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Somber space center remembers Columbia dead
Houston, Jan 31: Somber employees at NASA`s Johnson Space Center, some wiping away tears, gathered for a moment of silence to mark the first anniversary of the shuttle Columbia disaster.
Houston, Jan 31: Somber employees at NASA's Johnson Space Center, some wiping away tears, gathered for a moment of silence to mark the first anniversary of the shuttle Columbia disaster.
About 1,000 of them stood outside under gloomy skies at the headquarters for US-manned spaceflight yesterday and bowed their heads in memory of the seven astronauts who died in the tragedy.
The silence was broken by a roll call of the dead, with each name followed by a recording of the tolling of a bell.
''To this day, I have this lump in my gut that says 'how did you let this happen, what should you have done to prevent this' -- and I know you feel that way, too,'' JSC director Jefferson Howell told the gathering.
Columbia broke apart over Texas on February 1, 2003 just minutes before it was scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Columbia accident investigation board blamed the spacecraft's destruction on damage to its heat shield that occurred shortly after takeoff and said NASA had sacrificed safety to meet flight schedules.
The shuttle fleet has been grounded since the disaster, but is scheduled to resume flights in September if NASA can comply with safety recommendations from the investigators.
''Our return to flight efforts are ongoing and successful. We are confident we will have a return to flight this year,'' Howell said. ''This is exactly what that crew would want us to do.''
The Columbia crew comprised commander Rick Husband, Pilot William McCool and colleagues Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, Dave Brown, Laurel Clark and Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon. Bureau Report
The silence was broken by a roll call of the dead, with each name followed by a recording of the tolling of a bell.
''To this day, I have this lump in my gut that says 'how did you let this happen, what should you have done to prevent this' -- and I know you feel that way, too,'' JSC director Jefferson Howell told the gathering.
Columbia broke apart over Texas on February 1, 2003 just minutes before it was scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Columbia accident investigation board blamed the spacecraft's destruction on damage to its heat shield that occurred shortly after takeoff and said NASA had sacrificed safety to meet flight schedules.
The shuttle fleet has been grounded since the disaster, but is scheduled to resume flights in September if NASA can comply with safety recommendations from the investigators.
''Our return to flight efforts are ongoing and successful. We are confident we will have a return to flight this year,'' Howell said. ''This is exactly what that crew would want us to do.''
The Columbia crew comprised commander Rick Husband, Pilot William McCool and colleagues Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, Dave Brown, Laurel Clark and Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon. Bureau Report