STS-107 Crew Names on the Astronaut Memorial, Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Photo by Danielle Signor

Of the three main “anniversaries” that comprise the NASA Day of Remembrance, this is the one that hits me the hardest. I wrote about why, two years ago. It’s hard for me to read it, even now.

Speaking of the NASA Day of Remembrance, check out this photo by Bill Ingalls from Thursday’s ceremony; beautiful and poignant. You can see the STS-107 monument in the foreground.

Photo by Danielle Signor

I was just young enough that I don’t really remember Challenger. This is the one I remember very clearly. I wrote about it last year, if you’re interested.

STS-1, Columbia’s maiden voyage, launched on April 12, 1981, and was the inaugural flight in the Space Shuttle Program. Columbia and its crew were lost during STS-107 mission in 2003. As the shuttle lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 16, a small portion of foam broke away from the external fuel tank and struck the orbiter’s left wing. The resulting damage created a hole in the wing’s leading edge, which caused the vehicle to break apart during reentry on Feb. 1.

Image Credit: NASA

Eight years later…. Godspeed, Columbia.

The STS-107 crewmembers pose for their traditional in-flight crew portrait aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. From the left (bottom row) are astronauts Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist; Rick D. Husband, mission commander; Laurel B. Clark, mission specialist; and Ilan Ramon, payload specialist. From the left (top row) are astronauts David M. Brown, mission specialist; William C. McCool, pilot; and Michael P. Anderson, payload commander. Credit: NASA

January 27, 1967 — Apollo 1
Grissom • White • Chaffee

January 28, 1986 — Challenger/STS-51L
Scobee • Smith • Resnik • Onizuka
McNair • Jarvis • McAuliffe

February 1, 2003 — Columbia/STS-107
Husband • McCool • Anderson • Brown
Chawla • Clark • Ramon

→ Watch NASA’s Day of Remembrance tribute ]]> http://silver-rockets.com/2011/01/day-of-remembrance-2011/feed/ 1 http://silver-rockets.com/2010/02/columbia/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=columbia http://silver-rockets.com/2010/02/columbia/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:27:01 +0000 Danielle Signor http://silver-rockets.com/?p=1812

Space Shuttle Columbia over Houston, July 27, 1999 - © Danielle Signor

I mentioned on Twitter last week that the Columbia anniversary is something I take pretty personally, so I’m not going to attempt to make some happy-ooh-cool-space post like I typically do. Instead I’m sharing a picture I took of Columbia (STS-93) en route to a night landing in Florida, which I took from the rocket park at Johnson Space Center during my summer internship there. (Well, my internship was at LPI to be precise; we had access to JSC and used it whenever possible. Because we could. It was fun.)

ANYWAY we decided to watch the reentry at the rocket park because it was nice and dark, and in a fit of desperation, having stupidly forgotten my tripod I took this long exposure and somehow unconsciously tracked the shuttle’s path. DUMB. LUCK. It’s probably my favorite picture from that summer, especially given what happened on this day, seven years ago….

Earlier that summer, us interns went to the public welcome-back slideshow/ceremony for STS-96 at Space Center Houston. It was my first encounter with astronauts in Houston (it was just a week or two after we’d all arrived.) I seem to remember the rookies getting their pins, but I was in such an awed daze that it’s hard to say for sure. What I do remember was getting autographs after the presentation was over. Most of the crew looked tired, inured to the procedure; signing, a polite word or two, next please. All except one: a radiant young man, brimming with energy, asking each person’s name, writing a personalized message along with his signature, chatting with everyone in turn.

I don’t relate this to bag on anyone for not being astronaut-y enough; I’m sure dealing with the public is exhausting even under the best of circumstances. It’s just that this man shone out in the crowd, and I never forgot his smiling face, his kind words, and the scripture he wrote down under his autograph (Proverbs 3:5-6.) I met a lot of astronauts that summer, a lot of really incredible people, but this was the one that always stuck out to me (and still does; the memory hasn’t dimmed in a decade.)

His name was Rick Husband.

January 27, 1967 — Apollo 1
Grissom • White • Chaffee

January 28, 1986 — Challenger/STS-51L
Scobee • Smith • Resnik • Onizuka
McNair • Jarvis • McAuliffe

February 1, 2003 — Columbia/STS-107
Husband • McCool • Anderson • Brown
Chawla • Clark • Ramon ]]> http://silver-rockets.com/2010/01/we-remember/feed/ 0