It turned out being one of the most surreal experiences of my life. For I was watching NASA TV (not one of the news channels) and there was little or no commentary. Just a liveshot of Mission Control and some audio of radio transmissions. On the wall was the tracking of the shuttle as it went over the California coast, through Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. When it got to Texas, all tracking seemed to stop. That got my attention but the folks at Mission control stayed so cool, calm and collected that I got no indication that anything was out of the ordinary. Even with the repeated attempts to contact the shuttle through UHF, I didn't see any need for concern. After all, everybody at Mission Control was just sitting there quietly doing their jobs. If there was an emergency, I figured there would be some frenetic activity and arm-waving, etc. The only movement I saw was one guy in a blue shirt walking briskly up and down the corridor.
By the time it was 9:10, I knew something was not right. I haven't seen many Shuttle landing but I know that by now, the NASA coverage would normally have switched to Florida where the Shuttle would be coming into view for the 9:16 landing.
When 9:16 came and went, curiosity got the best of me and I switched over to FoxNews. I must tell you that my heart stopped when I saw the Breaking News graphic NASA LOSES CONTACT WITH SHUTTLE. I knew at that moment that something catastrophic had happened.
And I never would have been watching it at all was it not for Free Republic. Virtually every breaking story over the past few years I got from Free Republic. And not only do we get the news here before most everybody else but we can begin discussing it amongst ourselves immediately. What a resource this site has turned out to be.