A pretty dark find:
http://news.yahoo.com/debris-space-shuttle-columbia-disaster-found-texas-183705067.html (http://news.yahoo.com/debris-space-shuttle-columbia-disaster-found-texas-183705067.html)
I suppose it's no different that finding the underwater wreckage of a ship. Although the Space Shuttle was one very expensive "ship!" ;)
The interesting thing to me, is how much that piece of debris looks nothing like what I would have imagined to be on the Space Shuttle. I am surprised the finder was even able to make the connection between the two. I suppose for parts of Texas, the disaster is still on some people’s minds.
After reading this story I dug a little deeper. Seems there's still pieces of Challenger that wash up in Florida every now and then.
It was just a few years ago that the space capsule that sunk in the ocean flown by Gus Grissom was found and recovered. (For reference see the movie "The Right Stuff") Pretty amazing.
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A non-related space race story to tell you all: My dad worked for McDonnell-Douglas in St. Louis in the mid 60s to early 70s. The astronauts came to St. Louis to train with fighter jets. My dad, in the course of his work, met and got to personally know and become friends with some of them. He got all their autographs for me and my brother, including the Apollo 11 astronauts. When Gus Grissom and his collegues died in the 1960s launch pad fire in a capsule, my dad was in mourning, as he and Gus were pals. I remember a time when Skylab was being developed. I got off from school early one day and my dad took me to a McDonnell-Douglas facility in St. Charles to pick up some classified equipment for delivery to one of the Hazelwood facilities. I had to stay in the car while dad went inside because it was a restricted area. When he came out, he had a little ziplock bag with a few circuits and some wiring in it. It did not impress me. Dad told me to pick up the bag and look at it, so I did. Again, I was not impressed. Dad says to me to take a better look at it, 'cause that was a part of Skylab, and would be going out into space. I WAS IMPRESSED! When my family moved from the St. Louis area to Southeast Missouri about 1973, all those astronaut autographs...including Neal Armstrong (first man to walk on moon) were kept in a utility drawer in our kitchen. While cleaning up to move, they ALL GOT TOSSED IN THE TRASH! True story.
Man...the loss of that stuff is sad, Junior. I have followed the space program all my life. I remember when I was in grade school, we listened to coverage of the flights of Alan Shepard and John Glenn on the radio. I was up in the middle of the night watching the moon landing live on TV. I was watching the NASA TV coverage of the Columbia landing. The control room was expecting radio contact at a certain time and as the minutes past that time slipped by, the mood in the control room went downhill fast. Sad, sad, sad. I'm not surprised that debris is still being found.
I can see how something that breaks into that many pieces over that large of an area would make a heckova mess. Anything that landed in deep water may never be found. Maybe they should use sonar to check the deeper parts of that lake, if there are even any deep parts of it with this drought.
i am sure they will do just that okie.. i would imagine truth be known they are there today, OR have already been there!
I was in 10th grade in 1986. We were watching the Challenger launch live in History class. It was a very somber afternoon.
In 1986 I was still wearing diapers. However, thanks to YouTube, and such, you can still catch a lot of the original footage.
And in 2003 I was a Freshman in college, trying to become a pilot myself.