Tragedy strikes NASA
In 1986, when the Space Shuttle program was but a few years old, it had already become such a routine adventure that a civilian, a school teacher, was invited onboard. We watched in horror as the Challenger exploded during liftoff. Many Americans watched it live. On Saturday morning, few were paying attention. Other than family, friends, NASA groupies and folks who live along its reentry path who routinely cheer as the Shuttles return home, the anticipated landing of Columbia was a nonevent.
Lulled by the routine of space travel, where the only excitement in recent years has been announcements that wealthy people planned to buy a trip onboard, we tend to forget how risky and how dangerous space travel is. We forget that extraordinary men and women are the driving force behind NASA and the space program. And we fail to acknowledge the vital scientific and medical research that they contribute.
At 8:30 a.m. an Associated Press writer filed a routine story, reporting the Florida morning fog had burned off. Columbia was heading home, having successfully completed its experiments, and that its next mission was scheduled for November, when it would carry into orbit a teacher, who was the backup for Challenger crew member Christa McAuliffe on that ill-fated voyage. It was a story that would have received little play in Sunday newspapers. After 115 Shuttle flights, little out of the ordinary has occurred. But 16 minutes from landing, some 203,000 feet above Texas, Columbia broke apart. Seven extraordinary men and women died.
We were jarred from the complacency. When the Challenger exploded, investigators spent years probing the disaster. Again with Columbia it will probably be a long time before all is known about why and how this terrible tragedy occurred. As with Challenger, this will delay the space program but it shouldn’t grind it to a halt.