Earlier in the morning, I said to my wife "must be a slow news day". For over fifteen minutes, NBC's Today Show broadcast from Rockefeller Center. The show's hosts rode bicycles on the ice, and practiced shooting goals with Rangers loudmouth Matthew Barnaby. No mention of "weapons of mass destruction", our impending attack on Iraq, or the sluggish economy.
I flipped throught the channels while drinking a cup of coffee. I got to the end and started over. On the 2nd round of channel surfing I came across CNN. They were just switching over to a live look at the space shuttle, but something looked out of place. The pictures were just coming in and I thought to myself, 'this shuttle is in trouble'. I expected to watch the shuttle make a spectacular landing with no landing gear, or come to a halt on the runway engulfed in flames. Of course on this day, neither was to happen. I was made aware of this after only watching the live feed for another 15 or 20 seconds. The Columbia was coming competely apart as it entered the atmosphere. Later on that day, the President addressed the nation and uttered the words we all already knew. "The Columbia is gone. There are no survivors".
Since the time President John F. Kennedy challenged our nation in 1960 to land on the moon and return by the end of the decade, the space program has brought out the best in humankind. Through NASA disasters such as the flash fire and loss of three astronauts in the Apollo 1 training capsule in 1967, the heroric Apollo 13 mission, and the Challenger explosion in 1986, we have pressed on and overcome.
Some of the greatest minds on earth are a part of the NASA family. Their jobs are to now located the pieces of Columbia, scattered over a 200 mile area through Texas, Louisianna, and Arkasas, piece them back together and find out what went wrong. I don't know what sounds more difficult. To go from nothing to the moon and back, or find and put back together the Columbia well enough to know what happened. I have faith that these men and women, the smartest we have to offer, will do just that.
I was in high school the afternoon President Reagan was shot. I was studying abroad in England in 86' when the Challenger went down. Today, on a slow news day, I was in the comfort of my home when some of the smartest people we will ever know, began the toughest challenge of their lives.
I wish them well. I know they will succeed.
Challenger
