posted 02-01-2007 08:25 AM               

Four years ago yesterday I was hosting a Space Day along with my chapter of Young Astronauts at our school.

(You have to understand the context. It had been 17 years since the Challenger accident and these children had no first hand knowledge of that experience.)

Brian Duffy former astronaut represented the Astronaut Office and came to speak with the students. He said in part: "They would say don't mourn for me because I was doing something that I loved. In fact there are ten astronauts on orbit right now continuing their mission, (the Expedition 6 and STS-107 crews) and 7 of them will be landing here tomorrow morning."

Sadly the Columbia and her crew were lost the next morning.

Thanks to organizations like the Apollo 1 Foundation, the Challenger Center, the Astronauts Memorial Foundation and to forums like collectSPACE - we can make sure that those lessons and the people that lost their lives are never forgotten.

Godspeed the crew of STS-107.

Tim

posted 02-01-2007 09:16 AM               

I followed the investigation up until the CAIB-report was released. At my age back then it's difficult taking in everything let alone understand all of it, but I made it a goal to understand as much as possible.

Godspeed the crew of STS-107, hail Columbia. We'll never forget you, or what you taught us.

posted 02-01-2007 09:24 AM              

The memories of watching Challnger came flooding back, the same sinking feeling in my stomach, the same emotional reaction.

Godspeed the crew of Columbia...

posted 02-01-2007 09:46 AM               

I had FoxNews turned on in the office, but with the volume turned down. As I popped back in the office between meetings, one of my subordinates came to me looking like she had lost her best friend. She knew how deeply interested in the space program I have been my whole life, and she didn't want to break the bad news to me. She just said, "look at the screen, Sergeant."

I did, and wished I hadn't. It was January 28, 1986, all over again. The most frustrating thing was that I couldn't stay in the office (or go home) and watch the news all day. The mayhem of drill weekend continued. "Duty first...," and all.

Immediately, I recalled wanting to stay home from school in April, 1981, and watch the wall-to-wall TV coverage when that magnificent bird flew for the very first time. My school teacher Dad made me go on to class, though. I also remembered the exhilaration when Young and Crippen brought her down to a flawless touchdown at Edwards.

Columbia represented everything good about America's "comeback" of the early-1980s.

posted 02-01-2007 12:06 PM               

What happened to me is best said at this link: http://www.chubbycrow.com/projpage.html

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posted 02-01-2007 02:12 PM               

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posted 02-01-2007 05:03 PM               

Saturday afternoon, 1st February 2003, shortly after 2.00pm I was in work dealing with some paperwork when I received a call from Eamonn Creegan in Kerry. Eamonn was monitoring the landing of STS-107 on NASA TV when the accident happened. He quickly phoned me and told me what had happened.

I went online and looked at CNN.com where a red banner headline announced the destruction of Columbia. News alerts started coming in over the SMS service on my mobile phone. CNN then started broadcasting pictures coming in from Texas of what seemed to be a bright fireball breaking up in the upper atmosphere. When I seen these picture I knew the worst. Columbia and her crew were no more. More and more details began to pour in, Dave Moore from Astronomy Ireland, of whom I'm their Space Correspondent, then phoned me to see if I had heard. I phoned Eamonn to see what NASA TV were saying and He told me that NASA had gone into lockdown mode and that debris was beginning to be found on the ground. CNN, Fox News, the BBC and RTE, Ireland's public broadcasting service, were all carrying coverage on their respective webpages. Another tv station, TV 3, then phoned resquesting an in studio interview for their early evening news bulletin. They sent a jeep to pick me up and once the interview was completed dropped me home.

Later that evening, shortly after I got home, the ISS passed over. Progress M-9 had just undocked and was visible just ahead of the station.

Columbia was more than just a collection of electrical circuits, metal and exotic materials moulded into a spaceship. It was a spaceship, a dreammaker. It ushered in a new era of manned spaceflight, helped to open up a new frontier and made science fiction become science fact.

In the days following the accident many people questioned the need for the Space Shuttle and manned space exploration in general. They, some of them distinguished scientists in their fields of study and others with no conception of spaceflight and exploration came up with the usual tripe arguments about the money that is invested in space exploration should be instead spent on such fields as third world relief and curing the social ills that beset our civilisation.

While these might seem to be the humane and noble things to do, they have failed to realise that no amount of money will ever cure these problems. What good would it do? They fail to realise that space exploration has benefited all of us on this tiny planet.

The Human race is destined to explore and expand. In the past 50 years since the launch of Sputnik the human race has launched thousands of objects into space. Satellites to monitor the weather, land usage and the environment of our planet are orbiting right now. We have explored all of the planets in the solar system apart from Pluto, Chased Comets through space, examined the Sun and walked on the Moon, amongst other great achievements. The Russian teacher Konstatin Tsilovsky said “Earth is the cradle of mankind, but man cannot stay in the cradle for ever”.

Right now there are just over six billion people on this planet, each on of us is using up the non-renewable resources of earth at an ever-increasing rate. The supplies of Oil, Gas, Coal even fresh water and timber are decreasing as our population increases. What does the future hold?

We need to explore, to find out, to examine and learn about the universe around us. We cannot stop this and why should we?, it’s a part of what and who we are.

That Saturday night, at home, I watched as President Bush announced “The Columbia is lost” I then switched off the light and I wept, not only for the crew of STS-107 but also for the Space Shuttle Columbia, a great ship.

Godspeed the crew of STS-107.

CJC

posted 02-01-2007 06:18 PM               

It was about 9 am, and -- no joke -- I'd just bought a set of the New Ware painting masks for the 1:144 Shuttle kit, and was prowling the vendor tables for other things. Then the buzz started to go out that something had happened with the shuttle. The show was in the cafeteria of a high school, and there were television sets mounted in the cafeteria, and someone turned one of them on, and we started to see the pictures that we'd see again and again. It was becoming clear that something awful had happened.

The show's organizer made an announcement that something had happened to the Columbia. The reactions varied from outrage (one guy hollering that terrorism was responsible and we should go turn various countries into parking lots) to shock (a friend of mine, a longtime Huntsville resident, who was just distraught). I remember having that same feeling I had when Challenger exploded, wondering if I was going to throw up or not.

About noon Ralph and I and a couple of our closest buddies went to lunch. The television in the restaurant had the news on, and we got to see poor Columbia break apart again and again. We sat around and talked it all through. I didn't have much lunch, though, because I was still too sick about it.

That evening Ralph and I came back to the hotel and watched the last couple of hours of the live coverage. It was the first time I'd known who any of these astronauts were, and I felt bad that I didn't pay more attention than I had. The Sunday bulldogs of the Atlanta paper, with an extra section about the Columbia disaster, had come out, and we leafed through that as well.

I still have the whole newspaper from that weekend, and I still have those masks I bought just before I found out what had happened. I doubt I'll ever use them.

It sounds strange and a bit morbid, but I mourned for Columbia as much as I mourned the seven fine people of her crew. Columbia was the first, the trusty old warhorse, the shuttle around which so many of my first active recollections of the space program were built. I'd have been sad had it been any of the other vehicles, but the fact it was good old OV-102 made that Saturday's punch in the guts hurt that much more.

posted 02-03-2007 10:55 AM               

according to an interview with Rona, Ilan's wife, his father passed just some months ago.

last Wednesday the Fisher Brothers Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies held the second Annual International Conference on Space Research, honoring the crew of space shuttle Columbia and Israel’s first astronaut the late Colonel Ilan Ramon. some of the speakers were from NASA and the USAF, but there were over 300 high school kids who can and listened.

posted 02-12-2007 07:54 PM               

That morning in 2003 i was getting dressed for work. At the time i was a docent at the NASA Langley visitor center and volunteered there kost weekends i expected this to be another of those weekends. I knew Columbia was scheduled to land so i turned on CNN a few minutes ahead of time as they ussually covered he landings. 9:16 am came and went with no landing and no word. When Miles Obrien came on again a few minutes later he was standing on the landing strip but no Columbia. Then he said communications were lost but thzat video of Columbia had just come in of it over Texas. Noone had seen it yet. My hope was that as slim as the chances were that the crew might have been able to get out before whatever happened happened. Then i saw the video and i knew. It was 1986 all over again.

I went to work that day which was spent with alot of stunned shockled and saddened people. There were people coming in hoping to learn more, profiteers buying up stuff in the gift shop and news reporters talking to the public. I had the unhappy job of telling a retired NASA engineer who hadnt heard the horrible news. Most of the day was spent watching the television and talking to alot of shocked people. A wreath was put out by days end next to the crew photo in honor of the crew. I went home that night and cried. I've followed the space program since i was 3 i've seen two crews lost in my life time and both hit me hard. But i also knew the space program will go on and though its inevitable that accidents will happen i believe the cause of exploration is worth the risk.

I also felt a kind of special connection to Columbia. t may seem silly but whgen i wa in 5th grade i went to Space Camp. It was a dream come true and that year i got to be the pilot of Columbia or atleast a simulator of that name.

posted 03-18-2007 01:31 AM               

Then came the news showing the multiple contrails re-entering. It looked like what I saw when I stayed up the night of MIR's rentry to follow it. I knew the ship had gone down will all hands.

My favorite orbiter was gone. I thought NOOOOOO! Not Columbia. I was crushed as one day I'd dreamt of seeing her in a museum where she belonged as a piece of space history. Not strewn all over texas in pieces.

I feel guilty cause my thoughts were not really on the crew and family. It was on the fact that the critics are gonna us this to shut down NASA's manned program for good. They tried with Challenger and I'd always heard that another failure would end the manned program for good.

posted 07-02-2007 06:45 PM               

Please accept my belated condolenses on the loss of your dear friends. I had the pleasure of meeting many of the Columbia families when the Space Mirror was re-dedicated in their honor back in 2003. My Young Astronauts served as escorts and ushers for the ceremony.

Learning about Laurel I knew that she would have been an excellent person to come and speak to my students. If only.