My heartfelt condolences to the families of the seven astronauts of the Space Shuttle Columbia, which was lost today during reentry.
Seven astronauts were killed today when space shuttle Columbia broke up about 38 miles above Texas on its way to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
President Bush said in a news conference Saturday that the news had brought “great sadness to our country,” but pledged, “Our journey into space will go on.”
CNN: Seven astronauts killed as shuttle shatters
I sincerely hope that Bush is right here. I’ve always felt that one of the most unfortunate repercussions of the 1986 Challenger Shuttle loss was the crippling effect it seemed to have on NASA. In the space of the few seconds of the explosion, we went from a country still intent on pushing the boundaries of our world out into space, into one apparently too scarred by the loss of the Challenger to try for anything beyond what we’d already accomplished.
One hundred years ago, in 1903, the Wright Brothers became the first humans to fly. 66 years later, Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon. But then, over the next twenty years, as the cold war ramped up, space exploration became less and less of a priority, and the explosion of the Challenger seemed to take the wind out of what was left of NASA’s sails.
It’s only been in the last few years that I’ve felt like our space exploration programs were really starting to get moving again, and I’d hate to see this accident tie us back to earth again.
(On a side note, I also think that Bush needs better speechwriters. The best soundbite I can see in his press conference from this morning is “Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. Our journey into space will go on.” Not nearly as good, or as likely to be remembered, as Reagan’s quoting John Gillespie Magee, Jr.’s poem “High Flight” when he said that that the Challenger astronauts had “slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God” in his address after the Challenger explosion.)
Anyway, enough rambling pontification. My best to the astronauts, their families, and all at NASA working to determine the cause of this accident.