(no subject)

New icon. I am watching you.

Happy now, SK? ;)

Columbia

This is... horrible. Seven astronauts have died. _died._



"It's gone.... the shuttle."

It just fell apart.

Erin put it better than I ever could have.
"You know when we went to Washington DC in 8th grade, and we were at arlington? We looked around at the graves and statues and monuments and marvelled because we "knew" that nothing like that would happen to is, because that stuff was over. Then in the past 2 years or so we've seen so much bad stuff happen...it's disappointing, I guess, to realize that the world will always be a scary place and it only gets more so the older you get."

I can't even talk. I look at names on my buddy list, I look at people, I look at entries you all have made onto my friends page...

There's nothing I can say. To any of you. I have nothing to say.

Reading about Challenger always made me upset. I would start to tear up, I would get depressed. This happened for many reasons: my love of the space progam, my feelings for the people, and so on. Now I look at pictures of the people on the shuttle, just doing their jobs, and it makes me so sad... They're happy. They were just enjoying themselves. They were doing their jobs, they were working in space. They were having fun. There are pictures of Ilan Ramon eating cornflakes in microgravity, floating them into his mouth.

I never had anything that could have been called a "where were you when" before 9/11/01. I thought that those kind of things didn't happen so much anymore. We were safe. Our president was protected, our people were safe. We were the United States, with definite pronounced capital letters.

I was sitting at my desk. I opened my email, found a comment that said "Did you hear about the Columbia?" Not having a clue what was going on, I checked my friends page and decided I would figure it out later. So much for that. The first entry on my friends page is by Ralesk, talking to someone asking for prayer for Isreal because they lost an astronaut. Through the discussion, I realized what had happened - at first, I didn't know that the US was involved. I went to IRC, and this:

[11:04] <crschmidt> whoa, what happened that i missed?
[11:04] <crschmidt> columbia?
[11:05] <GFM> some explodey thing... i don't know
[11:05] <Sati> it exploded over texas
[11:05] * UrsaMajor nods and :(s at chris
[11:05] <crschmidt> shizzit.

I went to google, and picked the first news story I could find, which was http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/5083197.htm .

They have video now of the shuttle actually falling apart. Those people will never do anything again: they'll never talk to their families, they'll never see their friends.

I don't know what to say. I don't think there is anything I can say.

I just want to crawl away and never come back.

I was at my computer desk, wearing a t-shirt and boxers, and crying. I wish the world wasn't here.

p.s. Dear Lord, a man lost his daughter. He lost his son in 9/11. (and if i'm wrong on that, it's what i heard, i'm sorry.)

I don't know about any of you, but I'll be praying. I don't know what else I can do.

Quotes and thoughts.\

Some quotes that I've been collecting from the news:

A paraphrased transcript of Bush's speech I typed out as he was talking:
.... A short time later, debris was seen falling from the skies above Texas...
The Columbia is lost, there are no survivors...
...on board was a crew of seven: [names] These men and women assumed great risk...
In an age when spaceflight has come to seem almost routine, it is easy to overlook the difficultues of travel by rocket and the difficulties of navigating the fierce outer atmosphere of the earth...
These astronauts knew the dangers, and they faced them willingly, knowing they had a high and noble purpose in life. Because of the Courage, and daring, and idealism, we will miss them all the more...
All americans today are thinking today as well, of the families of these men and women who were given this shock and greif...
...those you love will always have the respect and gratitude of htis country...
...the cause will continue. Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the longing to understand...
...our journey into space will go on.

In the skies today we saw tragedy...As far as we can see there is hope.

[[bible talk]]:
"The creator who made the stars knows the names of the seven souls lost today."
...the crew of the shuttle columbia did not return safely to earth, yet we can play they are safely home...
...May God bless the greiving families, may God continue to bless America.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-

last radio trasncript, read by Dan Rather
Mission control, we see your tire pressure messages, and we do not copy your last.
Columbia, roger, buh-- [cuts off]

Random quotes
-------------
It's obvious that shuttle flights may be stopped, possibly for some years. -Moscow

We may be back flying possibly within a year. -American guy sitting in a room with lots of books
-----

I don't know what's happening, I just want it to be better. I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid (doesn't everyone?) and although I doubt I'll ever get into space, I would still love to work on the NASA program. I want to improve the space program, I want to make things better because it can be.

I want to get to space. And if I can't, I want other people to be able to.