In memory of
William C. McCool
1961 – 2003
- From
- San Diego, California
- Died that day
- February 1, 2003, aged 41
- The day
- Columbia
Pilot of Columbia, a captain in the United States Navy. He was born William Cameron Graham in San Diego and took his father's name when his mother remarried.
He finished second in a class of one thousand and eighty-three at the Naval Academy, took a master's in computer science at Maryland and another in aeronautical engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School, and flew the EA-6B Prowler from the Enterprise and the Coral Sea before becoming a test pilot.
He was selected by NASA in 1996 and this was his first flight. He had been in space fifteen days, twenty-two hours and twenty minutes when Columbia came apart, sixteen minutes from home.
He kept a camera running on the flight deck through the early part of re-entry. The tape was found on the ground in Texas and the crew are laughing on it.
He left a wife and three sons and is buried at Arlington.
Film
NASA in-house videography of mission control during the final minutes of descent. Loss of signal between the orbiter and mission control at about 5:15. The flight director acknowledges the contingency at 11:50.