Columbia

I live in Dallas and was ROCKED out of my bed around 8:00 am this moring... I thought someone was trying to bash in my front door so I ran out to look and my black lab was going crazy... Not kowing what it was, I went back to bed and then about 8:45 my Mom calles and says are you watching TV... A tragic day.. May God be with them all!!!!! (:( (:( (:( (:( (:(

Let us also remember that they believed in the value of what they were doing. They went on that mission knowing that the risks were far outweighed by what could be gained. To dismiss the space program as too risky would be to dismiss their efforts and sacrifices.

The poem quoted by President Reagan at the time of the Challenger disaster is still appropriate:

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds, -and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,

I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless falls of air.

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, nor even eagle flew -

And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod

The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand and touched the face of God."

John Magee was killed in a flying accident in December, 1941. He was 19.

In addition to the Bible that the Israeli astronaut carried into orbit, he also carried a drawing of the earth as seen from the moon, drawn by a 14 year old in 1942 before he died at Auschwitz in 1944. The drawing can be seen here:

http://www.yad-vashem.org.il/about_yad/press_room/press_releases/ilan_ramon.html

John's post may help to prevent the missunderstanding I had when I first read this post, but just to be certain:

The space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch on January 28, 1986.

The space shuttle Columbia dissintegrated on reentry today, February 1, 2003.

My words in my earlier post was from my mistaken impression that there was some sort of an anniversary memorial for the Challenger, but I overlayed the name of the Columbia with the earlier event. The timing was close and the shuttle names close enough to confuse me.

I believe my earlier words appropriate (although perhaps spoken a bit too soon) and I believe the crew of the Columbia would echo them. I am sure we will always fondly remember the crew of the Columbia as certainly as we still remember the crew of Challenger.

The thing that makes me deeply moved on this is that it appears the accident on take-off, where a piece of foam broke free and damaged the right wing was the cause and that Mission Control and the Brave astranauts may well have known that they were in serious danger when they came back - yet they carried out their mission.

It appears that it was the telemetry on the right wing that was first lost.

These guys actually live out or computer fantasies for real and are the best of us all.

What was the deep reason for the accident?
For the Challenger it was rooted in self compliance and spending squeeze.
I dare to say they are a factor here too. Aeronautics and Space are things where details count. Details cost a lot and NASA budget was always pressed to do many things with less money.

Space, the next frontier. We want to go there but the money goes somewhere else.

I'll never see the stars as, possibly, my sons, but I believe those (together with environment saving techs) are the best thing money can buy, because it buys the future.

I agree Gherardo,

The world is in a mess and humankind is drifting aimlessly and without direction and compassion. This is really dangerous for us all. Space travel provides a direction for humankind - there is nowhere else to go - other than inside ones own heads to explore introversism, spite, fetish and evil - which is where we are going as a race (sorry guys).

Space travel is much more than science, it is absolutely essential psychologically for mankind to progress in a healthy collective way. NASA and the World Space Station have been so chronically under funded for the last 20 years we have lost the dream. This needs to be re-captured.

For the crew of the Shuttle Columbia

I read of a reverend who stood to speak
at the funeral of his friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
from the beginning...to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth
and spoke of the following date with tears,
but he said what mattered most of all
was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time
that she spent alive on earth…
and now only those who loved her
know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own;
the cars…the house…the cash.
What matters is how we live and love
and how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard…
are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left.
(You could be at "dash mid-range.")

If we could just slow down enough
to consider what’s true and real
and always try to understand
the way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger
and show appreciation more
and love the people in our lives
like we've never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect
and more often wear a smile,
remembering that this special "dash"
might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is being read
with your life's actions to rehash,
would you be proud of the things they say
about how you spent your "dash?"

The Dash © 1998
by Linda Ellis