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TuMdty, Fttnury 4,2003 Tlra» Hm, T»in r«*», tdrfio KI

Opinion

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foDowtng Saturda/s of the space shuttle

on Columbia disaster

Recreate

Every Thureday In the Outdoore MCtlon, The Tfmee-Newa guktoe you to recreational opporlunttle*.

Ingrodłents ofan imjulry-—-

* After the «pace shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986, President Ronald Reagan ■appolntad a-l3*nember-conuaifr— don to invesdgatc. It was headed by form er Secretary of State William P. Roger? and indudcd three physidsts," two ostronauts and a test pilot

Now, after the Columbia disaster Saturday moming, the head of the National Aeronautics and Space Admlnistradon, Sean OTCeefc, has oppoimed an "independent, objecdve board." It is heavy on generals and admirals and shon on sdcndsts and astronauts. •

!Rcagan’s approach - which in four months pin point cd the cause of the crash and NASA's-— mis tak es - is far prefcrable to one set up by NASA itself. For that reason, President Bush should quickly to set up a Rogers-style commission.

Indcpendencc is imponont because NASA has hard qucs-dons to answer. Among them:

Did NASA adcguately invcsti-gate the safety unplications of a 'piece of foam hitting the left wingof the shuttle on take-off?

Did budget cuts that put off safety upgrades on the shuttle eon-tributc to the crash? On such dif-' ficult, and now highly chargcd issues, NASA should not be expected to be truły objecdvc.

NASA says cxpens around the country conduded that the launch icadent was not a problem. But NASA did not take steps to folio w up, such as having powerful telescopcs focus on the •vring.

No one has linked the budget cuts to the crash. But for months NASA’s Acrospace Safety Advisory Pand hascomplaincd •that cuts were huning shutde •safety. The formerhead of the pand, Richard Blombcrg, sald last April, “I havc never bcen as worried for space shuttle safety •as I am right now.”

The broader lessons of the Challcngcr aeddent took morę rime to cmerge. Expcrts from dif-ferent ficlds took away different lessons. To Feynman, the aeddent was a elear example of what happens when burcaucrats • ignoro the advice of enginwre.

remir.ded us Saturday that “space fllghr is risky business.' Lot* of peoplc are now asldng if the rewards Justify the risks. On balance, we believe they do. All

hostUe environment, like Lewis and Clark 200 years ago, face dangers. Ifitfe would fly, we must

risk the fali-____

Apollo i, Apollo 13, Challcngcr and now Columbia. Those nam es sad den us and rcmind us of 60me ■ painful truths: “Rocket science"

U sdll hard to master. It’s a vcry dangerous and unpredictable , universe out there, and our hotne planet is a dny blue speck in the vastness of space. Our toughest spacecroft ond boldcst astronauts put their survival on the linc every sccond they fly.

The Sun-Scntincl (Fort LoudertLale, Fla.)

Those iri other disciplincs vicwcd it as a cautionary tale about tech-nical decision making in the face of poliucal pressure.

The commission that invcsti-gates the Columbia crash nceds a similar array of expens- scien-ciM5,enginecrs, astronauts and sawy polilidans - to find out what went so tragicaUy wrong 40 mil es above the earth.

The Sł. Louis Post-Dispatch

Rewards still outwelgh risks

' Millions of peOple in (his country and around the world compul-sively watched the tragic TV iraages Saturday, as the space shuttle Columbia burned up on re-entry, killing seven astronauts.

Fcw yiewers apprcciated the Irony that they were abłe to get the news of Uus spectacular NASA failure so quickly only because of some of the space pro-gram’s lesser-known successes. The news came over satcllitcs, feccivers and other space tech-nology.

That same tcchnotogy, in ways large and smali, has madę all our livcs better. It has been worked ińto our cars, smokc dctectors. rqicrowave ovens, dothing and even our food. It hdps us figlu disease, through CAT seans and mammograms.

Space ejcploration givcs us morę occuratc weather forcca->«$, about hurricanes, tomados and droughts. It helps sailors, pilots, even hunters and hikers find their way by using global posi-doning satdlitc receivers. It helps sdentists understand ocean currents and winds, and even global warmlng. And ir o pens doors of knowledge about the world, the solar system and the universe.

But just as the rewards of space exp!oration are great, so are the hazards.

*U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who flew

'Columbia is iost'

Cliding toward its landing ot 12^00 mph, 200,000 feet above the Earth, the shuttle Columbia seemed headed for the condu-sion of a succcssful - and, to most of us, humdnun - mission. There* had ncvcr bccn an accidentin descent in 42 years of U.S. manned spaccflight. Thcn, unbe-lievably, the craft burst into flamcs and came apart, killing all seven astronauts a board and raining pieces of flaming metal over eastem Tcxas. “The Columbia is lost," President Bush told the nation Saturday. “There arc no survivors.”

Llke the Challcngcr exp!osion 17 years ago, this disaster leaves Americans stunned and shaken.

It is unspeakably sad: for the fam-ilics of the couragcous astronauts involved, for the scientists and cnginccrsof the space program, for the Isracli peoplc who saw air force CoL Dan Ramon become the first Isracli astronaut on this mission, and for most Americans, who havc bccn battered by Sept.

11, a struggling economy, and the somber rcaliration that this country may soon be sending its young peoplc into war in Iraq. This loss will ftirthcr test the resiliencc of the national spirit.

It is a test, of coursc, that America will surely pass. Almost immcdiatcly, President Bush vowcd to the strickon familics that the country- would set to work determining the cause of the aeddent and getting the space program back on track.

- The cause in which they died— vyiU continuc," he told the nation. "Our joumey into space will go on."

The public’s immediate fcar, cspcdally with an Israeli on board, was that terroristn was involvcd. That seemed unlikely, sińce the explosion occurrcd far bcyond the rangę of any missile. Early speculation also ccntcrcd on Columbia’s left wing, which may havc bccn struck by foam insulation during hftoff. But NASA spedalists insisted that seemed to do no damage. The truth is, it wiU take time to find out exactly what happened. Immcdiatcly, and properly, the govemment announeed an inde-

Saturda/s terrible aeddent rerainds us that spaccflight will always be risky. But, ultimatcly, as long as the human spirit endures, we will not tum back.

• Provldencc Journal “

The spirit to go on

• And now this.

—With-Ameriorfighting one war^-and on the brink of another, with the atrodtyx>f 9fll still an open wound" amid an economy that is shnky at best, in the dcpths of o bitter winter, the space shuttle -the pridc of a nation - disinte-grates just 16 minutes from • home, and seven astronauts are lost.

Life is starting to feel likc an endlcss stress test. \Vhat’sa country to do?

Try saluting. It’s not something you see much of anymorc, this gesture assodated most often with military peoplc acknowlcdg-ing a superior.

But the salutc is also a univcr-sal sign of honor, respect, good wishes and goodwill.

Salute the crew of Columbia for living their risky dreaips. The space program truły aitracts our best and brightest, peoplc with the tolcnts and skills to lead safer and much morę Iucrative liws. Instead, they chase their passion for the unknown in the only country on Earth that embraces such pursuits and makes them possiblc.

Salutc the vision of America as a “melting pot" for the world, a vision so embodied in the Columbia team - men and women, dark and light, nativc and immigrant, evcn an ally from a forcign Ian±..

Salute what the space shuttle represents- the spirit of a nation that was foundcd by adventurcrs and has never stopped pushing the envclope of human achieve-ment. As President Ronald Reagan said in his inspiring speech after the 1936 Challcnger shuttle disaster, "I know it’s hard to understand, but sometimes painful things likc this happen.

Ifs all pan of taking a chance and cxpanding man's horizons.

The futuro docsn't belong to the faint-heaned."    ‘

Salutc the rcsoIve of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the face of this third major disaster in its histo-ry. NASA is shaken, staggered evcn. But its engincers and scien--tists ore-nothing buttletermined— to figurę out what happened and why, so that it can ncver happen again. NASA will not have the luxury of lengthy mouming and introspeaion ».

Salute all those who scrve your country, whether in space or in Afghanistan or in waiting for the possible conflict tocome. Whatcvcr the coUcctivc psyche on the home front, the fcelings arc much morc intense on the front lines and in the resenes -and in the minds of those who make the decisions that affcct so many lives.

Columbia was a disaster, smali in scalę, perhaps, when set against 9/11 or a commerdal a\i-

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afion crash or a war. But symbolu _ cally, emolionally, spiritualiy, it was another reminder that America is mighty but not invin-dblc - incredibly advanccd, but

snll Yulnerable to the unknown.--

Ifs a hard time to be at caśe.

So it's good wc havc so much to salutc.

Detroit Frcc Press

Columbla'8 7 hetd a passion to exp!ore

Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kolpanu Chawla, LaurcI Clark, Rick Husband, William McCool and Don Roman were not names familiar to most. . Americans umil Saturday's cata-strophe. •

Yet the seven astronauts who perished when the shuttle Columbia disintegrated pos-sessed Ute “right stuff” Tom Wolfe wrote of in his 1979 classic on the birth of America's manned space program.

The right stuff is much morc than bravcry, though it ccrtainly requircs an cxtraordinary amount of cournge to strap into a space shuttle, ignitc a tower of cxplosivc fucl and take off.

The right stuff is on unquench-ablc possion to explore and push the boundaries of science and tcchnology.

Most American schoolkids growing up in the early 1960s knew the names of Mercury Seven astronauts Scott Corpcntcr, Gordon Cooper, John Glcnn, Virgil Crissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shopard ond Dckc Slayton - this country’s space pionccrs. They were regarded as heroes and cclcbritics.

The Columbia Sevcn who died Saturday did not join the space program for fortunę or famę.

They became astronauts to help mankind cxpand its understand-ing of the unhterse.

Each of the astronauts came to NASA with outstanding resumes. Rick Husband and William McCool were cxperienced military test pilots. David Brown and LaurcI Clark were botli physi-cians and cxpcrienced pilots. Michael Anderson was n ectcran military pilot and a technolog)' cxpert. Kalpano Chawla. born in India, was an acrospace engineer and a rolłotics expert. Han Ramon, IsraePs first astronaut. was a ecterun military pilot and an elcctronics and Computer engineer.

__Co rt a inj y. m .iny.vy i II i e^e J11 e _

dcatlisof those scvcn explorers. Yet this hearthreak will not scare off others who hnvc the right stuff.

Despite the gritn news on the latest sltuttlc tragedy, tonight there will be sch«K»lchildren throughout the world who will be inspired bv the Colurnhia Sewen. They will took into the dark sky and decidc that they too want to exp!orc thestars.

That’s because the right stuff is a potent componcm of the human spirit.

The Oriondo Scntincl

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