A morning in February 2003

[TexPx 2323]

About this time 20 years ago I was sitting in my home office checking HornFans.

 

The house shook and the dogs started barking. I heard a muted “boom” as I walked out the front door. I looked up northeast and saw it streaking toward the southeast. In pieces.

 

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/space-shuttle-columbia-disaster-20-years-later/287-ac346e6f-3c5d-4352-9f6e-14a807f589e9

[Kennythetiger 9413]

Man. I don’t remember this at all but I remember the Challenger like it was yesterday. First time I saw my mom cry. We watched the news in our basement. 

[Scheiss Meister 8408]

I turned on the news, totally unaware of what had happened, just as they started reporting on it.  Some folks in my neighborhood heard it, but I didn't.  It upset me terribly that we lost another shuttle like that.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21913]

11 minutes ago, Kennythetiger said:

Man. I don’t remember this at all but I remember the Challenger like it was yesterday. First time I saw my mom cry. We watched the news in our basement. 

I remember the Challenger much better as well.  I was living in Manhattan at the time and still have this 

 

[TexPx 2323]

Man. I don’t remember this at all but I remember the Challenger like it was yesterday. First time I saw my mom cry. We watched the news in our basement. 

Surprised a lot Texans don’t remember this. 7 astronauts killed and debris and body parts scattered all over East Texas. Sticks with me because I heard it, felt it and saw it.

Of course Challenger was a take off carried live on all major networks. Also wasn’t it the first time a civilian went up? Columbia was caught live on some local D/FW stations. The recovery process for Columbia was also reported on and went on for a long time.

[Jerry Callo 8709]

I was in my attic installing flooring when I heard about Columbia on the radio.

I was watching the TV a school when Challenger exploded.

[CHIEF 5094]

1 minute ago, Jerry Callo said:

I was in my attic installing flooring when I heard about Columbia on the radio.

I was watching the TV a school when Challenger exploded.

I was surfing Hornfans in my underwear, at our house in Cedar Park, and heard the explosion from the Columbia.

Watched the Challenger explode on TV in Government class in high school.

So pretty much the same as JC.

CHIEF

[Wally Pryor 5261]

20 years? Damn, ugh. 

 

[TornACL 7722]

Didn't some people get in trouble for listing some of the Shuttle fragments up for sale on Ebay? I seem to remember that.

[deadshank 24653]

I recall pulling up to my warehouse to get some work done on that morning when the story broke.  I looked to the effortlessly calm and perfect blue bird sky and wondered what those astronauts went through the moment they knew something was horribly wrong. 

Indescribable. Unspeakable. Impossible.

 

[South Austin 52523]

It was early morning and I was walking in West End Dallas to a trial office my law firm had set up for an upcoming jury trial.  I remember it being a beautifully crisp and cool morning, and I looked up to the blue sky and saw a bright speck of light streaking east.  A couple hours later I learned what that was. 

My ex wife's uncle was the Nacogdoches Fire Chief at the time and he was one of the initial first responders to the scene.

Edited February 1, 2023 by South Austin

[mchookem 16342]

a couple pieces ended up in my dad's front pasture near Palestine. they were recovered by helicopter, it landed in his field and a crew piled out. it was absolutely wild.

[Trey3216 15350]

I was at my folks house in Garland and had to drive back to Waco that afternoon.   Heard the noise and ran outside not knowing what it was.  Watched footage and news all morning.  Drove by a field not far from Hillsboro on my way back south and saw some stuff I had t noticed before.  Called the police to come help look to make sure since I know NASA would want every piece of it they could procure for analysis purposes.  Turned out not to be anything (it was some sheet metal that was spray painted black that had blown off a barn during some storms a week or two prior).    But I remember just being sick to my stomach for the astronauts, their families, and the space industry as a whole.  We really didn’t do shit on that end for almost 15 years as a result.  

[TexPx 2323]

a couple pieces ended up in my dad's front pasture near Palestine. they were recovered by helicopter, it landed in his field and a crew piled out. it was absolutely wild.

May 27th a Bell 407 working on the recovery crashed in the Angelina National Forest. Two of the crew died.

[TexPx 2323]

I recall pulling up to my warehouse to get some work done on that morning when the story broke.  I looked to the effortlessly calm and perfect blue bird sky and wondered what those astronauts went through the moment they knew something was horribly wrong. 
Indescribable. Unspeakable. Impossible.
 

Timeline transcript between Mission Control and Columbia.

https://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/timeline/

[Elvis 3371]

I was a recent ASE grad when Columbia exploded.  I never really studied it beyond the understanding that foam struck the wing at liftoff, which damaged the wing heat shield.  I looked up some articles today and there is a lot of information out there.  One of the headlines really got me thinking.  It stated that NASA knew the shuttle was damaged, and that it would break-up on re-entry.  However they chose not to inform the crew.  I was skeptical this could be true.  I still don't know the answer exactly, but I found an amazing read about the full work-up for a rescue mission.

 

This is an amazing read.

[speed817 19403]

I was living in North Campus when this happened in my 4th year.  I remember being woken up by something in the morning but went back to bed.  Was probably hungover or still high from the night before.  Eventually I woke up and went to ENS and that's when I found out what happened.

[Celery Man 20981]

I was a junior in high school on my way with some of my buddies to my first “professional” recording studio, which in retrospect was just some guy with a room full of fancy gear. Heard about it in the Wendy’s drive through and then recorded a few mostly regrettable songs we called “Demolicious”.

[AUS-97HORN 11812]

6 hours ago, TexPx said:

Surprised a lot Texans don’t remember this. 7 astronauts killed and debris and body parts scattered all over East Texas. Sticks with me because I heard it, felt it and saw it.

Of course Challenger was a take off carried live on all major networks. Also wasn’t it the first time a civilian went up? Columbia was caught live on some local D/FW stations. The recovery process for Columbia was also reported on and went on for a long time.

Actually minor correction

 

The ONLY network to carry that  Challenger launch live was CNN.  It wasn't considered a news story

 

Until it was a news story.

 

And then all the OTA channels used CNN's footage ad nauseum for the next 2 days

Edited February 1, 2023 by AUS-97HORN

[TexPx 2323]

Actually minor correction
 
The ONLY network to carry that  Challenger launch live was CNN.  It wasn't considered a news story
 
Until it was a news story.
 
And then all the OTA channels used CNN's footage ad nauseum for the next 2 days

Thanks. Should have said live national coverage.

[atomheartbevo 89762]

9 hours ago, TexPx said:

Surprised a lot Texans don’t remember this. 7 astronauts killed and debris and body parts scattered all over East Texas. Sticks with me because I heard it, felt it and saw it.

I remember it when it happened - we were all kind of shocked at work, and then a few hours later, one of my good friends/co-workers got a phone call from his dad and came back and said parts of it had come across their family farm in East Texas.  It was a holy fuck moment.

9 hours ago, Jerry Callo said:

I was in my attic installing flooring when I heard about Columbia on the radio.

I was watching the TV a school when Challenger exploded.

Yep, I was watching it with a shitload of other kids, and when it blew up, we continued watching not quite realizing what had happened - the teachers didn't realize what had happened until it was too late, and once they did, they pushed us out of the classrooms and into the gym, cafeteria, study hall, etc., and just had us talking to each other, etc.  Bunch of parents actually came up to the school and got their kids.  We all knew before school let out that they were dead, and that we had watched it.

80s kids JFK moment or something.

[Wally Pryor 5261]

3 hours ago, Elvis said:

I was a recent ASE grad when Columbia exploded.  I never really studied it beyond the understanding that foam struck the wing at liftoff, which damaged the wing heat shield.  I looked up some articles today and there is a lot of information out there.  One of the headlines really got me thinking.  It stated that NASA knew the shuttle was damaged, and that it would break-up on re-entry.  However they chose not to inform the crew.  I was skeptical this could be true.  I still don't know the answer exactly, but I found an amazing read about the full work-up for a rescue mission.

 

This is an amazing read.

Great read, thanks.

[NorthLoop 14219]

There were some pieces on my dad's property outside of Kilgore. Nothing of note but it was surreal to think about.  He said he heard the boom but thought nothing of it. 

[ClubWhatever 12154]

Both sets of astronauts were killed by management incompetence.  These were known safety issues that were allowed to fly again and again until they came up snake eyes.  The rationale in both cases was essentially:  yeah, we know the vehicle is not performing properly, but it’s really inconvenient to fix and we haven’t killed anyone yet, so let’s fly again.  

[InkaUtexas 26022]

Hard to imagine what was going through flight ops. 

 

[HeHateMe 887]

Was in elementary school and they walked us out to see the Challenger launch.  Yes, I grew up in Florida.  Disaster and they couldn’t have ushered us back inside faster.  A lot to process for a kid in kindergarten, but I’ll never forget the sight. 

[RPM 26329]

I was a DJ on air when Challenger blew up on live TV. I broke in with the news then hit the next song in the playlist. It was Billy Joe Royal - Burned Like a Rocket. That got dumped pretty quickly.

Watched the Columbia break up on TV when it happened. Both were preventable, but for NASA hubris.