rick, William, David, Kalpana, Michael, Laurel, Ilan

It was a Saturday and I was at the blood center making my monthly platelet donation. They had it on the TV in the waiting area. When I was done I stayed a little longer than I normally would have so I could watch the coverage.

I'll never forget that Saturday

A sad remembrance, but one never forgotten...

I was getting ready to move to DC.

I was just about to leave to make the three hour drive to Atlanta because a certain singer that we all know and love was playing a concert there that night. As I was packing, my grandmother called to tell me to turn on the TV. I couldn't believe it. With a heavy heart, I took off for Atlanta. Jimmy came out before the show and announced that the show was dedicated to those who were killed, which I thought was very classy.

Y'know, when you look back over NASA history, one would begin to think that this particular 6-day stretch is jinxed. Of the 24 American astronauts who have died while in service, a total of seventeen were lost in accidents that occurred during the last days of January or the first day of February.

Jan 27, 1967 — the Apollo 1 fire on the pad, killing Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee.
Jan 28, 1986 — the Challenger disaster, killing Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, and Judith Resnik.
Feb 1, 2003 — the breakup upon re-entry of Columbia, resulting in the loss of another seven astronauts (Rick Husband, Willie McCool, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Mike Anderson, David Brown, and Ilan Ramon).

You could hardly blame them if, in the future, NASA would just shut down for the week.

Of the remaining seven, six died in military aircraft crashes while on active duty. Theodore Freeman died October 31 1964 when his T-38 jet crashed as the result of a birdstrike; Charles Bassett and Elliott See died on 2/28/1966 in the crash of their two-seater T-38 jet while enroute to a training session in St. Louis; and Clifton Williams died in the crash of yet another T-38 on October 5 1967. Michael Adams died in the crash of the famed X-15 rocket-plane on November 15 1967, a crash which, with the loss of the aircraft, also brought an end the X-15 program itself; and Robert Lawrence lost his life in the crash of an F-104 Starfighter on December 8, 1967.

Manley "Sonny" Carter died in the crash of a commercial airline on April 5, 1991 — a crash that also took the life of former Senator John Tower of Texas.

-"BB"-