Remembrance: STS-107
by Jonathan Quince
Sunday, February 1, 2004 08:53:38
Let us pause in our lustful orgies for a moment of silence.
While it is usually against editorial policy to deviate from the deviant topics of our charter, this is no ordinary departure. For one year ago today, seven paragons of human brilliance and achievement took an unexpected turn through the heavens. They left Earth in the name of science, in the name of progress, in the name of that insatiable drive for beauty and perfection and understanding that defines the best of what it means to be human. Yet rather than returning to our humble and magnificent planet, they continued into the great unknown beyond; as worldly homes receded into the distance, a terrible path of fiery chaos took them instead to a realm beyond all science. There, perhaps, these heroes of the human spirit shall find the answers in search of which they dedicated their lives and risked their deaths.
One year ago today, while returning from mission STS-107, the Columbia was lost with all aboard. On this first anniversary, let us take this time to remember the seven examples of humanity’s greatest virtues who risked — and gave — their temporal lives to the timeless quest for human advancement:
- Col. Rick D. Husband (USAF), Commander, who wrote his fate as an astronaut through his childhood dreams of daring to explore beyond the world of his birth;
- Cmdr. William C. McCool (USN), Pilot, whose quick humor and ready smile belied the steely confidence of his proud military birthright;
- Lt. Col. Michael P. Anderson (USAF), Payload Commander, who grew from his youth into the astronaut he always knew he would be;
- Capt. David M. Brown (USN), Mission Specialist, doctor, aviator, and performing acrobat, who fulfilled each of his divers maverick interests with the same quiet, unassuming confidence;
- Kalpana Chawla, Mission Specialist, whose love of engineering and ambitions for achievement took her around the world and up to the stars;
- Capt. Laurel Blair Salton Clark (USN), Mission Specialist, mother, doctor, and naval officer, whose thirst for adventure and accomplishment took her to the seas below and the skies above;
- Col. Ilan Ramon (IAF), Payload Specialist, an honored guest in the American space program, and a crack soldier of the skies whose historic courage in protection of his beloved homeland perhaps averted a greater horror for us all.
May their ashes, scattered through the skies that they conquered, watch over us and our continued pursuit of scientific progress. May their souls walk in the light. May the annals of human adventure never lose sight of their noble faces.