God Hold Columbia
February
1, 2003
Mary
in FL shared this link with us
that honors the memory of the
crew of the shuttle Columbia.
David
M. Brown, Rick D. Husband, Laurel Clark,
Kalpana Chawla, Michael P. Anderson,
William C. McCool, Ilan Ramon
Regarding
Columbia:
A Note To Our Subscribers
Shirley
forwarded this to us
from the Science@NASA team.
Feb.
4th, 2003: At the dawn of the space age some 40
years ago, we always knew who was orbiting Earth or
flying to the Moon. Neil Armstrong, Yuri Gagarin,
John Glenn. They were household names --
everywhere.
Lately it's different. Space flight has become more
"routine." Another flight of the
shuttle. Another visit to the space station.
Who's onboard this time? Unless you?re a NASA employee or
a serious space enthusiast, you might not know.
Dave Brown, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla,
Michael Anderson, William McCool, and Ilan Ramon.
Now we know. Those are the names of the seven
astronauts who were tragically lost on Saturday, Feb.
1st, when the space shuttle Columbia (STS-107) broke
apart over Texas.
Before the accident, perhaps, they were strangers to
you. But if that's so, why did you have a knot in
your gut when you heard the news? What were those
tears all about? Why do you feel so deep-down sad
for seven strangers?
Astronauts have an unaccountable hold on us. They
are explorers. Curious, humorous, serious, daring,
careful. Where they go, they go in peace.
Every kid wants to be one. Astronauts are the
essence of humanity.
They are not strangers. They are us.
While still in orbit Dave Brown asked, jokingly, "Do
we really have to come back??"
No.
But we wish you had.
The Science@NASA team, as does all of NASA and the world,
extends heartfelt sympathies to the family, friends and
colleagues of the STS-107 crew. Please see the NASA
Home Page (http://www.nasa.gov) for more
information on the Columbia Investigation.
--Tony Phillips, Ron Koczor, Bryan Walls, Becky Bray,
Patrick Meyer.
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