2003-02-01 - 10:14 a.m.

When it rings early, it always is bad news

This morning when I heard my phone ring at 8 AM, I just knew that I didn?t want to pick it up. I knew it wasn't going to be a telemarketer. I knew it wasn't my brother or Cricket just wanted to catch up.

I knew something had happened while I was asleep. And sadly, my first thought was there was another terrorist attack. That is the state many people now live in. When something happens, we are so afraid that we instantly wonder what sick person decided to kill more people to make a political message.

The Columbia blew up today while above Texas. In Jr. High, I still remember the day when the Challenger blew up. My Jr. High was less than two miles from the Johnson Space Center. One of the astronauts lived on the street behind my house. One of my sister's friend's lost her dad when Challenger blew: Astronaut Onazuka.

While Americans and others (there was an Israeli on the Columbia), are going to be morning the loss, since I grew up in the part of Houston where every 5th adult worked for NASA, it is really difficult to describe what this feels like to me, because it doesn't yet. It hasn't sunk in. On the phone Bane started with, "[Contour], the Columbia had an accident this morning. I felt you should know."

You see, for Bane and me, these are not just space shuttles. They have names: Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, or Endeavor. They don't just represent a small crew of 10 or fewer astronauts. They don?t just represent the work of the people of Houston Texas.

The Shuttle Program has been key to NASA's exploration of Earth and Space virtually all of my life. As a child I remember our teachers bringing in TV and watching the first dozen lift offs. While America stopped watching the shuttle after the first few launches, we continued on and on. Why?

Our teachers were so bold as to tell us that the future of the human race lie in exploration, and wanted us to see exploration in practice. (Yes, we also had plenty of field trips to look at moon rocks, 1960s era computer control rooms, etc.) While I think most humans are nasty creatures, I still know that if any of this is to continue ? to matter, humans will have to leave the Earth. I just hope now that NASA gets more funding.

-=-

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