10th anniversary of Columbia shuttle disaster

In this Jan. 16, 2003 file photo, the space shuttle Columbia liftoffs from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Space shuttle Columbia broke apart in flames 200,000 feet over Texas on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2003 killing all seven astronauts just minutes before they were to glide to a landing in Florida. Ten years later, reminders of Columbia are everywhere, including up in the sky. Everything from asteroids, lunar craters and Martian hills, to schools, parks, streets and even an airport (Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport) bear the Columbia astronauts' names. Two years ago, a museum opened in Hemphill, Texas, where much of the Columbia wreckage rained down, dedicated to "remembering Columbia." About 84,000 pounds of that wreckage, representing 40 percent of NASA's oldest space shuttle, are stored at Kennedy and loaned for engineering research.

Chris O'Meara | AP
In this January 16, 2003 file photograph, space shuttle Columbia and its 7-member crew including Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut, lifts off from its Kennedy Space Center launchpad on a 16-day science mission. February 1, 2013 marks the 10-year anniversary when the aircraft broke apart after entering the Earth's atmosphere.

Red Huber | MCT
Space Shuttle Columbia crew, left to right, front row, Rick Husband, Kalpana Chawla, William McCool, back row, David Brown, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson and Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon are shown in this undated file photo. The seven astronauts aboard Columbia where killed when the shuttle broke apart during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere 16 minutes short of touchdown on Feb. 1, 2003.

AP
In this Jan. 2003 file photo, astronaut Rick D. Husband, mission commander of the space shuttle Columbia, is pictured on the aft flight deck. Husband and six crew members were lost when Columbia broke up during re-entry over north Texas on Feb. 1, 2003. This picture was on a roll of unprocessed film recovered by searchers from the debris later, released by NASA on June 24, 2003.

Anonymous | AP
One image of CNN's coverage of the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy on Feb. 1, 2003.

CNN
In this Feb. 1, 2003 file photo, debris from the space shuttle Columbia streaks across the sky over Tyler, Texas. The Columbia broke apart in flames 200,000 feet over Texas on Saturday, killing all seven astronauts just minutes before they were to glide to a landing in Florida.

Scott Lieberman | AP
In this Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2003, file photo, family members of the crew of the space shuttle Columbia embrace prior to a the memorial service, at Johnson Space Center in Houston. A new NASA report says that the seat restraints, suits and helmets of the doomed crew of the space shuttle Columbia didn't work well, leading to "lethal trauma" as the out-of-control ship broke apart, killing all seven astronauts. In a graphic 400-page report, NASA further studied the Feb. 1, 2003, shuttle tragedy to help them design their new shuttle replacement capsule more likely to survive an accident.

Ed Sackett | AP
Space shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore displays a piece of insulating foam, similar to that which coated the shuttle Columbia's fuel tank, during a news briefing at the Johnson Space Center in Houston Feb. 5, 2003. Dittemore at first urged journalists not to jump to conclusions regarding the impact of the foam, which struck Columbia's wing on liftoff. Ultimately investigators said the foam likely caused the Feb. 1 disaster that killed seven astronauts.

JOE CAVARETTA | AP
Dr. Jon Clark, husband of space shuttle Columbia astronaut Laurel Clark, poses near a sign honoring the seven astronauts killed in the shuttle disaster, in this file photo made at Johnson Space Center in Houston March 6, 2003. Clark says he sensed trouble before learning that his wife and the six other members of the Columbia crew died during the craft's re-entry to earth on Feb. 1, 2003.

DAVID J. PHILLIP | AP
Members of the space shuttle Columbia reconstruction team investigating the disaster place pieces of the orbiter's left wing on this plexiglass mold at a hangar at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Tuesday May 13, 2003.

AP
NASA investigator Dan Bell measures a 16-inch hole seen in a carbon-reinforced wing panel removed from shuttle Atlantis after a 1.67-pound piece of fuel-tank foam insulation was shot out of a 35-foot nitrogen-pressurized gun and slammed into it during a test in San Antonio, Monday July 7, 2003. The Columbia investigation team said the test was the "smoking gun" that proves what brought down the Columbia shuttle.

ERIC GAY | AP
This image provided by the Israel Police Department shows the pages from the diary of the Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon as they looked when they were found in the Texas field. A small heap of paper that survived the fiery disintegration of space shuttle Columbia, a 38-mile fall to Earth and two months of exposure to rain and sun in a Texas field has been painstakingly restored by forensic scientists to yield the flight diary and notes of Ramon.

AP
A cryogenic tank from space shuttle Columbia found in a lake. As lake levels dropped in Texas due to drought, objects long submerged are being revealed, attracting the attention of historians, anthropologists, criminal investigators and, in this case, NASA.

THE NACOGDOCHES POLICE DEPARTMEN | NYT

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