The prolonged drought in Texas has revealed what officials think may be a piece of the space shuttle Columbia, which broke apart over east Texas as it re-entered the atmosphere in 2003.
Greg Sowell, a police sergeant in the city of Nacogdoches, about 160 miles northeast of Houston, said the falling levels of Lake Nacogdoches revealed an unexpected object.
"We found a large, about four foot diameter, round, what appears to be a tank of some sort," Sowell said. "We have reason to believe this may be a part of the Columbia space shuttle."
Columbia broke apart upon re-entry into the atmosphere on February 1st, 2003, killing the seven crew members on board. Debris from the spacecraft, which disintegrated over a wide area of east Texas, has been found in some 2,000 locations across eastern Texas and western Louisiana, including in Nacogdoches.
A record drought has gripped Texas. "Due to the drought, Lake Nacogdoches is at an approximately nine-foot low," he said. "There has been an unusually large area of the lake which is normally underwater which has been exposed."
Reuters