Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport, is a public airport located six miles (10 km) east of the central business district of Amarillo, a city in Potter and Randall Counties, Texas, United States. The airport was renamed in 2003 after fallen NASA astronaut and Amarillo native Richard Douglas Husband, who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in February of that year.
Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport covers an area of 3,547 acres (1,435 ha) which contains two concrete paved runways: 4/22 measuring 13,502 x 200 ft (4,115 x 61 m) and 13/31 measuring 7,901 x 150 ft (2,408 x 46 m). For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2007, the airport had 98,058 aircraft operations, an average of 268 per day: 48% military, 29% general aviation, 14% air taxi and 9% scheduled commercial. At that time there were 40 aircraft based at this airport: 52% single-engine, 18% multi-engine, 28% jet and 3% helicopter.
On July 1, 2007, the Space Shuttle Atlantis made a stop at the airport while being piggybacked from Edwards Air Force Base to Florida—one of the few visits by the shuttle to a commercial airport. After a brief stay it was flown on to Offutt Air Force Base.
The original English Field terminal building was converted in 1997 to a museum maintained by the Texas Aviation Historical Society. The name of the original airfield is memorialized in the English Fieldhouse, a local restaurant located adjacent to the general aviation terminal.
In 2003, the airport terminal building was rededicated to NASA astronaut Rick Husband, the commander of mission STS-107 of the Space Shuttle Columbia and an Amarillo native. Husband and his crew were all killed when the Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry on February 1, 2003.
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