Son remembers astronaut 20 years after disaster

In 2003, 22-year-old Sean McCool sat in a college computer lab listening to a scratchy NASA audio feed over a still evolving internet when he knew things were going wrong, and immediately called a family friend.

"It was in the days when you had to remember phone numbers, and this was the only one I remembered," Sean says. "It was an astronaut friend. He was straight business. He just said, 'Sean it's bad.'"

Sean's father, Commander Willie McCool, a husband and father of three died Feb. 1, 2003 when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated in a cataclysm the world watched on live television.

He was 41 years old.

The seven-member crew perished when the shuttle broke apart as it re-entered earth's atmosphere.

An investigation determined the accident was caused by a piece of insulating foam which broke off and punched a hole in the left wing.

"It's one of those events where there's not a lot of people you can relate to," says Sean. "It's kind of lonely in that aspect. It's kind of weird."

Willie McCool never set out to be an astronaut. The Navy pilot stationed on Whidbey Island only applied because a bunch of his Navy buddies did.

"He just loved hiking and mountain biking," says Sean. "That was his happy place. Being an astronaut was never a goal."

Always the leader, never a follower, McCool excelled. His achievements impress even the granddaughter he never got to meet.

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