"We fly for humanity"

[thatcrazycajun]

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.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Col. Collins and White Flight are right, but only so far. Insanity is often defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Fortunately for all of us, the time when we will do things differently is approahcing. (one wishes it were a little faster than 60 seconds per minute sometimes... ) I hope and pray that that time will arrive without further stupid, senseless loss of life at the hands of a broken, obsolete corporate boondoggle and NASA brass with a bad case of get-there-itis.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[filkferengi]

*warpspeed search for Urban Tapestry's "Starsoul" on the hard drive.*