Space Shuttle Columbia

[FRCOps]

With sympathy to the families of the astronauts for their incredible loss, and deep condolences to Dave Lavery especially and everyone at NASA. FIRST would not be close to where it is today without NASA. We owe an eternal debt of gratitude to the individuals who have created positive examples for us, and a shared loss of the seven today who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Matt Wynne
Former FIRST Director of Operations

[Joe Matt]

"We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God.'"
- Ronald Reagan

[JVN]

I'd like to express the deepest condolences of myself and Team 229. We were meeting this morning when we heard the terrible news. Our hearts go out to the families of the 7 astronauts.

[srjjs]

A very sad event, to be sure, but discussing how it could have been prevented will not help the 7 on the shuttle.
Definitely one of the worst possible ways to start off the new year.

[Anne Shade]

Oh No!!!!

I just read the list of astronauts someone posted and my heart sank even further. Those of you who have been to the KSC regional may recognize one of the names on that list. Astronaut David Brown has made an appearance at the regional at least in 1999 and 2001 that I know of (he signed one of my operator badges). He loved FIRST and the opportunities it gave to young people. I really don't know what to say anymore, I'm at a loss of words.

[Marc P.]

Some sort of memorial should be held at the regionals, and especially at nationals, since Texas is hosting the event. If anyone knows who to contact or what to do to arrange this, email me so I can do all I can to see what can be done for the various events.

[Bill Becker]

I remember Challenger well and watching the footage today gave me chills and is a tragic moment for NASA and our nation. My heart goes out to everyone involved. No one should be angry or bitter though and there shouldn't be talk of not going back. NASA takes every possible precaution and has built the best possible vehicle that technology and money allow. Traveling to space and back is the most dangerous undertaking possible. But it is worthwhile and I guarantee any astronaut in the program would climb into any of the remaining shuttles and blast off tomorrow.

[Amber H.]

There is great honor in putting ones life on the line for the greater good of mankind.

Pardon my morbidity. I say this out of an attempt to comfort: Think for a moment about what happened to those individuals. They were literally vaporized. They will now fly forever.

If not, do you think that perhaps they have become part of the air we breathe? If so, have they not in this way become part of us all in some small way? Also, if they have become a part of us all in this way, would it not be a fitting memorial to them, to honor them by living honorably ourselves?

That would be the greatest tribute in my mind.

[David Kelly]

This is something that our team has charished for a long time and we will continue to charish it. Dave Brown signed our Rolls-Royce sponsor sign that we had on our robot at the 1999 NASA Kennedy Space Center Competition. I even got to talk to him at both the 1999 and 2001 competition at KSC. He was truely a gifted person.

[DanL]

This event will be felt really strongly throughout the FIRST community. I say 'will' because I fear the worst has not yet come.

When the Challenger blew up in '86, it really was a national tragedy; the Cold War era was just about coming to an end and the Space program was seen as one of the ways Americans triumphed over the Soviet Union.

This time, however, I'm not too sure if it will be seen the same way. It was only a few short months ago when there was the big discussion in Congress about the future of NASA's funding. How will this event affect Congress' willingness to fund space exploration (especially when Bush wants to pretty much start WW3 at the same time)?

What about the International Space Station? I read something that said with the Russians running out of funding, the only thing that keeps astronauts up there is the US's fleet of space shuttles. With this disaster, what's going to be the fate of the ISS?

And most directly, how is this going to affect the FIRST community. Kamen constantly talks about how NASA is one of FIRST's biggest (and most important) sponsors. What happens now? I know my team, 810, wouldn't be going to Annapolis this year if it wasn't for the NASA grant we recieved. What happens next year due to this tragedy?

With everything going on in the world right now, this really was probably the worst timing for such a disaster to happen. My team was deeply concerned over this event (as I'm sure other teams have been); we kept our radio locked to nothing but news channels while we were working on the 'bot today. Back in '86, the political and social situations favored accepting the loss of Challenger and moving on. Today in '03, it seems like the political and social situations right now are kinda tilting away from strong support for NASA.

I just hope I look back at this post next year and see I was wrong about what I implied here.

[Adam Y.]

Pardon my morbidity. I say this out of an attempt to comfort: Think for a moment about what happened to those individuals. They were literally vaporized. They will now fly forever.

Wow whatever blew up in the space shuttle really blew up. It was really really really really really really lucky that no one died from a piece of shuttle that fell. Escpecially the way that it blew up. It would probably be like thousands of bullets falling. Pieces came really close from what I read. Ewwww I was a science bowl center and read an article about it on the internet. For a while I thought it was about the first accident until I read the date. It is the luck of the draw. It is amazing how we could get a quadruple failure of apollow 13 down but something happened that just went wrong.

[Madison]

Originally posted by SuperDanman

What about the International Space Station? I read something that said with the Russians running out of funding, the only thing that keeps astronauts up there is the US's fleet of space shuttles. With this disaster, what's going to be the fate of the ISS?

If I recall correctly, Russia was almost relying on Lance Bass' $20M payment to go into space aboard a Soyuz spacecraft for maintanence on its fleet.

So, maybe that's an indication of the condition of the Russian fleet? Who knows?

[Firewolf]

Originally posted by WakeZero
I hate waking up to this. I pray for the families of the brave souls that were on board, and I hope my own tears can offset some of theirs

At this point I can't even form my own words.
My sympathy goes out to every one connected with this tragedy.
I've been crying all day over this. It's simply heartbraking.

[BBFIRSTCHICK]

Something should definitely be done at the Regional and Nationals in memory of those lives that were lost. I am at a lost for words and I still find it hard to believe how much has happened today. Team 1077's condolences go out to the family and friends of the 7 brave souls that lost their lives today, NASA, and the rest of the country/world! May those 7 rest in peace

[Clark Gilbert]

This is truley a disaster that deserves to be remembered. As a huge fan of the space shuttle (you should see the pictures in my room), i was quite shocked when i got a call from DJ this morning while i was at TechnoKats. I know NASA and the government will do everything to find out exactly how this happened and fix it so it never happens again.

This is a little freaky, but when i left my house at 9am this morning i was downloading "Europe- The Final Countdown". When you actually here the words to the song it's weird.

We're leaving together,
But still it's farewell
And maybe we'll come back,
To earth, who can tell?
I guess there is no one to blame
We're leaving ground
Will things ever be the same again?

It's the final countdown...

We're heading for Venus and still we stand tall
Cause maybe they've seen us and welcome us all
With so many light years to go and things to be found
I'm sure that we'll all miss her so.