Saturday: Debris from the space shuttle Columbia streaks across the sky over Tyler, Texas.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA lost communication with the space shuttle Columbia approximately sixteen minutes before its scheduled landing Saturday morning. At the time, Columbia was streaking over north-central Texas, at an altitude of approximately 200,000 feet, moving at about 12,500 mph. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration declared an emergency.
NASA was mobilizing search and rescue teams in and around the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and warned people to be on the look out for "debris" which was described as possibly being "toxic."
Witnesses reported falling debris, and video showed what seemed to be the shuttle breaking apart.
The shuttle was carrying the first Israeli astronaut and six Americans, and authorities had feared it would be a terrorist target.
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