The morning of February 1, 2003 is a day many West Texans remember all too well.
The space shuttle Columbia broke apart in the skies over Lubbock. Just north of Littlefield was the furthest west that debris was found. The debris field stretched all across Texas and into Louisiana.
The cabin decompressed over Interstate 27 about halfway between Lubbock and Plainview. An official government report said the decompression was lethal, and all crew members were lost.
They included Texas Tech graduate Rick Husband of Amarillo, commander, and William McCool of Lubbock, pilot.
The other crew members were Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Ilan Ramon, David Brown, Michael Anderson.
In the small town of Hemphill, a museum is dedicated to the memory of the shuttle including items from every Columbia mission – beginning with its first launch in 1981.
Though most of the pieces of shuttle debris were found in 2003, the most recent significant debris find was in July 2011. Most of East and Southeast Texas was suffering from a drought which caused the water in Lake Nacogdoches to recede exposing a large piece of shuttle debris.
Though 16 years have passed, the memory of that fateful Saturday morning has not left the minds of those who were witnesses to the tragedy.
(Easttexasmatters.com contributed to this report.)
