The World Mourns - Your Thoughts on the Space Shuttle Columbia Tragedy

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Your comments so far:

I didn't write this, Gordon Boulton, a friend of a friend did ... but to me, it holds far more sentiment than I myself could ever hope to put into words, so I thought I would post it here and hope he doesn't mind too much:

"The American Heritage. Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, defines hero as:

"A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life" and "A person noted for special achievement in a particular field"

The heroic in Man is that rarest of qualities. The quality that allows only a very few members of the species to excel where others have failed; allows them to accept the challenges from which others run away; allows those special few to, by rising to levels once thought unattainable, achieve the betterment of Mankind by showing Him that it is possible, whatever "it" may be.

Are firefighters and police officers heroes? Certainly. Soldiers? Absolutely. Athletes? They can be.

Why? What is heroic about them?

By their actions, words, thoughts and deeds they remind us of something that many of us frequently forget, and some of us actively work to deny:

Man, and his life, are sacred.

And, like any sacred thing, worthless unless put to their best possible use.

For the 7 astronauts of Columbia, and those who have gone before them, their cause was the most noble of Mankind's pursuits...

The pursuit of knowledge and understanding.

Not just for themselves, but for all of us.

They dedicated an entire lifetime of dreams, countless hours of training, practice, and hard work, and, if necessary, their own lives to a single pursuit.

And they were gracious enough, KNOWING IT MIGHT COST THEM THEIR LIVES, to allow the rest of us to take, from their actions, a better understanding of the world in which we live; To allow the rest of us to dream, if only for a moment, that, some day, we too might find the impossible to be possible.

What was their reward? Their reward for showing us the best in Man? For "boldly going" where few are even able to go, and fewer still are willing to go? Their reward was not large amounts of money, fame, or any tangible goods. Did we, the benefactors of THEIR LIVES offer them anything? No.

Their reward was the realization of their own selfish dreams. Their reward was the PERSONAL satisfaction of knowing all the work, dreaming, training, and patience had finally paid off in one glorious glimpse of their home as fewer than 500 of their kinsmen have ever seen her.

And it was worth it.

The heroic in Man is that which allows him to be reach for the seemingly unattainable...and reap indescribable personal satisfaction upon achieving it. And in so doing, remind every single one of us...

It is possible, and it is worth it.

Their were many tragedies yesterday. The tragedy of the loss of mountains of scientific data. The tragedy of the loss of one of Mankind's greatest machines. And, of course, the overwhelming tragedy of the loss of 7 lives.

Most tragic of all, however, is that it took their death to remind us of that which should be shouted to the heavens every single day...

They are heroes."

My heart breaks for what happened Sunday morning. To the families and friends of those lost you will always be in my prayers. I agree though....the space missions must continue.

God Bless America...

I just wanted to send my condolences to the families of the fallen astronauts and the whole family at NASA. This tragedy sent me back to Junior high when I watched with horror on TV the Challenger disaster in my Science class. It is too bad that history has repeated itself in a way. I hope NASA can find out what caused this to happen that way we can prevent any repeats.

Seventeen years ago, when the Challenger exploded and blew apart during its take off, a co-worker and I in a smal office were watching on tv and the disbelief and grief were instantaneous.

All week, listening to NPR and NYPR radio I have been keeping vauge tabs on the return of Columbia - its Isreali passenger and the seventeen year anniversary of the Challenger disaster. When my sister called me Sat. morning with the terrible news, I felt as if I had been time warped back seventeen years.

What is there to say - in grief - there is almost nothing but the movement of tears and arms around stooped shoulders and the feeling of loss. My prayers are with the families.

Thank you for helping to expand our horizons and may God be with you all.

Once more as a science educator I find that I will be trying to explain the unexplainalbe to a group of 13 and 14 year olds. We spent Tuesday remembering the lives of those lost on the Challenger and looking to the hopful future. We were speculating on hotel rooms on the ISS.

Now we will be discussing the dangers and the need for future manned missions. I will continue to be positive and try to steer my students to the possibility of NASA as a future career choice. I for one believe the world is a better place because these brave souls have spread their wings to soar above our Earth!

The space adventure is so daring and so beautiful it seems to be poetry. Only open heart people would work so hard on it. When something goes wrong, and in such a corageous enterprise wrong things will certainly happen, I feel sorry and sad. You are not alone, people around the world is very near you.

What courage the crew of Columbia had. They looked past the possible dangers and went into space with pride and honor. My prayers are with all of their families. God will help each of them through their pain and loss. May you find love and peace in their memories.

Our family was saddened by this tradegy, and our prayers are with the family of the crew members, and also those who worked so hard here on earth to make this a successful flight. We know that this loss will be felt for a long time, but we also pray that this will be a time to learn even more about the dangers of space flight, and how to prevent further problems. How ironic it is that my 2nd grade students just finished learning about Sally Ride and her flight in space. I'm sure they will be filled with questions and concerns. (I will use the information from the NASA site to explain it as best I can) My students and I will also pray at school that as you discover what went wrong, it can be a lesson well learned to keep future voyages safe. God bless you as you work through this tradegy.

Many years ago at an Alvin Callendar Field in Belle Chasse La I had the honor of shaking the hands of the original seven astronauts when they arrived for a visit at that field. The memory of that day, the loss of three of those men sometime later, the loss of the Challenger crew and now Columbia and its crew are all stepping stones on the way to the stars, as long as those brave men and women keep stepping forward to fill the shoes of those gone before them. We honor and commit to them our thoughts and prayers forever, and hope that this country can properly fund their endeavors so that their sacrifices will not have been in vain. My heart grieves for the loss of those who are now forever among the stars. The world is a lesser place without them and we will miss them dearly, but they will never be forgotten.

This tragedy takes be back to elementry school when my class was to go to a local Aerospace center and talk via satellite with members of the Challenger crew short after orbit. Instead we sat in the school library all day and watched news footage of that disaster. Now, like then I pray that the 7 people involved, there families can realize that their loved ones are gone but they left this earth as our Heroes and they will be with them again.

Wings of all Heros (Onward and Upward)

Waiting..... as the clock counts down, wondering..... was that the same, or just another new sound. The moment compressed, the time seems to stop, when I remember my training, my family, my Pop.

With a thunderous roar I am pressed in my seat, an unbelievable force that brought a tear to my cheek.

Onward and upward, I fly for Mankind, exploring new wonders for the very first time.

Onward and upward, for my children and yours, in a hope that someday, there will be no more closed doors.

Onward and upward, I fly for Mankind, in hopes for true answers, for which we have been blind.

My Earth from here, is so wonderous YES, just like that blue marble, in my sons toy chest.

Onward and upward, I fly for Mankind, strong and fearless, like those brothers of mine.

Onward and upward, its time to go home, with God on my shoulder, I'm never alone.

The window now open, we descend in a blaze, trouble lights flashing, then bang, just a haze.....

I'm here with my brothers and sisters alike, for we are Wings of all Hero's, in all of God's might.

in Honor of the courageous souls of the NASA Space Shuttle Columbia. They are truly Hero's to the World.

As we were having our morning coffee, my husband and I heard a noise, but didn't know what it was. It was 8:00am CST. I got on the computer and my email kept saying that contact was lost with Columbia. I changed the channel on the T.V. only to see a white streak heading through the sky toward earth.

I am very saddened by the death of the 7 crew members of the Space Shuttle Columbia. It brought back memories of another shuttle that crashed - the Challenger.

I believe that even in the face of this tragedy, we still need the exploration of space. I also believe the members of this shuttle flight would want us to go on exploring.

I send my prayers to the crew members and their families. They are truly heros in my eyes.

First, I would like to say that my thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the seven member crew. I have know that NASA will find the cause of the tragedy. My opinion, as a taxpayer, is that once the problem is found and corrected the shuttle fleet should fly again. My opinion, as someone who has always dreamt of being an astronaut, is that to end the space program because of this tragedy would cause nothing but sorrow for the seven crew members. It's funny, I have never heard anyone mention ending airline flights when a passenger plane crashes and hundreds of people die.

We turned the television on to watch the morning news and were horrified to see the Shuttle Columbia STS-107 break apart as it plummeted to earth. We can only say our thoughts and prayers are with the families of all the Astronauts. Once again, it is time for our country to pull together and get behind our president as he directs the agencies to find out the cause of this tragic accident.