"There is no better
place to emphasize the
unity of people in the world than flying in space. We are all the same
people, we are all human beings, and I believe that most of us, almost
all of us, are good people"
Ilan Ramon
Israel's First
Astronaut
On Januray 16, 2003, the
Space Shuttle Columbia was
launched and was to spend 16 days in space on a science mission. On
February
1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded during what appeared to be
re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. NASA speculates that damage
to thermal tiles during liftoff may be the cause of this explosion.
Aboard Columbia were
five men and two women:
Rick Douglas
Husband: Born July 12,
1957, Rick was married and had two children. Rick was a Colonel
in
the United States Air Force as well as a NASA Astronaut.
Michael P. Anderson:
Born December 25, 1959,
Michael was married. Michael was a
Lieutenant
Colonel in the United
States Air Force as well as a NASA
Astronaut.
Laurel Clark:
Born Born March 10, 1961 Laurel
was married and had one child. Laurel
was a
Commander in the United
States Navy as well as a NASA Astronaut.
William C. McCool:
Born September 23, 1961,
William was married. William was a
Commander in
the United States Navy
as well as a NASA Astronaut.
Ilan Ramon: 48
years old, Ilan was married
and had four children. Ilan was a Colonel in the Israeli Air Force as
well
as a NASA Astronaut.
Kalpana Chawla: :
Born January 7, 1961, Kalpana
was married and had no children. She had a
PH D
and was a NASA Astronaut.
David M Brown:
Born April 16, 1956 David
was not married and had no children.
David was a
Captain in the United
States Navy as well as a NASA Astronaut.
In God's Hands
As the last friends
wander home
having said all they could
say
And for now you're left
alone
when you settle down to pray
As night descends upon
you
with the loss that you must
face
It could be rather
comforting
to think about a better
place
As you bow your head in
silence
for the ones who have gone
home
Remember that you'll meet
again
God's promised you won't be
alone
As daytime turns to
nighttime
and night becomes day again
shed no tears for the lost
ones
who in your heart always
remain
As you hold your head up
high
when you're trying not to
grieve
trust in God to help you see
that it was their time to
leave
As you finally come to
realize
that there were bigger plans
For those who will be missed
and now are in God's hands
Author: Sharon
Schafer
February 3, 2003
For the families and
friends of the crew of the shuttle
Columbia.
May they all rest in peace.
The flags at the
Washington Monument flew
at half-staff Saturday,
February 1, 2003 to
honor the seven Astronauts.
A private meeting was held
with the family members
of the Astronauts on the day after the shuttle exploded, Sunday,
February
2, 2003. Evelyn Husband, the wife of Rick Husband has this to say about
the meeting:
''They are doing
remarkably well. We've gotten
strength from each
other, and it was great
to see them yesterday.
We just cried and
laughed and hugged each
other, and it was very
helpful.''
On the Today show,
Monday morning, Evelyn read this
statement:
"On January 16th we
saw our loved ones launch
into a brilliant,
cloud-free sky. Their
hearts were full of enthusiasm,
pride in country,
faith in their God and a
willingness to accept
risk in the pursuit of
knowledge - knowledge
that might improve the
quality of life for
all mankind. 'Although
we grieve deeply, as
do the families of
Apollo I and Challenger
before us, the bold
exploration of space must
go on. Once the root
cause of this tragedy is
found and corrected, the
legacy of Columbia must
carry on for the benefit
of our children
and yours.''
Comments from the
astronauts
Rick Husband -
Rick had decided as a young
child that he wanted to be an astronaut:
"It's been pretty
much a lifelong dream and just
a thrill to be able to get to
actually live it out"
Michael Anderson
- "I take the risk because
I think what we're doing is really important. If you look at this
research
flight and if you really take an
opportunity to look at
each experiment ... the
potential yield that we have is
really tremendous. For
me, it's the fact that
what I'm doing can have great
consequences and great
benefits for everyone,
for mankind"
Kalpana Chawla -
When first becoming an astronaut
in 1994, she wanted to build aircraft, the space program had not
entered
her mind. She stated:
"That would be too
far-fetched''
David Brown -
When he was asked about the
risk of space travel he has this to say:
"I made a decision
that is part of my job, I
would incur some real risk as a r
outine part of my job
when I joined the Navy
and started flying ...
airplanes off of ships,
particularly airplanes
off of ships at night. And I t
hink that was a decision
that I made some years
ago and the decision to
go fly in space is just
an extension of that"
Laurel Clark
-
"I think my family
has a fairly practical and
pragmatic view of this whole t
hing, and that's that
the actual launching into
space is much more
dangerous than any of
the other security concerns.
There's a lot of
different things that we
do during life that
could potentially harm us and
I choose not to stop
doing those things"
Ilan Ramon - When
asked if he was nervous
or afraid he had this to say:
"I think the only
thing that will worry me is
the launch sequence and the s
ystems and the launch,
being launched on time.
The tenseness is there
because everybody wants
to be launched on time
with no failures. That's it.
Once you're there,
you're there''
Comments from others
about the astronauts
Michael Anderson
Michael's mother had
this to say:
'He told me some
years ago the word 'can't' should
be taken out of the dictionary because there wasn't nothing that can't
be done,''
Reverend Simmons from
Michael's family church has
this to say:
''He was a young man
who would always think deep,
He never said much. ...
He would listen to what
I said,
especially scientific
things.''
Laurel Clark
Laurel's brother had
this to say:
"She was my big
sister. Heroes to me are something
other,
something big. All of
them are heroes. They
were
serving humanity.''
Laurel's mother had this
to say:
''She loved to take
hikes be outdoors,'her favorite
thing to do
at home was taking care
of her flowers. She
worried about
them not getting watered
when she was away.''
Reverend Tony Larson
read from one of Laurel's final
e-mails sent from the
space shuttle Columbia
where she told of looking
at the earth and finding it
to be "truly
awe-inspiring.''
Rick Husband
One of Ricks Professors
had this to say:
''If you just wanted
an all-American boy, that
was Rick''
Dr. Thomas Burton,
director of the engineering department,
had this to say:
''He was just a
wonderful guy,He was famous around
here,
regarded as a hero, but
he never let it affect
him.
He was always low-key
and unassuming"
Ilan Ramon
Ilan's wife had this to
say:
"He was such an
optimist that he didn't even
write a will.
He thought it was
unnecessary"
Ilan's wife said that
during lift off, her five
year old daughter didn't
seem to be celebrating
like those around her, she
simply said
''I lost my Daddy.''
''Apparently she knew''
William McCool
William's Father had
this to say:
"There's nothing that
can prepare you for the
loss of
a son or a daughter''
Williams Mother had this
to say:
''He had a great
smile; he had a great personality
to go with
that smile. He was
outgoing, upbeat, always
positive''
Witnesses said:
Doug Ruby and his father
were on their way to go
fishing when when
they saw the shuttle
explode:
"It was right at 8 a.m.
We saw it coming across
the sky real bright and shiny and all in one piece. We thought it was
the
sun shining off an airplane. Then it broke up in about six pieces, they
were all balls of fire, before it went over the tree line''
Patricia Hernandez
saw
"fire in the sky, like
the sky was falling"
Chris Linville was
working when he took a break
to go outside and
watch the shuttle:
"We went outside to see
if it was landing. We
saw a streak going across
the sky. From the
viewpoint we had, we did see
some flames. We knew
it was flying over, and
we were actually looking
for the shuttle passing
by. We had no idea''
While taking a walk,
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison
"heard this boom, which
I thought was the breaking
of the sound
barrier. It's a shock
and it just brings home
to you that when we are
exploring in space and
pushing the envelope
that we can't be 100
percent accurate''
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and infomation collected
from the internet
and from various news
stories are used here
for education purposes
only and are copyrighted
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