Disaster. At 8am CST on February 1st, as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, the space shuttle Columbia broke up over Texas and all contact was lost with the crew. NASA, the National Transportation Safety Board, and other investigative bodies are already combing the ground for debris, but at this time it seems very unlikely the any of the seven crew members survived the apparent explosion. Columbia was launched on mission STS-107 on January 16th, the first mission in over a year not to visit the International Space Station. Columbia was on its 28th orbital flight since becoming the first shuttle launched in April 1981, and the 113th flight in the U.S. shuttle program. Columbia was constructed between 1975 and 1979, and was taken out of service for almost three years between 1999 and 2002 for a major systems upgrade.

Colonel Rick Husband, 1957-2003. Colonel Husband joined NASA in 1994, after serving as both a test pilot and an F-4 flight instructor for the U.S. Air Force. He received awards from NASA for developing the X-38 test vehicle as well as working on the upgrade of the shuttle fleet. Having flown F-4 and F-15 aircraft, Husband also tested various planes for the British Royal Air Force as part of an exchange program. In May 1999, he was the pilot aboard space shuttle Discovery on the STS-96 mission, the first shuttle docking with the International Space Station. He is survived by his wife and two children. Source: NASA

Commander William C. McCool, 1961-2003. The pilot of the STS-107 mission, Commander McCool joined NASA in 1996 after ten years of service in the U.S. Navy. Originally specializing in tactical electronic warfare, McCool became a test pilot at Maryland's Pax River, which has been the source of some of NASA's finest astronauts. His last military assignment was aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, where he served as Aministrative & Operations Officer with the 132nd Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron. Prior to flying aboard Columbia, he lent his expertise to the redesign of the shuttle fleet's cockpit systems. He is survived by his wife. Source: NASA

Lieutenant Colonel Michael P. Anderson, 1959-2003. Lt. Colonel Anderson joined NASA in 1994 after a distinguished Air Force career that began in communication and information systems and led to over 3,000 hours of flight time. He flew T-38 aircraft, the KC-135 plane used by NASA for zero-G training, and the Strategic Air Command airborne emergency command post Looking Glass. Anderson had previously flown aboard the shuttle Endeavour on the STS-89 mission in January 1998, where he served as a mission specialist. He is survived by his wife. Source: NASA

Dr. Kalpana Chawla, 1959-2003. The first astronaut from India, Dr. Chawla was an aerospace engineering expert who held degrees from colleges in both India and the United States, and joined NASA in 1994, and flew as a mission specialist aboard Columbia on the STS-87 mission in November 1997. She also held commercial pilots' licenses. Source: NASA

Captain David Brown, 1957-2003. Captain Brown joined NASA in 1996, originally assigned to development work on the International Space Station. Prior to that, he was a Naval Aviator and qualified flight surgeon, and served in both capacities at the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. He logged over half of his 2,700 hours of flight time in high-performance military aircraft such as the T-38 Talon. He is survived by his parents. Source: NASA

Doctor Laurel Clark, 1962-2003. Dr. Clark, a commander in the U.S. Navy, joined NASA in 1996; the STS-107 mission was her first spaceflight. Prior to embarking on her spaceflight career, Dr. Clark was a specialist in diving medicine, and participated in several medical evacuations involving U.S. Navy submarines. She later served as a flight surgeon for the Navy and U.S. Marines. She is survived by her husband and one child. Source: NASA

Colonel Ilsa Ramon, 1954-2003. Colonel Ilsa Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut, was selected as an STS-107 payload specialist in 1997 and began training for the mission in 1998. Prior to joining NASA for this mission, Colonel Ramon had a distinguished career in the Israeli Air Force, logging over 4,000 hours of flight time (1,000 of those in F-16 aircraft). He also participated in a controversial 1982 mission to eliminate suspected Iraqi nuclear weapons facilities. Colonel Ramon is survived by his wife and four children. Source: NASA

What else can you really say here? I'm hesitant to even try to write anything at the moment. The reality of today's events has hit me, but somehow the emotional shockwave hasn't caught up with me.

As unusual as it may be, my immediate thoughts turn to the future, and the future of manned spaceflight. At this moment in history, it would be all too easy for the current administration to put the space program on hold and redirect everything toward the military budget. Too recently, a friend of mine who had been working for a NASA contractor in Houston lost his job because of cutbacks that have already been made.

The next scheduled launch would have been an early March flight to retrieve the crew of the International Space Station and deliver three new astronauts for the next leg of the station's mission. Now, in all likelihood, the three astronauts currently aboard the station will shut down systems aboard the station, climb into the Russian Soyuz capsule normally kept in standby for any evacuation situations, and return to Earth. The Space Station was already in danger of being placed in "hibernation" due to the faltering Russian space program; now it seems certain that no one will be visiting the station for quite a while. Hopefully it can be kept in orbit, in one piece, avoiding the fate that Skylab and Mir eventually met.

And then...I suspect we won't be going back to space until 2005 at the earliest.

But we must go back. We have to. In a world where it seems like a fairly good chunk of the human race has gone mad, occasionally things like this are just the little bit of hope that we need.

If, somehow, the decision was made to send a shuttle up to retrieve the station crew in March, and in the unlikely event that NASA ran out of people willing to fly, I'd go. I'd go in a heartbeat.

And I wouldn't have a moment's doubt that I'd be coming back in one piece.

Earl Green
theLogBook.com webmaster/editor-in-chief