20TH ANNIVERSARY – COLUMBIA TRAGEDY: Twenty years ago today at about a minute before 9am, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it reentered the atmosphere over Texas. All seven astronauts aboard were killed. Debris and the bodies of Columbia’s crew were scattered over a wide portion of East Texas and Louisiana. The tragedy suspended Space Shuttle missions for two years. Today the legacy of Columbia’s final crew will be honored with a public, multi-day commemoration event at the Patricia Huffman Smith NASA Museum in Hemphill, Texas.
Vice President for the Museum Committee Belinda Gay says the day will be filled with special presentations.
“NASA has brought their exhibit trailer down, we’ve got one of the traveling moon rocks here. So if they (visitors) want to touch a moon rock and see one of them. We’ve got an exhibit showing all that and there’s lots of people that can talk about our the recovery efforts and about our museum and where we’re going with it, and the education. And about the legacy of Columbia,” Gay said.
Former officials from NASA will be on hand to speak about the about the event as well as the future of space exploration. Gay says admission is free today and encourages people experience today’s event.
“Some of the (Columbia crew’s) families have shared their personal items that were found in the recovery and we have some of those on display in our museum. We haven’t ever asked for any shuttle debris from NASA because we wanted to be about their legacy and the legacy of our crews,” Gay said.
The Patricia Huffman Smith NASA Museum is located at 375 Sabine Street in Hemphill, Texas. They will also live-stream today’s event on their Facebook page
