Eyes On The Cape
By: Ron Caswell
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Eyes On The Cape By: Ron Caswell
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Eyes On The Cape Report
#66,
“The Will to Continue,” Ron Caswell, February 1, 2003 The loss of Space Shuttle Columbia and
crew today is very sad, and must not be lost in vain.
It is apparent the world’s prayers are with the crew, their families,
and with my fellow space community.
Thank you.
This great nation has the strength, the ability, and the will to continue
the aspirations of Space Shuttle Columbia’s crew! A few days ago I was blessed to observe
a moment of silence at the Apollo 1 launch pad with Astronaut Grissom’s
family.
Astronauts Grissom, White, and Chaffee perished in the Apollo 1 capsule
fire at 6:31p.m., January 27th, 1967 at Cape Canaveral Launch Pad 34.
The plaque at Pad 34 reads:
“They gave their lives in service to their country in the ongoing
exploration of mankind’s final frontier.
Remember them not for how they died but for those ideals for which they
lived.”
God bless the crew of Space Shuttle Challenger and all other fallen space
flyers too.
Memorial services are a celebration of the contributions given by all
explorers.
My job and those in the Space Program stand on the shoulders of these
brave people.
We have the responsibility to continue the quest of adding to mankind’s
knowledge. If mankind were not to explore, we
would not have been given the ability to wonder and the ability to act upon
these wonders.
We are given the wonderful gift of curiosity, which leads to exploration
and discovery, but historically comes with risk.
We do have the will to continue manned space exploration.
We will not stumble from today!!
(Click to enlarge) The cameras of Voyager-1 on Feb. 14,
1990, took a series of pictures of the sun and the planets, making the first
ever “portrait” of our solar system as seen from the outside.
Voyager-1 took this 60-frame mosaic of the inner solar system from
approximately 4 billion miles away. Earth is such a small planet in the
Milky Way Universe.
The Milky Way Universe is just an average galaxy in the billions of known
galaxies.
People are made mostly of carbon, and carbon is the 4th most
abundant element in the universe.
The other elements that life is made from are also abundant in the
universe.
There are more questions than answers about our purpose and place in the
universe.
Today’s students will discover things my generation never even dreamed
of.
We also need to learn to be one with each other, and one with our
environment.
One certainty is that we need to be good to ourselves and to one another.
I am thankful for Earth’s protection from the harsh conditions of
space.
Today NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe
said: “…We trust the prayers of the Nation will be with them and with their
families.
A more courageous group of people you could not have hoped to know– an
extraordinary group of astronauts who gave their lives-and the families of these
crewmembers.
They knew exactly the risks.
And never, ever did we want to see a circumstance in which this could
happen.
We diligently dedicate ourselves every single day to assuring these
things don’t occur.
And when they do we have to act responsibly, accountably and that is
exactly what we will do.” The world’s space programs are the
best investment mankind has in itself. NASA’s budget is less than 1% of the
nations budget, a great investment value.
Every aspect of our life is affected from the lessons learned through
space research.
These lessons teach us about technology, ourselves (i.e., modern
medicine), mother Earth, and the universe.
It is exciting to live in this time of great discovery!
We must continue manned space flight!! Many space discoveries are made through
manned space flight.
China is a believer in manned space flight and this year will join Russis
and the United States with a manned space program.
Discoveries will be made with a balance of manned and unmanned
spacecraft. We will be diligent to get beyond today’s
tragedy.
United we stand and strong area then we.
Thank you Rick
Husband, Willie
McCool, Michael
Anderson, Kalpana
Chawla, David
Brown, Laurel
Clark, and Ilan Ramon
for all that you have given us.
We will remember you for those ideals for which you lived.
The world is better from your contributions. Photo
description: The Clementine spacecraft took the above image as it flew over the
north lunar pole at the completion of mapping orbit 102 on March 13, 1994.
NSSDC
Photo Gallery:
Earth Tonight the crewmembers of the
International Space Station are safe and have enough supplies to stay on-orbit
until late June.
If necessary they can return to earth in their docked Soyuz capsule.
We can send a replacement crew to the International Space Station in
another Soyuz if necessary.
The station crew is also devastated by today's, events but they are
determined to carry on their work.
I’ve been blessed and directly involved in the launch processing of the
current space station crew’s Soyuz landing gear.
All crews are precious. I am thankful and proud of the Nation's
Space program.
We will find and fix the cause of today’s accident.
May we fly Space Shuttles again soon and complete the construction of the
International Space Station.
When we do, much will be gained in making life better on Earth! Truly, Ron
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