Am in north Texas. That morning, I was watching NASA TV’s coverage of what should’ve been the mission’s safe ending, and heard multiple sonic booms, closely spa

Am in north Texas. That morning, I was watching NASA TV’s coverage of what should’ve been the mission’s safe ending, and heard multiple sonic booms, closely spaced. This was soon after Houston had lost comms with Columbia following the warnings about weird sensor readings, and I said to myself, “That’s weird. That sounds like what a shuttle does when it’s—” . . . and then I stopped, as I slowly began to realize there might be a terrible reason why Houston had lost contact.