Hail, Columbia!

[PPI Brian]

Yesterday was the 9th anniversary of the loss of space shuttle Columbia:

http://www.youtube.com/v/CQKo7hXM8gI


STS-107 Space Shuttle Columbia
On February 1, 2003 (from L to R)  David Brown, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla, Michael Anderson, William McCoo and Ilan Ramon were killed when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry.

"Columbia also helped us better understand about the heavens and understand the origins of the universe with several missions, including Astro, also deploying the most advanced X-ray observatory every built, the Chandra X-ray Telescope, and by her very recent Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. Just as the crew has, Columbia has left us quite a legacy.

"There's heavy grief in our hearts, which will diminish in time, but it will never go away and we will never forget," Crippen said. "Hail Rick, Willie, KC, Mike, Laurel, Dave and Ilan. Hail Columbia."

-- Robert Crippen, pilot of the shuttle Columbia for its maiden voyage in 1981

[PPI Jason]

Whenever I think of brave souls who died too soon I always think of what Edwin M. Stanton said when Abraham Lincoln died.

Now, they belong to the ages.

[PPI Debra]

It's definitely a moment I will never forget.
I was watching when it happened.

[PPI Karl]

It's definitely a moment I will never forget.
I was watching when it happened.

How awful.   The 1986 Challenger disaster had the same profoundly depressing effect for me as the Columbia disaster.  I don't know why events like this are any different for me from other aerial disasters, but they are.  I guess it illustrates how much emotion and hope people invest in these sorts of missions; I guess the pilgrim soul in us really does closely identify with explorers, especially when they're met with such a cruel fate.  I don't use the word "hero" lightly.  I don't regard a four-year-old who got stuck down a well for 24 hours as a hero.  I even have trouble thinking of many of the thousands of 9-11 victims as anything but victims.  (Yes, there were heroic people among them, for damned sure.)  However, I do hold the members of the space shuttle crew as heroes because they must have been fully aware of the risks they were taking for the sake of exploration and the advancement of science.  Personally, that sort of courage genuinely resonates with me.

[PPI Jason]

I agree with your definition of "hero" Karl. I think we sometimes throw that word around a lot. It's almost as if we see someone suffer and don't call them a hero we can get looked at as callous. But no matter what your definition of hero, there can be little doubt that when you strap yourself to a tower of liquid nitrogen, ignite it, and fling yourself into a cold and deadly zero gravity world knowing that you'll have to throw yourself back through a hellish fury at unimaginable speeds before you can ever see your family again...and do it for a good cause...that's a hero in everyone's book.