“We pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave us birth;
Let us rest our eyes on the fleecy skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth.”
Robert Heinlein “The Green Hills of Earth”
K
Yeah, Redwolf. It’s impossible to imagine what they are going through… No words could describe it.
Let us pray and play for the souls who soared so high.
Philo
No words I know can express the grief I feel, let alone that which their families are enduring. All I can possibly offer, in addition to my prayers, is Amazing Grace on my favorite whistle.
~Larry
I was on a field trip to Howe Caverns when the Challenger exploded. My entire 5th grade class came up from the cave to watch the film of the event. It was awful, and so is this.
Wisest thing to do now: turn off the radio and tv coverage of this for at least 24 hours. Otherwise, you’ll be subjected to every weird speculation, falsehood and bs that the media types can dream up.
After about a day or so, there will be an working explanation hopefully.
Nobody needs that rollercoaster and the relations of those lost need peace and sympathy, not a microphone stuck in their face and questions about “how they feel”.
I am sad for those lost.
Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,
Onward! the sailors cry;
Carry their souls to the stars twink-ling
Over this sea of sky.
[ This Message was edited by: avanutria on 2003-02-01 14:52 ]
I have been trying to avoid this thread as long as I could; I don’t deal well with grief. Prayers said, I will play “The May Morning Dew” for them…and for us all.
N, words fail
Roger, I don’t think the CNN sensational coverage has anything to do with the fact that there’s debris in Palestine, TX (pronounced Pales-TEEN) . . . it’s much easier to lob one of those grenades at the fact that one of the astronauts was in the Israeli Military.
But everyone here has stated that it wasn’t a terrorist attach. The shuttle was 200,000+ feet up, traveling at Mach 18.
Stuart
My prayers are with the families and friends of the astronauts lost as well as the crews at NASA that have to find out what happened and make sure it never happens again.
-Jim
I have nothing I can say, no significant quotes that come to mind, nor touching prayers to offer. What a tragedy. I can only hope, fervently, that we are able to find what the problem was and how to fix it so it does not happen again.
My thoughts too are with all those involved.
Great sorrow. . .and thoughts go out to the families, friends, and courageous people still in space, and going back to work there soon. There is no going back from the brink of deep space. It will always be a terrible and dangerous, and exciting part of our lives.
High Flight
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings.
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sunsplit clouds; and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of–
Wheeled and soared and swung–
High in the sunlit silence. Hovering there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up, the long, delirious, burning blue,
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace,
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew.
And while, with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
John Gillespie Magee
I’ve been glued to the TV for most of the five hours since it happened. Its so much like CHALLENGER - shocking and terrible in its surprise and the suddenness when all seemed to be going well.
In view of the last 16 months, and with one of the crew being Israeli, I guess its only natural for some folks’ first question to be whether terrorism was involved, although from the very beginning I’ve doubted it because of the shuttle’s altitude and speed.
113 shuttle flights and only two such tragedies is a pretty amazing record when one considers the awesome forces needed to throw a shuttle into space and bring it home. As our hearts go out to the crew’s families, we should still remain cognizant of the fact that the crew knew the risks and gladly accepted them. Death is always horrible, but if you think about it, it came while they were doing something important that they loved. There should be some solace in that.
[ This Message was edited by: Chuck_Clark on 2003-02-01 15:10 ]
My heart goes out to the families. I am so incredibly sorry for them… Yet they have known nobility of purpose beyond so many of us.
Bill Whedon
“For better is it to dare mighty things,
To win glorius triumphs,
Even though checkered by failure,
Than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy
much nor suffer much because they live in the grey
twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” -Theodore Rosevelt 
[ This Message was edited by: jeffmiester on 2003-02-01 15:49 ]
Seems like the time to play a verse or two of Amazing Grace on one of our whistles.
Nick
I just found out, such terrible news, awful..
