Tue 2005-03-29 15:08 20050329(003) Tufte shows the specific path of debris hitting the wing of Columbia.

Kennedy Space Center

Atlantis' final rollover from the VAB to its waiting museum space at the KSCVC

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Ribbons of steam and smoke trail space shuttle Atlantis as it nears touch down on the Shuttle Landing Facility's Runway 15 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the final time. Securing the space shuttle fleet's place in history, Atlantis marked the 26th nighttime landing of NASA's Space Shuttle Program and the 78th landing at Kennedy. Main gear touchdown was at 5:57:00 a.m. EDT, followed by nose gear touchdown at 5:57:20 a.m., and wheelstop at 5:57:54 a.m. On board are STS-135 Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, and Mission Specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim. On the 37th shuttle mission to the International Space Station, STS-135 delivered more than 9,400 pounds of spare parts, equipment and supplies in the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module that will sustain station operations for the next year. STS-135 was the 33rd and final flight for Atlantis, which has spent 307 days in space, orbited Earth 4,848 times and traveled 125,935,769 miles. For more information visit, www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts135.... Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Space Shuttle flyover Los Angeles, Sept. 21, 2012.

Space Shuttle Enterprise, on its way to the Paris Air Show. 19-20 MAY 1983.

Space Shuttle Discovery sits on Launch Pad 39A the night before her final launch. Taken just after Rotating Service Structure (RSS) retraction.

Endeavour flying over The Little Mermaid Ride in Disneyland California Adventures. (Rosa Trieu/Neon Tommy)

The space shuttle Endeavour visits Monterey

Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-135) lifts off for the last time from Pad 39A in Cape Canaveral, Fl. This photo ran in the print edition of The Destin Log.

Kennedy Space Center

Atlantis' final rollover from the VAB to its waiting museum space at the KSCVC

This is most of what is left of the launch pad that was used to send Americans to the moon.....likely what the shuttle pads will look like in 20 years too. This site is not on any official tour....in fact if you do not know where it is, you will not find it, even with an official badge.

Enterprise is one of six space shuttles that was built by NASA over the past 30 years. This shuttle was never launched into outer space because it was built without any engines.

Kennedy Space Center

Atlantis' final rollover from the VAB to its waiting museum space at the KSCVC

Space Shuttle Discovery leaving Altus AFB after refuel, enroute to KSC.

intrepid.emuseum.com/objects/1608/enterprise-ov101-midbod...

PVTA Bus. Edited with Instagram

Space Shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center.

Note the fiery exhaust emitted by the SSMEs while payload bay doors are open on orbit, indicating a major mission anomaly.

We can see it from our backyard, but even with the telephoto, this is as close as we have gotten so far.

Taken by a cousin of a friend.

My family and I were heading to Wright Patterson Air Force Base on February 1, 2003 when I turned on the radio and heard the space shuttle Columbia did not show up on time to the landing site and that NASA had lost contact with the shuttle. I knew immediately what had happened.

We continued on the the Air Force Museum and everyone was in a fog about it. I stopped in the gift shop and got the only mission patch they had for this shuttle flight.

I felt the same grief as I did with Challenger. Go to the web link below to read about this great crew and their ship.

www.nasa.gov/columbia/home/index.html

Florida Trip Oct 2016, visiting NASA, Universal Islands of Adventure, Sebastian Inlet