Three Texans among Columbia crew 
Although all seven astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia trained at NASA in Houston, the commander and two others had even stronger connections to Texas.
"We pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave us birth;
Let us rest our eyes
On the fleecy skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth."
Robert A. Heinlein
The Green Hills of Earth
May God bless the heroes of every kind that seek to understand His glory. Amen.
Three Texans among Columbia crew Although all seven astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia trained at NASA in Houston, the commander and two others had even stronger connections to Texas.
02/01/2003
Although all seven astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia trained at NASA in Houston, the commander and two others had even stronger connections to Texas.
Commander Rick Husband grew up in Amarillo and received a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from Texas Tech University in 1980.
Pilot William McCool graduated from Coronado High School in Lubbock. And Kalpana Chawla, a mission specialist, earned a master's degree from the University of Texas-Arlington in 1984.
All died Saturday morning when the shuttle disintegrated over Texas en route to a scheduled landing in Florida.
Husband, an Air Force colonel, was commanding his first mission in only his second space flight.
"I think a lot of it has to do with being in the right place at the right time, for starters," Husband, 45, said before the flight.
Husband was a test pilot until he was selected for the astronaut corps in 1994, after his fourth try.
"It's been pretty much a lifelong dream and just a thrill to be able to get to actually live it out," Husband said.
McCool was a space rookie and the pilot of the shuttle mission. McCool, 41, graduated second in his class from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1983. After serving as a commander and test pilot, he became an astronaut in 1996.
Part of his job on the mission, which was devoted mainly to scientific research, was to draw blood from his crewmates, a skill he practiced on NASA volunteers.
"I didn't want to inflict pain," said McCool, a father of three sons. "We weren't really gathering science, so everything that they were going through was for my benefit, and I guess I felt bad a little bit."
Chawla moved to the United States after receiving a degree in aeronautical engineering in India in 1982. She then attended UTA and graduated with a master of science in aerospace engineering in 1984. Her doctorate came from the University of Colorado-Boulder in 1988.
For Chawla, the Columbia mission may have been a chance at redemption. Mistakes on her only other space flight, in 1996, caused the crew to lose control momentarily of a science satellite. Two other astronauts went on a space walk to recapture it.
"I stopped thinking about it after trying to figure out what are the lessons learned, and there are so many," Chawla said. "After I had basically sorted that out, I figured it's time to really look at the future, not at the past."