"We fly for humanity"

In the concluding installment of the Discovery Channel's magnificent new documentary series, When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions, which was aired tonight, the story is told of the Space Shuttle Columbia's final mission in 2003...and of its disastrous end, in a ball of fire in a clear blue east Texas sky only minutes from her planned landing in Florida. Commander Eileen Collins is interviewed, as a member of the first shuttle crew to return to space aboard Columbia's sister ship Discovery 2.5 years later, and makes a statement that brought tears to my eyes:

"Some people think we should stop...The astronauts don't feel that way. We fly for our country, we fly for humanity, we fly for exploration, we fly for a number of reasons...We don't stop because we have accidents."

Amen, sister. Adds former Mission Control flight director Gene "Failure Is Not An Option" Kranz as the episode closes: "To stop is to surrender." Somewhere up there, Rick Husband and his crew are smiling.