The drought in Texas has been very severe this year -- the worst in more than a hundred years for most of the state. Because of the drought, rivers have been drying up and lakes across the state are shrinking. And that includes Lake Nacogdoches, located in the Piney Woods of East Texas. When a significant portion of the northern edge of the lake receded, the object pictured above was uncovered.
A spokesman for NASA has verified that it is a piece of a space shuttle, and most likely a part of Columbia. They said it was a "tank that provides power and water for shuttle missions". NASA is currently making plans to retrieve the tank.
NOTE -- This is kind of special for us folks in the Panhandle. The commander of the Columbia when it disintegrated was Rick Husband. Husband was born and raised in Amarillo, and graduated from Amarillo High School. There is a life-size statue of Commander Husband in the Amarillo airport -- the Rick Husband International Airport.
oh man..what a sad reminder..
ReplyDeleteAnother reminder -- the fuel for the retrorockets on the Shuttles was highly toxic, the same shit that has contaminated a huge portion of the Mongollian steppe downwind from the Soviet space test site even though there hasn't been a launch of one of those toxic rockets from there since the fall of the Soviet Union almost twenty years ago. If you come across something you think might have been a tank on the Shuttle, it's probably not a good idea to go lickin' it or something'. Just sayin'.
ReplyDelete- Badtux the Helpful Penguin