NASA, Texas towns mark Columbia disaster

It started as a dot - a bright, white star that raced across the Southwest.
Over Texas, the dot became a streak that thickened, then spawned smaller streaks - "little sparklies," Linda Steed recalled.

Then came the sound - "a big, rolling boom," she said. "The dog started barking like crazy."

A decade ago, 200,000 feet above Steed's driveway in Nacogdoches, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart on re-entry. All seven astronauts aboard died.

FULL STORY

Post by: CNN's Matt Smith and John Zarrella
Filed under: In Space

soundoff (4 Responses)

j

I remember that Day vividly. The sky was a morning blue with an enormous contrail. It was tapered towards Texas. A man standing next to me just informed me about the shuttle breaking up while landing. I said, "Aren't we looking at it?" as we were looking up at the sky while standing in a parking lot in California.

The other contrail I mentioned in my comments I saw years later while waking up

February 1, 2013 at 9:13 pm |
- j was censored on CNN, multiple comments never posted par let's golf
  
  Both of the contrails cast a shadow deep into the clear cloudless morning blue skies...
  
  Let's imortalize our unkown astronaut heroes; The Tomb of the Unknown Space Explorer. What do you think?
  
  February 4, 2013 at 9:45 pm |
Matthew Black

"J" – Please take your bizzare ramblings elsewhere on this sad day.

February 1, 2013 at 5:20 pm |
j

Disaster or cover-up?

Why is NASA being funded after abandoning and continuing to abandon t scientific method for human space exploration? Any mice hungry for gre cheese? What about astronouts stuck 200 miles up in the ISS; Our atmosphe goes out 100,000 miles out above sea level. We send probes everywhere; N mice, canines nor anything that confirms we are using the scientific method colonise outer space. We never landed on the moon with people, pets nor ev a mouse that might like green cheese. Research Layka, Luna 24 and why the I is only ~200 miles above sea level, while Earth's atmosphere extends for 100,0 miles above the sea. Cold war propaganda had a reason then; What about today?

February 1, 2013 at 1:41 pm |