Hopefully these tragic events become more of a rarity for the year ahead. God bless the crew of the Shuttle Columbia and God bless America. +
Could very well be either. But, I think it is terrible regardless. Seven brave men and women travel into the deep unknown we know as space, hoping to advance our knowledge of space, and this jackass is happy? He even says, "We..." Also, I'm pretty sure that Saddam isn't exactly upset by this.
RIP Columbia. Man, what a strange morning. Me and my friends left for Austin this morning when we heard a girl on a cell phone talking about it. I thought she was talking about the anniversary of Challenger at first. We drove by the flags in front of Texas A&M and I saw members of the Corps of Cadets lowering the flags. I wasn't sure what had happened until I got a call from my sister in NYC while eating breakfast. It didn't really sink in until we drove by many places that had their flags lowered. Finally, I got to see the video on Fox news while standing by the bar in a hotel. I don't know what to say or what to think. It's just a sad day for the world, or most of the world anyway. God bless them, may they rest in peace.
Anyone know how Houston became Space City? Why did NASA whenever it was first formed choose Houston for a space center?
Commander Rick Husband attended the same high school I did in Amarillo (though he was about 14 years older than I am). There is a picture of him and the crew from his first space shuttle trip in 1999 hanging in the Amarillo High School commons area. He spoke at my younger son's school last year and was very involved in speaking at the various Amarillo schools. This space shuttle mission was a little higher profile in Amarillo than many others because Husband was on board. He was so good about going to schools and getting the kids of Amarillo excited about exploring, both in terms of exploring space and the unknown as well as exploring one's own mind and potential. Amarillo has lost a great man who gave so much back to his community. He was, and he will continue to be, a hero to many residents of Amarillo. We will never forget him, nor will we forget the other six astronauts who perished today. Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, William McCool and Ilan Ramon. They will be with us always.
I imagine that it was a government release, but I think it sounds funny 'government employee', then they interview 1 car mechanic.
Hope this helps. From www.jsc.nasa.gov : On July 7, 1961, NASA Administrator James E. Webb directed the establishment of preliminary site criteria and a site selection team. Essential criteria for the new site included the availability of water transport and a first-class all-weather airport, proximity to a major telecommunications network, a well established pool of industrial and contractor support, a readily available supply of water, a mild climate permitting year-round outdoor work and a culturally attractive community. By August, some 23 sites had been selected as possibilities including Jacksonville, Fla.; Miami; Baton Rouge, La.; Corpus Christi, Texas; San Diego; and San Francisco. Houston was initially included by virtue of the San Jacinto Ordnance Depot, since military rather than commercial facilities were judged best for helping handle NASA's large retinue of jets and specialized equipment, and because of its recognized, prominent universities-Rice and Texas A&M. U.S. President John F. Kennedy pays tribute to astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. for his February 1962 flight aboard Friendship 7. The Mercury-Atlas 6 mission marked the free world's first orbital manned flight. Vice-President Lyndon Baines Johnson (for whom the Manned Spacecraft Center was later to be named), NASA Administrator James Webb and Glenn family members are among others also in the scene. "We were using criteria such as the city location," said Charles F. Bingman, who served as the Manned Spacecraft Center's chief of the Management Analysis Division. "It had to be a city, an urban area that was substantial and could support a major new high-technology institution. It had to be near the kind of airport that could serve as a service organization primarily for handling of spacecraft and conducting certain kinds of flight tests. It had to be on the water, because at that stage they thought they were going to transport spacecraft by barge, which they ultimately never did. It had to be at the site of at least one substantial, high-quality university, and it had to have what looked like an appropriate kind of work force to staff a number of the positions in the center." It isn't surprising that when members of the site selection team visited Houston in September 1961 to check out property owned by Rice University and located close to Ellington Air Force Base, they were less than enthusiastic. What they saw was a flat cow pasture scoured by brisk winds off Galveston Bay. Along Farm Road 146 and 528 leading to what would soon be the main entrance to the MSC, boats had been hurled into the highway, pieces of houses and buildings lay in the field, trees were flattened, and fields and pastures were still flooded or sodden with heavy rains from Hurricane Carla. Ellington, which would provide temporary quarters for many of the STG, offered dreary wartime military housing with peeling paint and a sense of high disrepair. Much effort would be required to turn it into the new flagship facility of a new age of exploration. But the challenge of turning the site into NASA's new flagship for human space exploration paled in comparison with sending an astronaut to the moon within the next nine years. On Sept. 19, 1961, NASA announced that the $60 million manned space flight laboratory would be located in Houston on 1,000 acres of land to be made available to the government by Rice University. The land was owned by Humble Oil Co. and given to Rice to give to the government. In addition to acquiring title to this donation from Rice, the federal government subsequently purchased an additional 600 acres needed to give the site frontage on the highway. A 20-acre reserve-drilling site fell within NASA's total 1,620-acre site.
Ya know, the Johnson Space Center is less than a 10 minute drive from my house, I've passed it a million times traveling Nasa Rd. 1 or Space Center Blvd., and I've visited the place exactly 2 times in my lifetime. What a shame. I'm going to make it a point to go this year, and bring the kids.
Though it may rain sorrow and pain keep this thought in mind Seven souls lost to a goal set by humankind May their memories evolve; reinforce our resolve to explore in the name Of understanding the unknown. May our newest angels chaperon Our quest. For theirs was the same.
Rest in Peace Columbia crew. Waking up to the news, I felt a different shade of sadness, one that strips another aspect of your childhood innocence. I thought of the Challenger explosion and the feeling that 9/11 was so close by. I felt cynical the day before, but this is another event that feels totally random and unexplainable. These are the events that forces people like me to get out of the MTV generation and face the reality of the world.
