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TYLER \u2014 On February 1, 2003, 23 years ago, a doctor from East Texas and his wife stood outside, eagerly anticipating the return of the Columbia Space Shuttle to Earth following its 17-day mission focused on microgravity experiments. According to our news partner KETK, Dr. Scott Lieberman was photographing the shuttle. As they captured pictures and videos, Dr. Scott Lieberman\u2019s wife inquired whether it was normal for the shuttle to break apart.<\/p>\n
He described the ensuing moments as \u201ca very loud envelope of noise,\u201d an experience unlike any he had encountered before. At that moment, he scrutinized the photographs he had taken and realized the shuttle had disintegrated. The couple became witnesses to history, as seven astronauts tragically lost their lives just 15 minutes before their scheduled landing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a devastating moment,\u201d Lieberman reflected. \u201cThese were my heroes growing up\u2014astronauts in general. Their dedication and work ethic ended up being something useful to everybody.\u201d
\n<\/p>\n
The images captured by Lieberman and his wife became a significant part of history. They understood the monumental nature of what they had witnessed and reached out to local and national news outlets to share their story. <\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until months later that NASA and investigators uncovered that, during the launch of Columbia, falling foam from the External Tank had impacted the Reinforced Carbon-Carbon panels on the underside of the left wing.<\/p>\n
The seven astronauts killed were:
\nCommander: Rick D. Husband
\nPilot: William C. McCool
\nPayload Commander: Michael P. Anderson
\nMission Specialist 1: David Brown
\nMission Specialist 2: Kalpana Chawla
\nMission Specialist: Laurel Blair Salton Clark
\nPayload Specialist 1: Ilan Ramon<\/p>\n
\u201cThe event had a profound effect on me, not only because of the tragedy itself but also due to the realization of the impact such images can have,\u201d Lieberman reflected. \u201cIt was a heartbreaking moment, as these were my childhood heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TYLER \u2014 On February 1, 2003, 23 years ago, a doctor from East Texas and his wife stood outside, eagerly anticipating the return of the Columbia Space Shuttle to Earth following its 17-day mission focused on microgravity experiments. According to our news partner KETK, Dr. Scott Lieberman was photographing the shuttle. As they captured pictures … Continue reading Remembering Columbia<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":1477063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/02\/space-2-199x200.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1477027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-07 22:01:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/02\/space-2-199x200.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1477027"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1477461,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477027\/revisions\/1477461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1477063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1477027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1477027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1477027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}