Submitted February 1, 2004, 11:09 AM
What were your thoughts and feelings when you heard that Columbia was lost?
A year ago today I watched the anticipated arrival of STS107 Columbia on television in Tampa Florida. As always, I waited for the sonic boom that signified the shuttle's passage from the west coast of Florida to the east coast. This time, nothing. No sonic boom. And by 9:16 am I knew something awful had happened. I remember thinking, oh no, not again, as tears rolled down my cheeks.
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If you are old enough to remember, please compare your responses to other important moments in space travel like the Challenger disaster and the moon walk.
I remember the day of the Challenger disaster when I arrived at my mother-in-law's house in Syracuse NY to pick up my 6-month old son. She said, very simply, "It exploded." She knew I was a huge fan of the space program. A Star Trek fan since forever. I don't remember much about the television coverage of the moon walk because I lived in England at the time, and although we had a TV, we did not watch much.
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Have your views of space travel changed over time?
My feelings about space travel and space exploration have not changed one bit. I still believe we should venture out and explore the moon, Mars, the other planets. And even further as technology is developed. I grew up dreaming of going "where no man has gone before..." If they would take a 50-year old diabetic, I'd go tomorrow. Who knows what we might find in the farthest reaches of space. Intelligent life perhaps?? It's fun to imagine and to dream. And the people who push those boundaries, both those who fly, and sadly sometimes die, in space and those who toil here on earth to make it happen, have my deepest admiration.
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Name
In addition to saving your story to the archive, may we post it to the web? (yes/no)
How did you hear about this project?
looking at the NASA website
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