News

Bush consoles NASA grief

By Ray Hafner
Senior Staff Writer

CLEAR LAKE -- President Bush vowed to push forward with the space program Tuesday during a memorial service to the seven fallen crew members of the space shuttle 
Columbia.

"Americais space program will go on," he said. "The cause of exploration and discovery is not an option we choose. It is a desire written in the human heart."

More than 12,000 people attended the private memorial for the astronautis families, NASA employees and invited guests. The families of the astronauts sat in the front row alongside Bush. Many of them were visibly moved during the ceremony.

"We find the best among us, send them forth into unmapped darkness and pray they will return," Bush said. "They go in peace for all mankind and all mankind is in their debt."

The ceremony was held at Johnson Space Center, just off NASA Road 1, where thousands of people have donated to a makeshift memorial of signs, balloons and flowers.

"The people in NASA are being tested once again," said Bush, recalling the Challenger explosion almost exactly 17 years ago. "In your grief you are responding as your friends would have wished; with focus, professionalism and unbroken faith in the mission of this agency."

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee was among those in attendance and said it was an affirmation of space travel to have 15 senators and 30 members of the House attend to show their support.

"Itis a recommitment to the space program," she said. "Based on the conversations Iive had we are not going backward; we are going forward."

Newly elected Rep. Chris Bell echoed that sentiment and said he felt the ceremony was deeply moving.

"The message was clear: the space program needs to continue to honor the lives of these seven individuals," Bell said.

The ceremony concluded with tolling of the bells -- seven times, one for each astronaut -- and a fly-by of NASA T-38is. The T-38 is a training plane used to prepare astronauts for the rigors of space flight. It flew in the "missing man" formation, symbolizing the loss.

Col. Rick Husband, Cmdr. William McCool, Kalpana Chawla, Cmdr. Laurel Clark, Lt. Col. Michael Anderson, Capt. David Brown and Col. Ilan Ramon of the Israeli Air Force all perished when the shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas.

Capt. Kent Rominger, chief of the Astronaut Corps, supervised the development of STS-107, Columbiais flight number, and provided some of the most personal comments at the memorial.

"The diverse crew functioned flawlessly together," said Rominger, adding that they were one of the warmest groups of people who even sported a toy hamster that sang "Kung-fu Fighting" as their mascot.

Describing Ramon, the first-ever Israeli astronaut, he called him a "perfectly poised fighter pilot with a sparkle in his eye."

Anderson was the quiet type, "until you asked him about his family or his Porsche."

Brown was the groupis bachelor, and as such in constant search for food. Rominger praised the rest of the crew for their exceptional talents and said Husband was "a naturally gifted pilot."
 

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