The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas during re-entry this morning about 9:00am. Thoughts and prayers going out to the astronauts and their families.

The space program is one of those very special things to me, one American thing to be proud of for sure. I love the very public mission of the program, something every American can feel a part of. A search for something better, hopes, dreams, the whole thing. With all of the darkness of these current days on Earth, long live NASA!

Sadness for sure today, but the dream will continue on.

Mike just told me about this. So sorry to hear about them. Sending out thoughts & prayers. Peace & God Bless... <img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/peace.gif" width=16 height=16>

Sadness doesn't even begin to express what I've been feeling since coming home from class this afternoon to hear this horrible news. It's like a sad, disgusting rerun. Didn't we just recently see the Challenger blow up? Wasn't it just yesterday that Gus Grissom (my hero when I was a teenager) died in a launchpad fire along with Ed White and Roger Chaffee?

Of course, I was excited at the prospect of landing on the moon (beat the Ruskies). But we did that, what? Over 30 years ago?

Isn't it time to scrap the space program and invest in America? Health care, education, housing, safer roads, the list can really be endless. Are any of us REALLY going to see the day (or ANY human in the future) when people can actually LIVE their lives in outer space?

We have too many congressional cuts while good money after bad pours down the drains of NASA. Other than some neat mattresses, antibiotics (which aren't all that cool anyway, come to think of it) and Tang, what REALLY has come out of the space program?

We have now sacrificed 7 more people to prove the point that we CAN do it. But, just because we CAN doesn't mean we SHOULD!

Grissom once said, " "If we die, we want people to accept it. We're in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life."
-Gus Grissom (John Barbour et al., Footprints on the Moon (The Associated Press, 1969), p. 125.)

Is it really? It's not worth a life, it's not worth the billions of dollars, it's not worth our time as Americans with so many other things that need our money and our attention.

Just my .02 worth.

My condolences go out to all the families of today's tragic accident. My heart is breaking yet again. I don't know if I can handle one more totally avoidable accident. It's like living Gus' death all over again.

As much as I can totally understand the frustrations you feel BuffaloGal, I for one, see the space program as a point of hope for the future. Different strokes for different folks.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of those involved in todays tragedy.

Thoughts and prayers to all the families from us, too. It's a sad thing to watch. I'm amazed at the courage of anyone who wants to go into space, especially since most of those who do probably understand the risks better than most of us. I suppose it's a comfort that these people got to do what they probably wanted to do more than anything in the world, but a sad loss for their families.

High Flight"
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 halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or 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 Gillespie Magee, Jr.

Many advances in our daily lives can be linked to the space program, I for one support it, and the few deaths related to it are nothing compared to the risks we as drivers face on the highway each day. Mile for mile, space travel is safe.

all very true, pat. just so sad...our thoughts and prayers are with the families.

It is so sad for the families, and I hope the astronauts and scientists didn't know. I have to weigh in on the side of science, though, re. the shuttle and space station program--too much good science has been happening up there to end it. I hope we don't make those precious losses be for no good reason, but instead continue the one really big non-(mostly) military and beneficial human project we've ever done.

I saw something sad yesterday. In front of the Independant Baptist church on our road was a flag at half mast & across thre road from it at the Pentecostal church, balloons... <img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/peace.gif" width=16 height=16>

Buffalo Gal, if you believe that the pursuit of science in space is not worth the human loss, fine. I have problems with techonology issues myself. I wish cell-phones had never been invented!

But, when you say the program should be scrapped because of our other social needs, I disagree. I'll say it a million times, we HAVE, right now, all the resources we need to take care of human beings, to address our social concerns. What we don't have is the will to do. What we don't have are the correct priorities. Our leaders, and the majority of Americans, set tax policy and spending policy. They believe that the hoarding of the resources (greed) is the American way, rather than looking at more just ways to distribute resources equally. They'd rather cut taxes for the wealthy than pay teachers. They'd rather build sports complex and office towers for their buddies than fund nursing homes for the poor. They'd rather build golf courses than public parks. They'd rather drive vehicles that get 8 mpg under the guise of "consumer choice" than do the responsable thing and conserve. Bottom line, selfishness permeates our society moreso than does the will to assure greater public good. The more honest Libertarian conservatives won't even dispute that fact, they embrace it. Ayn Rand, and all that shit.

With all respect, the space program is not our problem. Our priorities are.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by lcj:
With all respect, the space program is not our problem. Our priorities are.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's what I really meant. And you said it about 1,000 times better than I did or ever could.

Thanks for the clarification!

Terrie

I remember when every launch was an event. Yesterday I didn't even know the Shuttle was up until I heard about the awful tragedy. I remember the Challenger loss very clearly and the earlier deaths as well. I also have a friend whose daughter has talked about nothing else but becoming an astronaut for years. I feel just awful for the crew and their families. Prayers for them and for all the NASA workers who do their jobs every day, and for all Americans who benefit from this wonderful program.

I agree, we have needs here on earth, but the space program is one means of international cooperation which so far has been successful, not to mention the scientific advances it has made possible. I hope we can allow it to continue.

Given our discussion, it's ironic that this letter was in today "letters to the ed" secion of the mpls paper:

"Bush's cuts at NASA

Scripps Howard News Service has reported how NASA tried to maintain the shuttle schedule on a tight budget -- indeed how last April concerned members of Congress' NASA funding subcommittee discussed how the space agency had lost 40 percent of its funding in the last 10 years, but under pressure from the Bush tax cut, they went ahead and cut NASA's human space flight budget another 10.3 percent.

The media made no fuss when NASA critic/Bush friend Sean O'Keefe was selected to head the agency and then set out to reduce shuttle upgrade spending by 43 percent through 2006. Nor did the media fuss when, in April 2002, NASA's independent auditor Richard Blomberg told the House Science Committee, "I have never been as concerned for space shuttle safety as I am right now."

Will the media now look at where Bush leadership is taking us?

-- William, Newton, Mass."

FWIW ... I had an Earth Sciences teacher who gave out a list of what the space program has provided us with. It's pretty mind boggling to see how much good has come of it, especially in medicine. (Modern pacemakers come to mind. One of many things we can thank the space program for.)

On a transatlantic flight from London to D.C., I had occasion to sit next to an Israeli-American, who had just finished his tour of duty in the Negev during the Yom Kippur War. As he plied me with Drambuie throughout the six-hour flight, he spoke about the war -- his experiences there, his feelings -- and about his philosphy of life in general.

He told me of finding a man in a bombed out bunker who, laying alone in the desert without food or water for days, was too badly wounded to move ... He spoke of many such things during that flight. Among what has stayed with me over the years, was his comment about the possiblity of dying in a plane crash.

"It's such a painless way to go," he reassured, "and nothing to be afraid of. It's fast, easy, and over almost before you know it. Of all the ways there are to die in this world, it's one of the easiest."

I guess he'd know all about that. So would Ilan Ramon. I think that in the end, while I certainly feel terrible for the families, friends and colleagues of the astronauts ... maybe it wasn't so very awful for the astronauts themselves.

For a few of them, it was their first time in space, so they wouldn't even have known if there was something odd about the way they were banking on the way in. Most, if not all, were probably dead before they knew anything had happened at all. There was nothing going on beforehand to have alarmed them. One moment there they were; the next split second, it was all over. There couldn't have been much by way of pain, or even of anticipation. It was all too fast for any of that.

They died doing what they loved, among friends, anticipating being home soon with their loved ones. They died at a moment of personal triumph and happiness, without knowing what hit them -- or even that anything had. Those they left behind can take some small comfort in that knowledge, as well.It's not such a very bad way to go. Is it?

Exploring new frontiers has always been risky, but without those brave and hardy souls who just <u>have</u> to see for themselves what's over that next hill, we'd ...
Well, we'd probably all still be living in trees, somewhere in Central Africa...
And it sure beats warfare.