Author Topic: Remembing Columbia, where were you when it happened  (Read 17225 times)

Offline NavySpaceFan

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Re: Remembing Columbia, where were you when it happened
« Reply #60 on: 02/01/2013 11:18 am »
I was one day out from a south bound Suez Canal transit.  I was serving as navigator on board USS Bataan (LHD 5) at the time, and I walked out onto the bridge and the Officer of the Deck mentioned something about Columbia  breaking up.  I headed back to my stateroom and turned on CNN.  I watched the coverage in stunned silence for a bit, then got back to work preparing to take my ship throught the canal then on to the Persian Gulf for what would later be called Operation Iraqi Freedom.  I didn't have the time to mourn then, but ten years on now, I do.
<----First launch of DISCOVERY, STS-41D!!!!

Offline qprmeteor

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Re: Remembing Columbia, where were you when it happened
« Reply #61 on: 02/01/2013 11:22 am »
I was at home, watching of all things Stargate SG-1, when I got a phone call from my Mum: "They've lost the Shuttle". Eerily, she was the one who told me about Challenger's loss 17 years before.
Professor Hubert Farnsworth: I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all.
Fry: Oh. What's it called now?
Professor Hubert Farnsworth: Urrectum. Here, let me locate it for you.

Offline psloss

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Re: Remembing Columbia, where were you when it happened
« Reply #62 on: 02/01/2013 11:34 am »
Six years after this thread was started, one of the things that's changed for me is I won't remember this as 'Columbia', even if this is what most people recall first.  It's easier now to think of her whole career.

Offline Archibald

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Re: Remembing Columbia, where were you when it happened
« Reply #63 on: 02/01/2013 11:42 am »
We were having a family lunch at my grandmother home. Later in the afternoon someone turned the TV on and the picture carved into my mind forever - those white streaks of light against the blue sky... the most striking was the unfortunate coincidence in dates vis a vis Apollo 1 and Challenger... couldn't believe it.
Han shot first and Gwynne Shotwell !

Offline psloss

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Offline GClark

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Re: Remembing Columbia, where were you when it happened
« Reply #65 on: 02/01/2013 01:47 pm »
I was (shall we say) enjoying the hospitality of the city of Norfolk, VA.  We were watching the early news in the cell block when they showed that amateur-shot reentry footage.  My first thought was that something didn't look quite right.

When we found out later, most of the guys were indifferent.  Those few of us who were current or former military were rather bummed.  I called my father - he lived (still does) off to the west of the Dallas-Ft Worth metroplex.  He had heard the breakup.

Offline wolfpack

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Re: Remembing Columbia, where were you when it happened
« Reply #66 on: 02/01/2013 02:05 pm »
My wife's dad had just been diagnosed with cancer the month before, so we were going out of our way to spend more time with her folks. That meant breakfast at their house that particular Saturday morning. It was he who told us as we walked through the door what had happened.

The rest of the day was spent in front of the TV.

He did not see the end of 2003, either.

It was a bad year.

Offline Paul Adams

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Re: Remembing Columbia, where were you when it happened
« Reply #67 on: 02/01/2013 02:12 pm »
I was in my back garden, with my (then) wife and mother who was visiting from England watching Columbia pass north of Las Vegas and taking video.

When we went back in to watch the landing on NASA TV, Houston were trying to contact the crew.

It was an event I will never, ever forget.
It's all in the data.

Offline Davp99

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Re: Remembing Columbia, where were you when it happened
« Reply #68 on: 02/01/2013 03:04 pm »
My Grandson called me this morn, he said remember 10 yrs ago?

 I remember I was babysitting for him and being Saturday , I woke up early and started to make Breakfast for us and started again to talk about NASA, Space, and All things Shuttles..just to draw him in , like my Dad had done for me..

Told him we will see Columbia Land at Florida.

Talked about maybe seeing a Launch and Landing Live someday...So we sat there in front of the TV ...watching...waiting...and Then...a lump in my throat , loss of appetite...Trying to make sense and trying to explain to a young 8 yr. old boy...what we were seeing....

Still today ....feeling of Hopelessness......No words....Apollo 1, Challenger,Columbia.....(sigh)
« Last Edit: 02/01/2013 03:05 pm by Davp99 »
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