Where were you during that Columbia Tragedy?

[TexasStooge]

Today, as we all know, Marks Two-Year Anniversary Of Columbia Tragedy.

That day, I was doing laundry while watching some cartoons. The room got a little too hot so I walked outside to get some clean fresh air and suddenly, I heard a pop as if someone slashed a car tire or something. A few minutes later, I heard a couple of people putting their hands on their foreheads cussing. I looked on the TV and saw the whole thing.

None of the pieces fell in my area, however, some of the pieces were recovered east of Dallas.

[alicia-w]

we were talking to my daughter about her new baby. my granddaughter, Layla, was born on that day.

[Brent]

At my grandparents watching CNN for the scheduled landing. At 9:15am ET, they started to cover it and said it was "missing". Fron that point on, something didn't seem right to me. At 9:17am when it was supposed to be on the runway I knew something had happened to it.

[OklahomaWeather]

I was staying at my fiance's (now husband's!) family's house for the weekend. They are all LATE LATE sleepers, and I was the only one awake, flipping through channels when I stopped on CNN and saw the coverage.

[GalvestonDuck]

I had been watching something on cable, shortly after I woke up that morning, while eating breakfast. I switched over to FoxNews and I saw footage from NASA and read something in the scroll about how they had lost contact with "the shuttle" for some time. I turned away momentarily (didn't realize what was going on at first) and then I caught the word "explosion" in the scroll. My first thought was, Hmmm...must be a special about the Challenger disaster. As I stood and watched, however, I realized that this was not a documentary or anniversary special. I re-read the scroll again and saw "Space Shuttle Columbia" (which still took a while to soak in, that it was not "Challenger") and "broke up over Texas" and all I could think was, "Oh, God...please...not again...not another one." After another few seconds, I just said, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no" over and over, hoping that something on screen would tell me that what I was seeing wasn't real.

[sunny]

I was at home getting ready for my normal chores on a Saturday morning. I didn't get much done that day.

[cycloneye]

While on breakfast I saw the news.

[streetsoldier]

Sitting at home, sick as usual.

[ohiostorm]

I was actually sleeping. My dad woke me up to watch it on TV. Watched for as long as I could until a powerline pole caught on fire near my neighbors house and the power was shut off till it was fixed.

[Dee Bee]

We had taken a weekend trip to the SW Florida coast area and were driving to meet up with some old friends who lived about 25 miles away from the hotel we had stayed at. We had tuned in the area's NPR station (we usually listen to NPR) and heard the story live from the first news break-in. What a sad, sad day.

[pojo]

at work... my boss told me what happened.

UWGB is the home campus for the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium and we have a signed picture of Laurel Clark and everyone associated with the flight in the WSGC office. At my squadron, there is also a signed picture from Laurel Clark on display. In association with that, a doctor in this area went to med school with Clark and he did the sermon that following sunday... that was a very emotionally charged sermon.

[DaylilyDawn]

At home with my husband getting ready to go some where that day. Saw it on the TV as it reported the shuttle was missing. I went OH NO , First the Challenger, Now the Columbia , Which one will be next?

[Rainband]

At work. Very sad day:(

[Miss Mary]

We were all home too and had the TV on, but the sound down. Then I saw an image, repeated over and over again. Instantly I was glued to the TV, praying for some good to come of this tragedy.

So very sad. We followed the story all day long.

Mary

[Scorpion]

I was online and found a headline that said "NASA declares emergency as they recieve no contact from Columbia". I thought it was just a communications malfunction at first. Then I saw the TV and was shocked. Horrible day .

[Ixolib]

Outside waiting for it to pass overhead here in Biloxi. And waiting, waiting, watching and watching.... Finally went back inside, thinking I had missed it and that I'd see it on the ground in Florida. Much to my horror, that was sadly not the case.

[jkt21787]

I remember that day very well. I had just woken up (around 8:00 am or so) and was getting on the computer to check the weather. I think there was an upcoming chance of snow or something. Anyway, I had turned on the TV in the room and was listening to the local Saturday morning news. The meteorologist, Austen Onek, was doing the weathercast around 8:15 and things were going normal. All of sudden, he stopped in the middle of his sentence and said "we have to go back to the news desk for breaking news". Living in Memphis, I knew there was never any big local breaking stories here on a Saturday morning that couldn't wait till the end of a weathercast, so I knew something was going on nationally. The anchors then announced they were going to a CBS news special report, and the picture of mission control showed up, with the banner "Contact with Shuttle Columbia Lost" on the screen. Watching the next few minutes, I knew something bad had happened, but hoping another Challenger would be averted. Sadly, that was not how it ended.

[depotoo]

i believe i was at home - all i really remember was the horror of it!

[Guest]

I was getting ready for work.

[ColdFront77]

I woke up no less than three minutes before the Johnson Space Center in Houston were hoping that there were no problems, after they lost contact with the crew.

The same sort of thing occurred when the first plane hit the first WTC tower; I woke up and went to the TV seconds after hearing the anchors and reporters were covering the story.