Posted 10:25 am Friday, February 01, 2013
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COLUMBIA: Shuttle coverage no easy task for editor
TylerPaper.com video
BY DANNY MOGLE
dmogle@tylerpaper.com
Those who heard the sound of Columbia plummeting to East Texas will never forget it.
dmogle@tylerpaper.com
Those who heard the sound of Columbia plummeting to East Texas will never forget it.
It was a loud whirling sound — eerie, unsettling and strange — followed by a boom. Some said they heard a series of explosions that rattled windows.
It was my first indication that something terrible had happened.
ONLOOKERS CROUCH near an area where shuttle debris landed following the space shuttle Columbia tragedy.
Columbia exploded just before 9 on a Saturday morning as it entered the atmosphere. A television news bulletin announced that NASA abruptly lost contact with Columbia over East Texas. NASA confirmed that the spaceship had exploded, and the astronauts aboard were dead.
We were suddenly the site of the biggest story in the nation — perhaps the world.
Saturday morning is the worst time for a big story to break. The Tyler Morning Telegraph is on a skeleton shift. As assignments editor, my first priority was to get staff members to work. My next priority was to figure out what to do with them.
Typically, with a big news event there is a place to send journalists — the site of tornado damage, a fire, the location of a shooting. With Columbia, the site was nowhere and everywhere at the same time. The explosion occurred high in the sky, and chunks of debris fell in a huge swath from the Metroplex to the Louisiana border.
Typically, with a big news event there is a place to send journalists — the site of tornado damage, a fire, the location of a shooting. With Columbia, the site was nowhere and everywhere at the same time. The explosion occurred high in the sky, and chunks of debris fell in a huge swath from the Metroplex to the Louisiana border.
Reports of debris came from seemingly all across East Texas. A 7-foot piece was found just west of Rusk. Pieces were scattered across downtown Nacogdoches. Debris had fallen on Texas Highway 155 north of Palestine. Debris was recovered in Alto.
Our angle to this national tragedy was to tell the story of the debris recovery effort and document reaction from our fellow East Texans.
There were many questions to be answered. Where had the debris fallen? Was it safe to touch it? Should you remove it? Had chunks of the space shuttle fallen through houses or hurt anyone on the ground?
We received a call from Dr. Scott Lieberman, a Tyler cardiologist and photography enthusiast. He was taking photos of a small dot in the sky — the Columbia in re-entry — when the dot turned into a flash followed by streaking trail caused by burning debris.
Dr. Lieberman was one of the few people to capture Columbia's tragic ending. His amazing photos were carried in the paper and distributed to papers around the world.
We decided to publish a special section in the next day's paper (a very rare occurrence). Many of us worked from early morning until late into the night, and then did the same thing for the next three days.
As journalists, we are privileged to be able to provide information that people need, and to tell great news stories — both tragic and wonderful.
Coverage of the Columbia explosion was one of our finest accomplishments.
Danny Mogle is managing editor for the Tyler Morning Telegraph.
Our angle to this national tragedy was to tell the story of the debris recovery effort and document reaction from our fellow East Texans.
There were many questions to be answered. Where had the debris fallen? Was it safe to touch it? Should you remove it? Had chunks of the space shuttle fallen through houses or hurt anyone on the ground?
We received a call from Dr. Scott Lieberman, a Tyler cardiologist and photography enthusiast. He was taking photos of a small dot in the sky — the Columbia in re-entry — when the dot turned into a flash followed by streaking trail caused by burning debris.
Dr. Lieberman was one of the few people to capture Columbia's tragic ending. His amazing photos were carried in the paper and distributed to papers around the world.
We decided to publish a special section in the next day's paper (a very rare occurrence). Many of us worked from early morning until late into the night, and then did the same thing for the next three days.
As journalists, we are privileged to be able to provide information that people need, and to tell great news stories — both tragic and wonderful.
Coverage of the Columbia explosion was one of our finest accomplishments.
Danny Mogle is managing editor for the Tyler Morning Telegraph.
