Nacogdoches Community Remembering the Columbia Tragedy This Week
NACOGDOCHES- With the 10th Anniversary of the space shuttle Columbia disaster this Friday, February 1, 2013 members of the Nacogdoches community are doing their part to honor and remember the tragedy. The space shuttle Columbia was the first shuttle of NASA’s orbital fleet to be capable of space travel, and it completed 27 missions, before tragedy struck during re-entry on its 28th mission.
Many Nacogdoches residents remember clearly the sounds and sights associated with that morning and were an essential part of the first response. The Nacogdoches community was largely impacted by this tragedy and many organizations and individuals played a role in the recovery efforts for months following the incident. Below is a list of local events happening to honor the 10th Anniversary of the Columbia disaster:
“Memories of Columbia,” a collection of memorabilia dedicated to the space shuttle tragedy will be on display this weekend. The Columbia Memorial Museum, located at 106 S. Pecan will be open Friday, February 1st and Saturday February 2nd from 9 a.m.to 6 p.m., the collection will also be on display Sunday, February 3rd from 12 to 3 p.m.
The Nacogdoches Convention & Visitors Bureau will host three free screenings of the documentary “Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster,” this Friday February 1st. The 54 minute documentary explores the causes of the accident and chronicles the conversations inside NASA the day of the event as well as the investigation that ensued afterwards. The Visitor’s Center located at 200 E. Main Street will show the documentary at 9:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., and 1 p.m., admission is free of charge.
The City of Nacogdoches Historic Sites Department and the East Texas Research Center at SFA will host a community collection day focused on gathering stories, documents and photographs related to the explosion of the Columbia Space Shuttle over East Texas. The Community Collection Day will be held Friday, February 1, 2013 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Nacogdoches City Council Chambers. Anyone and everyone with a document, story, photograph or any other media related to the Columbia disaster is invited to come to City Hall and share their story. The East Texas Research Center welcomes any donations of photographs, letters and other documents, including a digital donation wherein they will be scanned by the archivists from the East Texas Research Center and the original returned to the owners. Everyone is welcome, and there will be an audio recorder on site for those wishing to share stories about that day. This collection will be housed at Stephen F. Austin State University, and once fully processed, will be available to the public for research.
The City of Nacogdoches also encourages everyone to tune in to their local PBS stations for the premiere of “Columbia: Mission of Hope.” You can check your local PBS Listings at missionofhopemovie.com This documentary, ten years in the making, explores a different side of the Columbia tragedy.
For more information on any of these events please contact Nacogdoches Police Sergeant Greg Sowell at 936-559-2618 or [email protected].