CIP

Farewell, Columbia...

February 1, 2003: It came without warning. A tragedy, unfolding silently in the clear blue sky above Texas. Even those who witnessed it didn't really realize what they were seeing.

But the countdown clock reached zero, and she never came home.

Columbia was the first, the oldest, the heaviest. She had recently undergone a massive re-fit and refurbish. She was the grand old lady of the space program... still working into her old age, still vital, still able to quicken the pulse of any healthy young male.

Her loss underscored something that virtually everyone puts to the back of their minds: space flight is dangerous. The Space Shuttle is the most complex machine that has ever been built. There are thousands of "failure modes", things that can go wrong. The forces and stresses that the craft endure are beyond imagining.

Manned space flight is the pinnacle of human achievement. It requires massive amounts of money, real estate, resources, manpower, and cooperation. The returns, although huge, are not always immediately apparent. The reason computers were miniaturized was so they could be used for guidance systems. Special types of construction materials, glass, carbon fiber, honeycombed titanium, all have their origins in the space program. Our television, telephones, weather forecasts, our very understanding of this planet we live on, all are the result of the space program.

Astronauts pass rigorous qualification and training. They represent the peak of human intelligence, physical fitness, and adventurous spirit. They are hailed as heroes, and for good reason. The road to becoming an astronaut is long and difficult, most of us will never even know one, most of us can only dream.

We grieve. Not the loss of a vehicle, we can build another. We grieve the loss of life, the tragic and sudden end to these people who worked so hard, gave so much of their lives to pursue the dream of all humanity. We grieve the loss of confidence, confidence in all things technological during the investigation phase. We reach out to the families, their pain and loss is something we can never truly understand.

In times like this, we reach for something familiar to comfort us. We still need to know that life goes on, a temporary setback can not destroy our faith. The message from the astronauts themselves as they commemorated the loss of Challenger a few days earlier, the message from their families and friends, and the message from the President is clear. Manned space flight will continue. It must continue. Our hope for the future depends on it. We will meet the challenge.

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 windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
  And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
  Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

-- RCAF Flight-Lieutenant John Gillespie Magee Jr.
(1922-1941).

More information on the Columbia investigation is available at This official NASA site