Space Shuttle Lost

I salute the brave souls who face the dangers of spce flight every day, knowing something like this may happen.

May God grant their families peace in a time where peace is hard to find.

 

Shit.

 

That is very shocking to hear, and just imagining what was happenning to the crew as it was breaking apart

 

With God's grace, they continue to fly. With God's love, may their families' hearts not die. With our own knowlegde and understanding may we continue to push our own boundiers. Do not let this stop us from looking at the heavens and want to go there. For their lives and the lives lost before them would mean nothing.

 

Seven explorers, seven devoted
explorers of our world and cosmos, who died upon
reentry, far above the Earth, the shuttle Columbia a
shining cluster of burning stars as it descended. On a
mission of space flight, which has almost become
routine yet still capable of stirring ancient emotions
taking that thunderous journey into the unknown, these
seven men and women risked and gave their lives to the
progress of understanding.

The Columbia crew perished in a quest to the benefit
of all mankind. A testament to cooperation, the
mission of the Columbia was for the benefit of not
just one nation, but for all: all people, all sexes,
all ethnicities, all governments, all nations.
Self-less and without pretense, without hidden agenda
save that of exploration, these seven were soldiers
without weapons, scientists devoted not to killing and destruction, but to discovery and illumination. They fought ignorance with curiosity and persistence, pushing back darkness with light shed by science, often a lonely as a candle in the dark.

Peril and harm can be the cost of exploration. Those
who dedicate their lives to science’s double-edged
sword know this. Without risk of loosing comfort and
safety, there would be no reward of insight and
growth. Without taking that first step away from our
pale blue dot of a planet we call home, our horizons
would never expand, and neither would our
understanding of our land, our people, ourselves.

I mourn the loss of these seven explorers. Yet, I am
comforted to know that with every new generation there
will be those who look not at their feet but up at the
stars and wonder, marvel at all of creation. How did
we get here? Where are we from? What are the stars? My
grief is for the incredible human loss. My grief is
also for the loss of seven people who were willing to
explore, to put their lives on the line, above and
beyond the call of the normal citizen, to dedicate
their lives to searching, sifting, through the unknown
and to bring back trivialities and treasures, wonders
and discoveries.

President George W. Bush noted that while the
astronauts of Columbia didn’t make it safely to earth,
they are we hope on their way home. Carl Sagan, a
pioneer of science literacy agreed: “We are all star stuff.