Thank you both for searching for debris! I know that the town and NASA were really moved by how everyone came together to recover Columbia. It was much more than just retrieving the shuttle, it was paying respect.
I worked in Dallas at the time of this disaster, on an afternoon shift. When I awoke that morning and learned of what had happened, I drove South to see what I could find. I wanted to make a second trip, but I had to work, so I made a plea to my manager to let me take an emergency day off work. I can forgive him a lot of things because he let me take that day off from work! I drove South to Rice, Texas, then East to Nacogdoches, using news reports over the radio and my own guesswork and observation as to where I might find debris. I shot several photos of what I found.
Thank you. Someone made a National Geographic piece, and they used my title, scripted structure, and interviewed my friends - they didn't give me credit. Took us a great deal of time to script the structure of all the interviews. I had help from Screenwriter Producer Suzanne Weinert, Director Meg Beatty, and Dr. Barbara Carr, screenwriting instructor and my Momma. So yes, I would very much like to complete this, and have it available on PBS - not Nat Geo - Ha!
When I found out they crashed here....my heart was a little more at less.....East Texas is a little piece of heaven.....so sorry this occurred...great, GREAT video!
Lived there at the time and was at work when the sonic booms from the debris came through. Heat tiles littered the parking lot of my apartment. Smaller bits being blown around in the wind. Various structural pieces all over the place. Was a very surreal few weeks.
I worked at a furniture company in Houston at the time and was on my way to my first delivery of the morning when news of this broke on the radio. I immediately had a flashback of the day the Challenger exploded in 1986 and Reagan telling us about it.
I lived there for a few years. My father lived there when the accident happened. He found pieces of the wreckage. Many schools in the area still have newspapers the day after the accident happened.
One of my former 5th grade students was in Nacodoches that morning (as he was outside playing football, with his father; and was nearly hit by a large piece of metal from the Space Shuttle Columbia. Thanks be to God; I had been praying for him . . .
I was in Seattle, watching NASA tv. Waiting for the shuttle to come down. The shuttle was way up there still, and the debris trails were clearly visible. The announcers were saying they should have heard from them by now... What a sick feeling.
I remember this, I'm from Amarillo and heard like a sonic boom,,i went out to see and saw a bright light in the sky and smoke trail, so I figured it was a jet,half hour later I was at the laundry and had my Walkman,i heard the shuttle had exploded and then knew what I saw was the shuttle coming in from the west,,they actually found tiles from the shuttle about 150 miles from here near levelland tex.
I live about 30 miles from the coast of Texas. We heard about the shuttle that morning. when I got home 6:00 that evening and went to the backyard, there was a very fine burnt string filament that I saw falling from the sky. I always wonder if that came from the shuttle.
Things took hours to float down because they got caught in the winds. I imagine you will always remember that moment, and it does make me wonder where it came from as well. I found a strap in a sapling tree branch, and I think it was a hand strap from inside. It looked like it had been cut off of something with a small but dull knife about 20-30 times across. Makes me wonder if you saw something from the same area.
Although the narrator mentioned all the other things Nacogdoches, Texas is known for, sadly, the town will forever be known as "the place where the space shuttled Columbia crashed",
Chilling documentary. I remember seeing the explosion from Fort Polk, LA. We were conducting military training at JRTC. We had to get everyone into old bunkers as debris fell from East Texas into West Louisiana. Debris hit the Fort Polk Golf Course. Brave souls!!
That's amazing sir. That day could have been so different, and so many people could have been hurt. Glad ya'll got in the bunkers. Yes, they were all brave souls, and I was told Kalpana Chawla flew those little stunt planes, where she was fearless. I felt like I got to know everyone of them as I heard stories from different people I interviewed. Truly amazing people that I think of as heroes and friends.
My grandmother lived in Shelby County (Timpson) and I remember her calling us in Houston hysterical because the FBI and CIA came to her house and demanded be let onto our property so they could search for additional pieces.
Very interesting. Thanks! I wondered what it was like there, not only on the day of the crash but throughout the search for debris after. As a pediatrician I wondered if your children suffered ptsd after? There were many kids after 9/11 traumatized and in my town, a tornado in 2006 left us with a lot of kids with storm phobias (including one of my kids).
I have friends in San Augustine, that told me about this happening. What I think is very strange and should be noted, is in the video there is military presence at the bank at 0947, just over 90 minutes after the breakup. Now after serving 10 years in the military I know there is no way they organized, prepped, and mobilized, and deployed personnel to that area that quickly, unless they knew when and where ahead of time.
NASA knew the leading edge of the wing was damaged during take off but they chose to not investigate this issue whilst it was in space, and they chose to just let the shuttle try to land. Looks like they thought the shuttle would have issues with re-entry. These secrets will be lost in time. Show less REPLY
Great video ! I always wanted to hear something from the people in that area as to what they experienced that morning,I'm in Ohio and I remember watching on TV,very sad day and the same with the Challenger.This video will or has become part of history.Thank you !
Thank you for the video and thank you for all your hard work gathering parts and assisting in bring these parts and completing the story of these men and women onboard the craft.
Does anyone have an audio recording of the "BANG" of the shuttle distengrating and the pieces causing Sonic booms? Seems someone would have an audio of this with all these tapes. I heard several reports of large bangs that morning.
It was so early, most people were still asleep. According to Dr. Markworth - SFASU Astronomy Professor, and was my teacher, the shuttle makes two sonic booms when it re-enters - the nose and then the tail. I didn't know that until this happened. I think it was Cyndy at the Vets office who described that the rumbling just wouldn't stop, and was like a roller coaster of booms - a boom, continued rumble, and then boom. She said she was closer to the border in that wetland river area. With that, makes you wonder if the water somehow created a reverberation or echo of the booms.
shit man, great video. I was born in nactown and lived there until I was 8 and havent been back since and all the clips you had brought back so many memories :')
I was 7 years old when pieces of the shuttle landed all over the town. A fun fact is that I actually still have a piece from the ship that landed near my house
I understand your thoughts, and if I may take this opportunity to reflect on why we thought it important to have that Rolie Polie Olie moment and why Peggy and her daughter did it as well. Peggy was also a city of Nacogdoches official, and her husband was the Constable. Not everyone had iPhone's back then, and part of the hazard mitigation planning was to also document and detail anything and everything related to the disaster - quite frankly, it included "what were you doing at the time." Aside from what was airing on TV, you do not know until later that you might have gathered important information. So Peggy did not just chronicle turning off Rolie Polie Olie, but significant information that was needed and integral to help determine where pieces fell so that they could interpolate where major pieces were, including computer components and the left wing. Remember, at the time, no one knew what happened and why, where sabotage/terrorism was on everyone's mind. This was just 1 year 4 mos, and 3 weeks after September 11, 2001. Rolie, Polie, Olie was a "remember what I was doing" moment, because we felt the documentary would be a historical project - as such, this is 15 years later. I actually had the opportunity to discuss the very subject with Launch Director Mike Leinbach at the space center (I promise I will complete that section and there's a shot of me speaking with Mike) The people at NASA were very touched at how the people of Nacogdoches area, just left their homes and went searching. Unfortunately I am not able to put everything that Peggy chronicled in this documentary, but be assured, what Peggy and her husband gathered and chronicled geographically was significant to the recovery effort. I am very grateful and honored that Peggy trusted me enough with handling the original video in order to copy the specific parts of her video that I could legally show. I made a video copy setup mini station - nothing like copying video today - smackdab in the middle of the reception area of commercial bank, and I was able to monitor the copying without others viewing it. Doing it that way made Peggy feel comfortable and confident that I didn't copy anything I wasn't supposed to.
I was stationed in NY at the time but this blew up over my parents house. My dad was outside and saw it. My mom heard it inside and came out to see what it was. She described it the best I have ever heard. I have a cousin who is an Astronaut and we got to see his first launch. She said it sounded just like that but without the pops that come with it.
Just curious, are there any images, videos, etc of debris impacting the ground anywhere? I know it would just be a chance video because they didn't know what had happened yet. Your video/documentary is very well done. Is there a way I could get a copy of this in it's entirety? I was in Nacogdoches the day before this happened on my way home from being discharged from the military. Wild.
I had a spinal injury at the end of 2012 and had surgery 3 years ago. I am just getting back to some sort of normalcy, and learning how to adapt to nerve loss in my legs (don't worry, I can walk, but labored.) There are 5 other sections, and I do plan to complete this. Actually, it is complete, but the sections don't have the narration, and that's what brings it all together. Thank you for asking, and I will make it available to you when it is complete. :)
Shuttles weren't always on schedule, and they would be either early or late, so not everyone would be in a place that they could see them - hence they weren't a common spectacle for most. In east Texas, you have dense woods with pine trees that are over 100 feet tall. So you really have to look from a clearing to be able to see any celestial object. This includes stargazing. The university's Observatory is on a hill north of town, but a place where pine trees don't obscure the view. I wasn't able to have a telescope until I moved to Austin. Also, no iPhones back then, or did everyone have internet in the earlier years, so they did not know the schedule. Very few people even knew Nacogdoches was on the re-entry path. Lastly, the shuttle broke up in to multiple large pieces, with smaller pieces flanking the larger ones. It actually created its own weather with ice particles - people reported hail in a few areas. So what many people saw, was bright white and glistening pieces and ice particles reflecting the bright sun with a clear blue sky backdrop. Some said it looked like multiple shooting stars with sparkling contrails coming down. So think of the video of it coming down from far away, and then just imagine being right under it.
David, can you please do our country a HUGE favor and return that piece of the Shuttle to NASA? They desperately need it. It's also very illegal to keep it. All pieces are laid out to determine all possible causes. The piece you hold, no matter how small it is or what it is, may hold a clue that could change the outcome of the investigation, even if it's just some chair fabric.
The police department and county stopped taking small pieces. They would take them, and then send them in a package when they had enough. Because I had a spinal injury, and am just getting back to things, I have a total of 7 sections of this documentary, where one is at the Space Center where they are keeping the pieces. They have them numbered and labeled, and aviation entities and universities can check the pieces out like a library book, study them, and then bring them back. They are all kept on the 16th floor of the VAB at the Space Center. Now, if the pieces are something articulating, electronic, or have any numbers, then consider sending them. You should call first, so that they know what's coming, because some debris can pulverize in transit (the tile,) and it might be mistaken for something else. If you're not sure, just call or email the public inquiries on this page. columbia.nasa.gov/Research%20and%20Preservation%20Office
RIP Columbia crew you are dearly missed and not forgotten
I was there for the recovery mission. I came with a crew from the North Carolina Forest Service. Thank you for your video.
captndavie I also came from North Carolina to search for debris. I considered it an honor and a privilege to help with the recovery mission.
Thank you both for searching for debris! I know that the town and NASA were really moved by how everyone came together to recover Columbia. It was much more than just retrieving the shuttle, it was paying respect.
What an interesting little documentary, its good to hear what the local people had experienced and its well thought out.
What a wonderful, sensitive portrait of a remarkable Texas town.
I worked in Dallas at the time of this disaster, on an afternoon shift. When I awoke that morning and learned of what had happened, I drove South to see what I could find. I wanted to make a second trip, but I had to work, so I made a plea to my manager to let me take an emergency day off work. I can forgive him a lot of things because he let me take that day off from work! I drove South to Rice, Texas, then East to Nacogdoches, using news reports over the radio and my own guesswork and observation as to where I might find debris. I shot several photos of what I found.
Wow, this is pretty awesome. This is good incite and I like being able to hear all the stuff you wouldn't normally.
I can't imagine what it was like to look up and see those trails streaking across the sky. It must've been surreal. Godspeed Columbia :(
This needs to be on pbs thank you i did not know some of this
Thank you. Someone made a National Geographic piece, and they used my title, scripted structure, and interviewed my friends - they didn't give me credit. Took us a great deal of time to script the structure of all the interviews. I had help from Screenwriter Producer Suzanne Weinert, Director Meg Beatty, and Dr. Barbara Carr, screenwriting instructor and my Momma. So yes, I would very much like to complete this, and have it available on PBS - not Nat Geo - Ha!
I remember I was living in Irving Tx and going out for my daily jog to the gym that morning. Looked up and saw it breaking up over the DFW area RIP
Lovely Video.
Thank You.
Though I'm a Proud Londoner , I think I shall visit Texas one day , and stop a while in Nagadoches .
Troy Jackson Welcome to Texas any day. You will love it here. I'm from Houston but we gave beautiful small town everywhere.
its Nacogdoches.
When I found out they crashed here....my heart was a little more at less.....East Texas is a little piece of heaven.....so sorry this occurred...great, GREAT video!
Lived there at the time and was at work when the sonic booms from the debris came through. Heat tiles littered the parking lot of my apartment. Smaller bits being blown around in the wind. Various structural pieces all over the place. Was a very surreal few weeks.
I worked at a furniture company in Houston at the time and was on my way to my first delivery of the morning when news of this broke on the radio. I immediately had a flashback of the day the Challenger exploded in 1986 and Reagan telling us about it.
Good ol' kind Country Christian Texas Folk!! You gotta love 'm!!
I lived there for a few years. My father lived there when the accident happened. He found pieces of the wreckage. Many schools in the area still have newspapers the day after the accident happened.
One of my former 5th grade students was in Nacodoches that morning (as he was outside playing football, with his father; and was nearly hit by a large piece of metal from the Space Shuttle Columbia. Thanks be to God; I had been praying for him . . .
I was in Seattle, watching NASA tv. Waiting for the shuttle to come down. The shuttle was way up there still, and the debris trails were clearly visible. The announcers were saying they should have heard from them by now... What a sick feeling.
I remember this, I'm from Amarillo and heard like a sonic boom,,i went out to see and saw a bright light in the sky and smoke trail, so I figured it was a jet,half hour later I was at the laundry and had my Walkman,i heard the shuttle had exploded and then knew what I saw was the shuttle coming in from the west,,they actually found tiles from the shuttle about 150 miles from here near levelland tex.
Lake Nacogdoches had a big piece that was found years later
Wow, great work on the video! Interesting to hear the 911 calls coming in. Hard to believe it was that long ago.
I live about 30 miles from the coast of Texas. We heard about the shuttle that morning. when I got home 6:00 that evening and went to the backyard, there was a very fine burnt string filament that I saw falling from the sky. I always wonder if that came from the shuttle.
Things took hours to float down because they got caught in the winds. I imagine you will always remember that moment, and it does make me wonder where it came from as well. I found a strap in a sapling tree branch, and I think it was a hand strap from inside. It looked like it had been cut off of something with a small but dull knife about 20-30 times across. Makes me wonder if you saw something from the same area.
Although the narrator mentioned all the other things Nacogdoches, Texas is known for, sadly, the town will forever be known as "the place where the space shuttled Columbia crashed",
I got to go search for it and found 10 pieces
Chilling documentary. I remember seeing the explosion from Fort Polk, LA. We were conducting military training at JRTC. We had to get everyone into old bunkers as debris fell from East Texas into West Louisiana. Debris hit the Fort Polk Golf Course. Brave souls!!
That's amazing sir. That day could have been so different, and so many people could have been hurt. Glad ya'll got in the bunkers. Yes, they were all brave souls, and I was told Kalpana Chawla flew those little stunt planes, where she was fearless. I felt like I got to know everyone of them as I heard stories from different people I interviewed. Truly amazing people that I think of as heroes and friends.
My grandmother lived in Shelby County (Timpson) and I remember her calling us in Houston hysterical because the FBI and CIA came to her house and demanded be let onto our property so they could search for additional pieces.
Rest the Heros' rest, Columbia crew. Semper Fi.
Very interesting. Thanks! I wondered what it was like there, not only on the day of the crash but throughout the search for debris after. As a pediatrician I wondered if your children suffered ptsd after? There were many kids after 9/11 traumatized and in my town, a tornado in 2006 left us with a lot of kids with storm phobias (including one of my kids).
I was in Dallas that morning, still asleep, when suddenly my two cats started freaking out and running around the room. It was just after 8 am.
I have friends in San Augustine, that told me about this happening. What I think is very strange and should be noted, is in the video there is military presence at the bank at 0947, just over 90 minutes after the breakup. Now after serving 10 years in the military I know there is no way they organized, prepped, and mobilized, and deployed personnel to that area that quickly, unless they knew when and where ahead of time.
The National Guard was actually doing drills in the area. This might be covered in part 2.
NASA knew the leading edge of the wing was damaged during take off but they chose to not investigate this issue whilst it was in space, and they chose to just let the shuttle try to land.
Looks like they thought the shuttle would have issues with re-entry.
These secrets will be lost in time.
Show less
REPLY
Could of been a freak coincidence that the national guard was having there weekend drill. It was a Saturday....
Wow - amazing video. I hadn't seen much local footage of the STS-107 crash.
Great video ! I always wanted to hear something from the people in that area as to what they experienced that morning,I'm in Ohio and I remember watching on TV,very sad day and the same with the Challenger.This video will or has become part of history.Thank you !
Very kind words MrDevlin 350. Thank you!
MrDevlin350 q
I was in Dallas that day. I could see the contrails from my location. If I had transportation I would have gone to help.
"Well it came out of the sky, landed just a little shy from Orleans..."
- CCR
I'm just dumbfounded no one on ground got hit! Amazing!
I had the same thought....good thing it fell in a rather rural area.
Thank you for the video and thank you for all your hard work gathering parts and assisting in bring these parts and completing the story of these men and women onboard the craft.
Thank you.
Great job on this!
Great Video. Very informative.
I was ouside mowing the yard @ my mother house n Nacogdoches when we saw pieces of if fall.
Does anyone have an audio recording of the "BANG" of the shuttle distengrating and the pieces causing Sonic booms? Seems someone would have an audio of this with all these tapes. I heard several reports of large bangs that morning.
It was so early, most people were still asleep. According to Dr. Markworth - SFASU Astronomy Professor, and was my teacher, the shuttle makes two sonic booms when it re-enters - the nose and then the tail. I didn't know that until this happened. I think it was Cyndy at the Vets office who described that the rumbling just wouldn't stop, and was like a roller coaster of booms - a boom, continued rumble, and then boom. She said she was closer to the border in that wetland river area. With that, makes you wonder if the water somehow created a reverberation or echo of the booms.
very interesting.....thankyou
Thank you :)
shit man, great video. I was born in nactown and lived there until I was 8 and havent been back since and all the clips you had brought back so many memories :')
I was 7 years old when pieces of the shuttle landed all over the town. A fun fact is that I actually still have a piece from the ship that landed near my house
We were finding pieces in Louisiana!
05:25 Turned off Rolie Polie Olie? Are they completely mad?
I understand your thoughts, and if I may take this opportunity to reflect on why we thought it important to have that Rolie Polie Olie moment and why Peggy and her daughter did it as well. Peggy was also a city of Nacogdoches official, and her husband was the Constable. Not everyone had iPhone's back then, and part of the hazard mitigation planning was to also document and detail anything and everything related to the disaster - quite frankly, it included "what were you doing at the time." Aside from what was airing on TV, you do not know until later that you might have gathered important information. So Peggy did not just chronicle turning off Rolie Polie Olie, but significant information that was needed and integral to help determine where pieces fell so that they could interpolate where major pieces were, including computer components and the left wing. Remember, at the time, no one knew what happened and why, where sabotage/terrorism was on everyone's mind. This was just 1 year 4 mos, and 3 weeks after September 11, 2001. Rolie, Polie, Olie was a "remember what I was doing" moment, because we felt the documentary would be a historical project - as such, this is 15 years later. I actually had the opportunity to discuss the very subject with Launch Director Mike Leinbach at the space center (I promise I will complete that section and there's a shot of me speaking with Mike) The people at NASA were very touched at how the people of Nacogdoches area, just left their homes and went searching. Unfortunately I am not able to put everything that Peggy chronicled in this documentary, but be assured, what Peggy and her husband gathered and chronicled geographically was significant to the recovery effort. I am very grateful and honored that Peggy trusted me enough with handling the original video in order to copy the specific parts of her video that I could legally show. I made a video copy setup mini station - nothing like copying video today - smackdab in the middle of the reception area of commercial bank, and I was able to monitor the copying without others viewing it. Doing it that way made Peggy feel comfortable and confident that I didn't copy anything I wasn't supposed to.
I was 12 years old in Louisiana when this happened.
I was stationed in NY at the time but this blew up over my parents house. My dad was outside and saw it. My mom heard it inside and came out to see what it was. She described it the best I have ever heard. I have a cousin who is an Astronaut and we got to see his first launch. She said it sounded just like that but without the pops that come with it.
Never ending sadness😔😟
heroes rip
Sad day,rest in piece.
Just curious, are there any images, videos, etc of debris impacting the ground anywhere? I know it would just be a chance video because they didn't know what had happened yet.
Your video/documentary is very well done. Is there a way I could get a copy of this in it's entirety? I was in Nacogdoches the day before this happened on my way home from being discharged from the military. Wild.
I had a spinal injury at the end of 2012 and had surgery 3 years ago. I am just getting back to some sort of normalcy, and learning how to adapt to nerve loss in my legs (don't worry, I can walk, but labored.) There are 5 other sections, and I do plan to complete this. Actually, it is complete, but the sections don't have the narration, and that's what brings it all together. Thank you for asking, and I will make it available to you when it is complete. :)
All these people live right in the path of all shuttles returning over the last 25 years, but nobody knew what it was at first?
Shuttles weren't always on schedule, and they would be either early or late, so not everyone would be in a place that they could see them - hence they weren't a common spectacle for most. In east Texas, you have dense woods with pine trees that are over 100 feet tall. So you really have to look from a clearing to be able to see any celestial object. This includes stargazing. The university's Observatory is on a hill north of town, but a place where pine trees don't obscure the view. I wasn't able to have a telescope until I moved to Austin. Also, no iPhones back then, or did everyone have internet in the earlier years, so they did not know the schedule. Very few people even knew Nacogdoches was on the re-entry path. Lastly, the shuttle broke up in to multiple large pieces, with smaller pieces flanking the larger ones. It actually created its own weather with ice particles - people reported hail in a few areas. So what many people saw, was bright white and glistening pieces and ice particles reflecting the bright sun with a clear blue sky backdrop. Some said it looked like multiple shooting stars with sparkling contrails coming down. So think of the video of it coming down from far away, and then just imagine being right under it.
Sad day.
...just _really_ sad...
Her name is Crystal Ball?!?
I like how they said oh two jets broke the sound barrier..that either was NASA radioing everyone ...or maybe a cncd
Mission Control knew they wouldn't make re entry.
NASA said that it would be more humane to not tell the crew that the space shuttle has fatal damage
I remember the pieces in the square by the bank
Great vid!! piano is too loud in the mix but its a great vid anyway:)
Will work on that for other sections, thank you!
I lived there when it happened
i think we still have a peace from the shuttle
If that's true, you're advertising an illegal action. Incredibly stupid.
David, can you please do our country a HUGE favor and return that piece of the Shuttle to NASA? They desperately need it. It's also very illegal to keep it. All pieces are laid out to determine all possible causes. The piece you hold, no matter how small it is or what it is, may hold a clue that could change the outcome of the investigation, even if it's just some chair fabric.
Pretty sure you need to give it back.
The police department and county stopped taking small pieces. They would take them, and then send them in a package when they had enough. Because I had a spinal injury, and am just getting back to things, I have a total of 7 sections of this documentary, where one is at the Space Center where they are keeping the pieces. They have them numbered and labeled, and aviation entities and universities can check the pieces out like a library book, study them, and then bring them back. They are all kept on the 16th floor of the VAB at the Space Center. Now, if the pieces are something articulating, electronic, or have any numbers, then consider sending them. You should call first, so that they know what's coming, because some debris can pulverize in transit (the tile,) and it might be mistaken for something else. If you're not sure, just call or email the public inquiries on this page. columbia.nasa.gov/Research%20and%20Preservation%20Office
Atlantis, Endeavor, Enterprise all got to go home. Columbia and Challenger didn't.
+dixievfd55 Enterprise was a test bed and you forgot Discovery.
What about discovery?
+dixievfd55 discovery is offended by your comment. it did the most work
You left out Discovery. Discovery get to go home too.
man the shuttle was supposed to land at 9:16 not 8:16
9:16 Florida time, 8:16 Texas time...
9:16 Eastern. Nacogdoches is on Central time.
u would like be walking and bam so sad
I was ouside mowing the yard @ my mother house n Nacogdoches when we saw pieces of if fall.