OT Shuttle Columbia destroyed seven crew killed

CONTENTS DELETED

cmdrstraker2001 wrote:
Amelia,

Thanks for that. One big thing, Gerry Anderson helped a lot
of space fans get interested in "the real thing." My hope and prayer is
that we will continue to keep that interest alive. I was born right
after Apollo 8 returned in January of 1969. One of my earliest memories
is of the landing s of Apollo 17, the Skylab missions and the Apollo
Soyuz mission. I also remember being home sick to watch Columbia's first
flight. I know we will be back, it's just a matter of when.

Tom Bryant

It is a terrible time for everyone concerned, and also for the millions
watching the tragedy unfold live on television. I would like to add this
song, adapted by John Denver from the poem by John Gillespie Magee Jr, called
simply "Flight."

For me, it seemed to be appropriate to listen to the words after the tragedy
and loss of seven explorers, who have given the ultimate sacrifice in our
quest to know more of the mysteries and uniqueness of space, and I hope you
won't mind my sharing it with you.


Oh I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the sky on laughter silvered wings
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun split clouds and done a hundred things
I've wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence
Hovering there I've chased the shouting winds aloft
and flung my craft through footless halls of air

The higher we fly
The farther we go
The closer we are to one another
The darker the night
The brighter the star
In peace go my sisters and brothers

Up, up the long delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor even eagle flew
And while with silent lifting mind I trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand and touched the face of god









Claire







[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Tom Bryant wrote:

> I also remember being home sick to watch Columbia's first
> flight. I know we will be back, it's just a matter of when.
>


It'll have to be fairly soon, unless the Americans currently in
space hitch a ride back home on a Soyuz.