20 years ago STS 107
- Thread starter USMCmech
- Start date
Cherokee_Cruiser
Bronteroc
I remember waking up in my dorm freshman yr college, opening up my Dell Laptop (in those Dude you're getting a Dell days) and seeing on CNN.com in big bold black letters: COLUMBIA IS LOST.
Sad day
And yesterday was a certain airline's MadDog accident, 23 yrs ago.
Sad day
And yesterday was a certain airline's MadDog accident, 23 yrs ago.
I was in CAP and preparing for an instrument XC for a checkout. Somebody came out to the ramp and said Columbia was overdue. "Overdue" isn't a word with NASA - a reentering vehicle is either on time or it's gone. We packed extra gear in case we were dispatched to aid in the search, then took off for our first airport KTUL. We walked into the FBO which was showing radar loops of TX & LA, and you could see the debris trails. It was horrible.
Murdoughnut
Well sized member
I was in my first year of graduate school - woke up that morning to watch cartoons and the ominous CBS "This is a special news report" message came on the screen. Called my mom in Dallas and she mentioned hearing what she thought was thunder while laying in bed, which she thought was strange since it wasn't supposed to storm that day.
Rick Husband was a Texas Tech grad and Willie McCool graduated high school just down the street in Lubbock. Their loss hit west Texas (where I had just moved from) particularly hard.
Rick Husband was a Texas Tech grad and Willie McCool graduated high school just down the street in Lubbock. Their loss hit west Texas (where I had just moved from) particularly hard.
Cherokee_Cruiser
Bronteroc
Good documentary, some of the actual people involved are in here:
Still don't get Linda Ham's insistence to not have external pics taken. It would have been easy - an available option to them. Though I see the point that there probably wasn't much that could have been done, but hypothetically the Atlantis could have launched with a min 4 crew and then done a space walk with Columbia and rescued them - in theory.
Still don't get Linda Ham's insistence to not have external pics taken. It would have been easy - an available option to them. Though I see the point that there probably wasn't much that could have been done, but hypothetically the Atlantis could have launched with a min 4 crew and then done a space walk with Columbia and rescued them - in theory.
CFIT99
I'm probably commenting ironically...
I was a freshman in college, in the dorms they had a NASA channel that was a continuous live feed of the control room. (Probably because it was such a huge engineering school at U of Illinois)
It took some time before it changed to a different feed but it did show some chaos for about 2 min before the feed was cut.
Also I remember them finding random pieces of shuttle in dried lake beds during the Texas drought of 2011. Days
It took some time before it changed to a different feed but it did show some chaos for about 2 min before the feed was cut.
Also I remember them finding random pieces of shuttle in dried lake beds during the Texas drought of 2011. Days
Roger Roger
Bottom of the list
Memory is weird. I thought that happened while I was at letourneau, but it was actually a year and a half before I started there.
turbojet28
Well-Known Member
Remember that day well. I was a sophomore in high school. Pretty sure it was a Saturday and I remember going to a varsity basketball game and them having a moment of silence for the crew.
USMCmech
Well-Known Member
I'm reading about the recovery operation right now and it was a big deal in East Texas so there were probably lots of people around who had been involved.
USMCmech
Well-Known Member
I also remember this day for a different reason, Feb 1st 2003 was the day that my wife was waiting for her message to find out if/where she had been admitted to medical school. We had been waiting with anticipation clicking on my old dial up AOL account to see if she had made it. At exactly 0600 the website refreshed and we saw that she had been admitted to the Medical School at San Antonio.
Of course the Columbia disaster overshadowed and tempered our joy quite a bit.
Of course the Columbia disaster overshadowed and tempered our joy quite a bit.
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Wardogg
Meat Popsicle
Freshly home from my second deployment after 9/11. On leave at my parents house. Lots of similar feelings from when we had all watched the Challenger disaster so many years before. Terrible day.
DeltaAlphaNovember
Well-Known Member
I'd love to read that book. If you don't mind me asking, where did you buy it?
Wrong on many fronts, but this is a day to reflect positively vice bringing up any hypotheticals.
I was on a console at the MCC as I usually was during the 107 Mission. I say again. . ."on a console" at the MCC. Recognized immediately when things were going "off nominal."
Rick and I had a favorite moment together watching our kids together at the local Chuck E. Cheese <my kids were scared to death of Chuck <the mouse not the doll>. KC would "check me" accurately on any aspect of nominal ops from liftoff to landing. She was awesome. She was MY astronaut version of E.F. Hutton. Laurel would always press me to get my private pilot certificate. I did. . .two years after her loss.
The crew was not a "crew" to me. They were much more. They were family probably longer than any other assigned mission.
Love ya - STS-107 family!
///AMG
Well-Known Member
Strange memory. I was a junior in college/university, and I remember I had been at some house party late, still remember the girl's name that spent most of the late night/early hours with. Among other things, I told her that I planned to fly the shuttle. I'm fairly certain Columbia was clearing the west coast right around that time, and probably already starting to come apart from the inside. Cliffs.....we didn't date for long, and I certainly never flew the shuttle. Horrible day
I'm probably going to give away way too much personal info on this one, but screw it.
My dad flew 2 missions on the Shuttle. For one of them, Rick was our designated family escort throughout the launch and the days leading up to it. I was still pretty young but I remember him clearly. He was always a figure of comfort and support for my mom and I during what could often be hectic days filled with PR events and entertaining our guests that had come from all corners of the world. They pick astronauts to escort families throughout their launch experience based on their personal skills and Rick Husband definitely had all the right attributes to be a rockstar at that job.
By 2003 my dad had recently retired from active status and we had moved back home. That afternoon (it was afternoon where I was living at the time) I was just coming home from school like any other day, oblivious to anything, and opened the door to find my mom crying a river. Confused at first, my eyes quickly moved up to the TV with the news channel on showing the trail of debris and the headline that Columbia was lost. Then she told me Rick Husband was the Captain. It's one of those moments that even 20 years later feels like it just happened yesrerday.
Godspeed to the STS-107 crew who made the ultimate sacrifice in the pursuit of space exploration and furthering our scientific knowledge. I hope the lessons learned will not be forgotten in the future
My dad flew 2 missions on the Shuttle. For one of them, Rick was our designated family escort throughout the launch and the days leading up to it. I was still pretty young but I remember him clearly. He was always a figure of comfort and support for my mom and I during what could often be hectic days filled with PR events and entertaining our guests that had come from all corners of the world. They pick astronauts to escort families throughout their launch experience based on their personal skills and Rick Husband definitely had all the right attributes to be a rockstar at that job.
By 2003 my dad had recently retired from active status and we had moved back home. That afternoon (it was afternoon where I was living at the time) I was just coming home from school like any other day, oblivious to anything, and opened the door to find my mom crying a river. Confused at first, my eyes quickly moved up to the TV with the news channel on showing the trail of debris and the headline that Columbia was lost. Then she told me Rick Husband was the Captain. It's one of those moments that even 20 years later feels like it just happened yesrerday.
Godspeed to the STS-107 crew who made the ultimate sacrifice in the pursuit of space exploration and furthering our scientific knowledge. I hope the lessons learned will not be forgotten in the future
knot4u
Repeat Offender
I remember. I worked for a company that loved to start early and my morning commute was always at least a couple hours before dawn. I was vaguely aware of that mission returning and I remember seeing some odd things in the sky on the way in to work. I heard the explanation a few hours later.
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