Shuttle Wreckage Found in Dry Texas Lake

A spherical tank that fell off the space shuttle Columbia when it blew up in 2003 will be returned to the Kennedy Space Center.

Droughts aren't entirely terrible after all: a Texas lake that has dried up due to a lack of rain in recent months has revealed a spherical tank that fell off the space shuttle Columbia when it disintegrated upon reentry in 2003. Fishermen spotted the metre-wide sphere in Lake Nacogdoches as the water level of the eastern Texas lake has dropped by some three metres. The piece of wreckage appears to have been a storage tank for either oxygen or hydrogen, and has remained remarkably intact since the shuttle's explosion eight years ago, killing all seven astronauts aboard. The tank will now be shipped to NASA's Kennedy Space Center to join the rest of Columbia's recovered wreckage, just a few short weeks after the 135th and final shuttle mission returned from the International Space Station.