Patricia Huffman Smith NASA Museum 'Remembering Columbia' — Attraction in Hemphill

A small museum that lets religion take over the narrative of a national diaster.

They basically believe that God "choose Hemphill" to crash the space shuttle because they were the best people to host a recovery. They say multiple times in the video and in the guided tour that God watched over the recovery workers, even in bad weather, ensuring they worked with no sickness or injury (even though multiple people died in a helicopter crash while doing recovery work) and therefore imply God didn't care about the astronaut themselves.

The exhibits themselves focus on the missions leading up the diaster, and memorializing the astronauts who died, but the video and tour guide left me angry and sick that people could have such a twisted view of reality. Religious extremism rears it's ugly head in...

Great experience at the museum. Our tour guide, Belinda, gave us an amazing first hand account of what the history of Columbia was and also everything the town of Hemphill went through to get the crew home where they belonged. This museum is a stepping stone to what they hope will be a bigger and more proper memorial to this great ship and crew, so please consider a donation to help them in that effort. Also, please know that the website that the google maps listing has linked isn't correct. A google search will show the proper website further down...

Those in the area, or passing through, with any interests in space and science should check this museum out. This museum is dedicated in most part to the recovery efforts of the Columbia orbiter (and to its history of missions, starting IIRC from STS-1) as the area around Hemp Hill is where several portions came to rest and where much federal manpower was focused. The museum is not large, but for its mission is probably the right size. Definitely well worth a stop. The staff were very warm and...