The Columbia disaster has become a very personal tragedy in the Bay Area community. The seven astronauts were part of our community. They shopped at our stores, ate at our restaurants, attended our churches, and their children went to our schools. Most of us knew one of the astronauts, at least indirectly. In my case, the father of Adam’s best friend was Willie McCool, the pilot of Columbia. I never met McCool, but Adam was very enamored of him. By all accounts, he was good people, as were all of the astronauts. These were all brilliant, accomplished, and very talented people willing to assume the risks that are part and parcel of being a shuttle astronaut. In the end, that risk was substantial.
The Johnson Space Center is four miles from my home down NASA Road 1. I pass it every day on my way to and from work. JSC is part of my world, but, like most people here, I seldom give it much thought. Every day, I drive by the Mercury, Gemini, and Saturn rockets outside JSC, but like everything else I see on a daily basis, they had become part of the background. Now, sadly, I find myself much more conscious of the rockets, as well as the risks and rewards they symbolize.
The shuttle program is not something we’ve taken for granted- far from it, in fact. All of us who live in this community are aware of the significance and value of the program. Even so, it has become such a frequent, efficient, and reliable event that it hasn’t always attracted the attention it deserves. Since the Challenger accident, shuttle flights had routinely gone off without a hitch- if such an event can ever be described as “routine”. I watched Columbia’s launch, marveled at its engineering achievements, and then quickly went on with the rest of my day. The dangers involved barely registered. Now we have a very personal reminder of just how dangerous space flight can be.
The memorial that has sprung up outside JSC is a reminder of just how important NASA is to our community. Columbia’s astronauts were heroes in the truest sense of the word, and we embraced them as such. Knowing the families has only made this tragedy that much more difficult. Today’s memorial service will be a difficult time for all of us. Adam was invited to attend; the last time he went to NASA was to play basketball with Willie McCool. I don’t think that he could have imagined that the next time he would be there would be to listen to his best friend eulogize his father.
