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From the LA Times, 1/28/03:

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Columbia's astronauts briefly interrupted their science work on the 17th anniversary of the Challenger disaster to remember their fallen comrades.

NASA's work force, in orbit and on Earth, observed a moment of silence Tuesday at the exact time that Challenger exploded in the sky Jan. 28, 1986. They honored not only on the seven Challenger astronauts, but also the three who were killed by a fire in their Apollo spacecraft at the pad Jan. 27, 1967.

At the launch site, flags flew at half staff for the second day in a row.

The two tragedies, separated by 19 years and a single day, represent the space agency's darkest hours.

"It is today that we remember and honor the crews of Apollo 1 and Challenger. They made the ultimate sacrifice, giving their lives and service to their country and for all mankind," Columbia commander Rick Husband radioed a few minutes before the airwaves went silent.

"Their dedication and devotion to the exploration of space was an inspiration to each of us and still motivates people around the world to achieve great things and service to others."

"They dedicated their lives to pushing the scientific challenges for all of us here on Earth. They dedicated themselves to that objective and did it with a happy heart and great enthusiasm. The loss of this valiant crew is something we will never get over."   -- NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe

May Odin, Allfather of the Vikings, welcome these modern explorers warmly, with open arms and full horns of ale.  And may Odin the Wise, who sacrificed himself to himself on Yggdrasil to gain the knowledge of the runes, guide the investigators to the truth of the matter, that we may learn from this tragedy and prevent others in the future.  May Frigga, the Great Mother, who knows the sting of the death of one's child, give comfort to the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, and others who hold these adventurers close to their hearts, that they will come through this knowing that the bonds of kin hold fast past death, and that even though their bodies may be gone, a part of their spirit will always remain.  So mote it be.

I hope that the people who are finding parts of the shuttle will be honourable and mature and actually notify the police as they are being instructed to do.  This is one of those things where there will be people who want to keep pieces of the shuttle as ghoulish "souviniers".  Unfortunately, as we know from previous disasters, sometimes it is a fragment of debris that holds the answer to what it was that went wrong - and someone who thinks that keeping a small piece won't hurt anything could inadvertantly prevent investigators from being able to determine what happened -- and know how to prevent it again in the future.

As I noted in response to a comment on my earlier post, having watched more coverage now, I think it is unlikely that terrorism was involved.  The shuttle was too high in the atmosphere for any kind of a projectile to have reached it, and there is no visible indication of a missle streaming towards it - no extra contrail prior to the disintegration or any other indicator of that nature.  That would pretty much leave sabotage as the most likley means of a terror attack, and you know that with the first Israeli astronaut on board, security prior to launch would have been very high.

I did get a brief chuckle, however, in the midst of the dark news.  My husband and I have discovered that when we're watching extended coverage on a big news story, I frequently will make an observation to him about what we've been watching, and within a matter of minutes, the broadcaster will make a similar observation.  Well, I had just barely gotten done commenting to him on the odd coincidence that the shuttle with the first Israeli astronaut on board had exploded and begun raining debris down near Palestine, TX, when an MSNBC commentator mentioned that even though it was  unlikey that this is a terror attack, there would likely be conspiracy theories bubbling up due to the explosing happening over the President's home state, and that the shuttle with the first Israeli astronaut on board had exploded and begun raining debris down near Palestine, TX.   Personally, I think I just spent too much time doing the on-air when I was studying mass communications in college.

CNN has a note in one of their stories about a small problem that occured at launch which may have affected some of the tiles on the shuttle, though they had thought the damage was minor:

On launch day, a piece of insulating foam on the external fuel tank came off during liftoff and was believed to have struck the left wing of the shuttle. NASA said as late as Friday that the damage to the thermal tiles was believed to be minor and posed no safety concern during the fiery decent through the atmosphere.

It's impossible to watch today's events and not think about the day the Challenger blew up.  In 1986, I was living in Seattle and studying Mass Communications at Bellevue Community College. At the time, I was the school's radio station's (KBCS) program director, so when things went crazy, I was the one people called.  I woke up to hear the news that the shuttle had blown up on one of the local rock radio stations - a station known for playing pranks in bad taste.  My initial thought was that the story was just too outlandish to even possibly be true, and that the jocks had just taken this joke a bit too far. 

Then my phone rang.

It was the student disk jockey who was currently on the air at KBCS asking me what he should do - the AP wire teletype (this was a while ago, you know) - which rings a loud bell 10 times whenever emergency news is being sent over the wire - was clanging constantly, and people were calling in.  The shift he was doing didn't have a regular news segment, so he was at the station alone.  I told him I'd be right in and headed over to the station.

I spent the rest of the day dealing with the story.  I watched the coverage on TV, trying to comprehend the enormity of what had happened, called staffers in so we could get stories pulled off the wire or written based on the reports we were listening to and watching.  Several times, I got on the air myself to read the news, and I fielded a number of calls as well.

I think because I was so focused on gathering the news and getting it sent back out, it took longer for me to really comprehend what it was that had happened.  While I remember the things I did that day, I don't remember much of what I felt...  the memories have the sense of a dream to them - like I'm standing outside myself and watching what happened.  When I got home that night, it finally started to sink in, and I just broke down and cried.  It was probably the biggest tragedy that had occured during my "conscious" lifetime, and the feeling of sadness and dispair that permeated everything hit hard once it finally sunk in. 

In the years since then, I've seen the bombing at Oklahoma City and the World Trade Center destroyed, and in light of the massive losses we suffered in those attacks, I'm finding today's tragedy to have somewhat less of an emotional shock than the Challenger did so many years ago.  My heart goes out to the families and friends of the astronauts, and I worry what this will do to our future as a space-fareing people - I think space exploration is important.

But there's still a kind of emptiness that I'm feeling right now -- that after years of disasters - plane crashes, bombings, mass murders, train wrecks, and all the rest - part of me is starting to become a bit numb to the experience.  Each new disaster has a lesser impact than the previous, because as I grow older, they're no longer so shocking.  Equipment fails.  People can be cruel.  Death can reach us at any time and in any way.

I can't believe another shuttle has blown up....  and with the first Israeli astronaut on board, there will almost certainly be questions about whether or not terrorism was involved.  I've only learned about this a few minutes ago, so I have no idea what has or has not been speculated on or what information is known, but I have to admit, that was my own first thought.

The Challenger explosion was traumatic, and could have seriously derailed our space exploration program.  A second shuttle explosion...  it's almost unthinkable.

I would like to offer a special note of "Thanks!" to Senators Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, John McCain of Arizona, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Susan Collins of Maine, Mike DeWine of Ohio and Peter G. Fitzgerald of Illinois.  These 6 Republican Senators have sent a letter to the Republican leadership, expressing their concerns with the possible insertion of a measure into a pending budget bill that would allow oil companies access to the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve.

The letter noted:

"Because the opening of the Arctic Refuge to drilling raises a host of policy concerns, including serious environmental ramifications, we do not believe this issue should be injected in the budget process.  We believe that the Arctic refuge should be preserved and that the budgetary effects of oil leases in the refuge are incidental when considering the profound negative impact of drilling in the Arctic refuge." [New York Times, 1/31/03]

When these 6 Senators are added to the number of Democrat and Independent Senators who are viewed as unlikely to support any drilling in the ANWR, the measure would not have the support it needs to be added to the budget bill.  So, for a little bit longer, at least, the ANWR should be safe.

A recent poll by the Wilderness Society, and conducted by both Republican and Democrat firms showed that the general public is opposed to drilling in the ANWR, by a margin of two-to-one, even if our national oil supply is threatened.

Preserving the environment - no matter how "hippy-dippy" it might sound at times - is important.  What it seems many fail to grasp is that we do not exist above or separate from the ecosystem, but rather that we are very much a part of it, and if we don't take steps to protect it, we're not protecting ourselves, either.