Day of Remembrance for Space Explorers Lost

[Columbia]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/01/29/columbia.remembrance.ap/index.html

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- NASA's chief reminded employees Thursday that "the consequences of us not getting it right are catastrophic," as the space agency paused to remember the dead crew members of Columbia, Challenger and Apollo.

Administrator Sean O'Keefe said in a televised address that space exploration is risky but never should result in fatalities because of "complacency, indifference, failure to attend to detail." That should be a solemn pledge for anyone who works in the space program, he said.

The Day of Remembrance falls three days before the first anniversary of the Columbia disaster. O'Keefe said it will be an annual event, always on the last Thursday of January coming as close as it does to all three of the nation's space program catastrophes.

____________________

Apollo I

Virgil Grissom
Edward White
Roger Chaffee

Challenger

Greg Jarvis
Christa McAuliffe
Ronald McNair
Ellison Onizuka
Judith Resnik
Michael J. Smith
Dick Scobee

Columbia

Rick Husband
William McCool
Kalpana Chawla
Laurel Clark
Ilan Ramon
Michael P. Anderson
David M. Brown
____________________

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 sun-split clouds,--and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless falls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor eer 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 G. Magee
____________________

Please leave your condolences here to the families of these brave astronauts lost in our exploration of space.

[Cooley Hurd]

1. My earliest heroes were astronauts...

...growing up in front of the TV, watching the flickering images being beamed back from the moon.

Every one of them, a hero in their own right...

[sweetheart]

2. A day of rememberance for workers killed in factories

There is no more nobility in space shots than any other kind of work.

Frankly, a lot more people die without justice just around the corner in the warehouse... why not honour them... They fought just as hard for the american dream, even harder as they did not have the aerospace corporate glory press giving them a hand job.

[Muddleoftheroad]

3. I disagree

Both are honorable pursuits. But astronauts carry with them the dreams and desires of the entire human race to explore the unexplored.

We already honor those who live or die doing honorable work like you suggest. It's called Labor Day.

[Columbia]

4. Thanks Muddle

This thread is to remember and give thanks to our heroes in space. Please keep your responses in this light.

Thanks.

[Muddleoftheroad]

5. Apollo 11

I still remember the first moon landing. It was glorious.

[Columbia]

6. Wish I was alive to see it

I'm looking forward to seeing a Space Shuttle launch when they resume in September. Hard to time it right since the launch windows are so broad, but I'm hoping to see one before the shuttles are phased out.

[sweetheart]

7. bollocks, labour day honours no dead

The 1000's who die are not honoured. Its a fucking holiday where you take time off. No wreaths are laid, and nobody gives a toss.

The astronauts are no more honourable than you and me. They just have "different" employment.

Given this ridiculous concept, perhaps we need economic sector holidays to honour various dead and honourable ground breakers:

1. Genetic Engineering day
2. Power generation day
3. Food day
4. Retail Day
5. Industry and machine day
6. Computer science day
7. Homeless survival day

The computer scientists who brought us the internet have done more for human kind than all of space exploration put together.

The astronaughts who died, were no more heros than the guy in the meat plant in Kansas who's arm got cut off and died of blood loss, or the dude who got electrocuted fixing an HVAC system in a Los Angeles factory.

By your logic, there already IS a day for people who lose their lives in military conquest, Memorial day. Given that the american conquest of space is a military conquest and driven, conceived and paid for as such, why pretend... the same day wreaths get laid at arlington... just make an astronaught grave with a little flame like the JFK one... and toss on another wreath.