Grief along the Columbia Debris Trail

february 4, 2003  09:40 am
Grief along the Columbia Debris Trail
As the nation weathers another space-shuttle tragedy, Dallas Observer columnist Jim Schutze traveled the debris trail this weekend, tracing not only the doomed spacecraft's final trajectory, but the many "Last Rites" offered by the people of east Texas. "There's chunks of it on my dad's ranch," an excited man announces in a diner. Schutze follows them and others to look at debris from outer space, a chase first exciting and then grim when body parts are found along the Louisiana border.