The View Of Amarillo…From Outer Space

If you've ever flown into Amarillo on an airplane, you know what the view looks like from the sky.

But have we ever seen Amarillo from WAY above the sky? Like out of the planet sky? Well, you're about to.

There are some spectacular pictures that were taken from the Columbia Space Shuttle back in 1999, four years before it broke apart on re-entry from a mission that tragically took the lives of all 7 crew members.

Here's just a few general shots of the Amarillo region from the shuttle. I know it doesn't look like much at first glance, but when you factor in longitude and latitude, it can be pinpointed to the Amarillo area--then things really start to click in your brain.

Check out a couple of these photos before you hit the full gallery below to get your bearings.

This is a picture of the area where Lake Meredith is. If you look close enough, you'll be able to locate exactly where the lake is in the photo.

If you look up in the upper right hand corner of this picture, you'll start to see some houses appear. This is clearly along the edge of where the Amarillo residential area begins.

Here's an absolutely amazing shot of the city. Taken in infrared to really draw out the detail, you'll notice this is almost exactly what it looks like as you fly over the city in an airplane, but the depth of this picture is purely amazing.

So it's a little tough to see, but this picture from space was taken over the Amarillo airport. It's a bit too far away to see any planes, but the location pinned this one right over the airport.

Didn't believe these were taken from above the atmosphere? This one should put that to rest for ya. This spectacular picture shows Amarillo and Canadian River with the shuttle a major focal point of the photo.

Here's the full gallery of the 12 photos taken of Amarillo from the Columbia space shuttle missions: