[ken in texas]

Perfectly clear... what a sight!!!!!

[leadpenny]

You may have been the last to see the Columbia.

[Molly Pitcher]

It's said to have broken up over Dallas. Was it intact when you saw it? Or Did you see multiple trails?

[McGruff]

I copied these recollections of yours from another thread since you were one of the original posters to this thread. Hope you don't mind.

We had just come in from watching the shuttle pass overhead, and I realize now that what we saw was the craft breaking up. About 30-45 seconds after we came in into the house we heard one or two loud booms. My first thought was that a transformer in one of the neighborhood's electrical boxes had blown up... that's happened before and it will rattle the garage door a bit. I've seen the shuttle's approach before over North Texas and have never heard a sonic boom - it's just too high... it couldn't have been the shuttle. But at 8:15, when NASA TV was long overdue to show the landing approach, we just knew that something was wrong.

As Columbia passed overhead, we saw it get shredded by unimaginable forces. It was falling like a rock, out of control. Yesterday was a tough day.