God Bless You....
God Bless the brave, dedicated souls who lost their lives today, and Bless the families they have left behind. Thank you for your service!
These tragedies always hit us the hardest. In America we lose 1000's of lives daily due to car wrecks, fires and other accidents, but tragedies such as the Columbia hit us in the gut. And rightly so. Much of the reason is I think, that somewhere in us, we realize that the astronauts and scientists who test the reaches of space are among our best and brightest. As has been said before, "Where do we get such people"? These were in the main, ordinary people who had a desire to find out new things, to see how things worked and to push the envelope of science from earth into space. They worked hard advancing their knowledge and skills in space travel, where their work was to be done and then paid the ultimate price for the chance to live their dreams. It is an old cliche, but they died doing what they loved.
This personal national tragedy comes at a strange times in our collective thoughts as a nation. The debate, worry and fear of a possible war with Iraq has to a great degree occupied our sentiments. And now this. It also involves something very personal for me. My brother has been with N.A.S.A. for over 30 years and was in the shuttle design program at it's inception. He knows some of those who died today. I have had occasion to meet astronauts and scientists in NASA programs and I know what a dedicated and close knit group they are. They will all take this event as a death in the family. And the tragedy unfolded quite literally in the skies above my home where as I was safely drinking my morning coffee, they were risking and giving their all for us.
Whle trying to put this in perspective, to understand it and I think to ease the grief, I have realized that these sorts of things are nothing new. Mankind has been exploring here on earth since the beginning. Men would set out on foot to see what was on the other side of the horizon and never return. As technology progressed, crews of men in ships would sail off never to be heard from again, dying anonymously, but in equally tragic ways as the crew of Columbia did today. The difference is that today we instantly know the circumstances and view it moments after the fact. And to some degree because of this we have become hardened to tragedy. But to see people of science, knowledge, exploration and bravery perish while only moments from home, is something that is almost to much to bear.
God Bless the brave, dedicated souls who lost their lives today, and Bless the families they have left behind. Thank you for your service!
These tragedies always hit us the hardest. In America we lose 1000's of lives daily due to car wrecks, fires and other accidents, but tragedies such as the Columbia hit us in the gut. And rightly so. Much of the reason is I think, that somewhere in us, we realize that the astronauts and scientists who test the reaches of space are among our best and brightest. As has been said before, "Where do we get such people"? These were in the main, ordinary people who had a desire to find out new things, to see how things worked and to push the envelope of science from earth into space. They worked hard advancing their knowledge and skills in space travel, where their work was to be done and then paid the ultimate price for the chance to live their dreams. It is an old cliche, but they died doing what they loved.
This personal national tragedy comes at a strange times in our collective thoughts as a nation. The debate, worry and fear of a possible war with Iraq has to a great degree occupied our sentiments. And now this. It also involves something very personal for me. My brother has been with N.A.S.A. for over 30 years and was in the shuttle design program at it's inception. He knows some of those who died today. I have had occasion to meet astronauts and scientists in NASA programs and I know what a dedicated and close knit group they are. They will all take this event as a death in the family. And the tragedy unfolded quite literally in the skies above my home where as I was safely drinking my morning coffee, they were risking and giving their all for us.
Whle trying to put this in perspective, to understand it and I think to ease the grief, I have realized that these sorts of things are nothing new. Mankind has been exploring here on earth since the beginning. Men would set out on foot to see what was on the other side of the horizon and never return. As technology progressed, crews of men in ships would sail off never to be heard from again, dying anonymously, but in equally tragic ways as the crew of Columbia did today. The difference is that today we instantly know the circumstances and view it moments after the fact. And to some degree because of this we have become hardened to tragedy. But to see people of science, knowledge, exploration and bravery perish while only moments from home, is something that is almost to much to bear.
