TropiGal
Guest
Saturday morning Bill and I woke up, fixed a cup of coffee and Bill was actually reading scubaboard when I rememered the shuttle would be passing overhead in about five minutes. On a beautiful, warm Texas morning - absolutely crystal blue skies overhead... we stood outside to watch the horizon for Columbia to approach.
At 7:59 a.m. we spotted it - a huge glowing ball with an increasing wider smoke trail forming - and as it rapidly approached we knew that something was not right. In horror, disbelief and few words being spoken we watched as it came apart above our heads. Someone earlier mentioned an expensive firework display...it did indeed look like a giant sparkler in the sky but to see it, and know that there were seven people in that dispersing mass of matter and energy made it a horrifying sight. The videos being shown do not in any way show the dramatic scene we witnessed.
As the dividing masses of puffs of smoke and flaming debris fell into the sunrise, we both turned to each other with horror in our eyes, questioning if that, in fact, was the shuttle we saw. We hoped that it was not, but knew that nothing could be moving that fast other than the shuttle. Running inside to the tv, we saw the blurb on the screen that, indeed, there was some trouble with Columbia. Then we heard and felt the BOOM...then silence ... no word on the tv about it for several minutes. But, we knew, before it was confirmed that it would not be landing in Florida or anywhere. The last transmission occurred as we saw it come over our western horizon.
It was a horrifying morning and a sad weekend. As does the rest of the world see the scene replayed by video on the tv, I see the vision over and over in my mind's eye as it appeared above our heads in the cloudless, blue skies above our home. As so many have said before, I will never forget where I was when this tragic incident occurred and exactly what I was doing as it occurred - praying that the astronauts were not aware in any physical way of the fireball they were encased in during those couple minutes and praying for the loved ones who were unknowingly anxiously waiting in Florida to see their loved ones come into view over their western horizon.
Now, we all grieve with those families for the loss of those loved ones. Keeping them in our thoughts, Bridget and Bill
At 7:59 a.m. we spotted it - a huge glowing ball with an increasing wider smoke trail forming - and as it rapidly approached we knew that something was not right. In horror, disbelief and few words being spoken we watched as it came apart above our heads. Someone earlier mentioned an expensive firework display...it did indeed look like a giant sparkler in the sky but to see it, and know that there were seven people in that dispersing mass of matter and energy made it a horrifying sight. The videos being shown do not in any way show the dramatic scene we witnessed.
As the dividing masses of puffs of smoke and flaming debris fell into the sunrise, we both turned to each other with horror in our eyes, questioning if that, in fact, was the shuttle we saw. We hoped that it was not, but knew that nothing could be moving that fast other than the shuttle. Running inside to the tv, we saw the blurb on the screen that, indeed, there was some trouble with Columbia. Then we heard and felt the BOOM...then silence ... no word on the tv about it for several minutes. But, we knew, before it was confirmed that it would not be landing in Florida or anywhere. The last transmission occurred as we saw it come over our western horizon.
It was a horrifying morning and a sad weekend. As does the rest of the world see the scene replayed by video on the tv, I see the vision over and over in my mind's eye as it appeared above our heads in the cloudless, blue skies above our home. As so many have said before, I will never forget where I was when this tragic incident occurred and exactly what I was doing as it occurred - praying that the astronauts were not aware in any physical way of the fireball they were encased in during those couple minutes and praying for the loved ones who were unknowingly anxiously waiting in Florida to see their loved ones come into view over their western horizon.
Now, we all grieve with those families for the loss of those loved ones. Keeping them in our thoughts, Bridget and Bill
