Disarranging Mine

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Sunday, February 02, 2003

Columbia

Yesterday, Saturday, February 1, 2003, at about 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time, the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated above earth. Columbia and her crew of seven men and women were on their way home. They were heading towards a scheduled 9:16 a.m. landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They never made it. They were traveling approximately 207,000 feet above earth at a speed of Mach 18. That's about 12,500 miles per hour.

The crew consisted of Colonel Rick Husband, Lt. Colonel Michael Anderson, Commander Laurel Clark, Captain David Brown, Commander William McCool, Dr. Kalpana Chawla, and Ilan Ramon, a Colonel in the Israeli Air Force.

They were doing their jobs. And we were doing what we usually do on Saturday mornings. Most of us were oblivious to them and what was happening to them. It wasn't until I actually sat down at noon (Central) to see if I had any e-mail that I first heard about what had happened. I was in shock. My first thought was, how could this happen ... again.

Something happened. Something tore that vehicle apart. As of now, we don't know what it was. The news is reporting tonight that the remains of the seven crew members have now been found.

They dared to dream. They dreamt big. And then they lived their dreams. And we are all better for it.

Posted by Marie at February 2, 2003 9:10 PM