REMEMBERING COLUMBIA

At a little after 9:00 AM, twenty-five years ago today, the space shuttle, Columbia disintegrated during re-entry and landing, killing all seven astronauts aboard. As we watched the television coverage, though, there was recurrent questioning of whether the “fleet” should be grounded indefinitely, or even whether human space flight should be abandoned in favor of robotic flight.

Let’s be clear about the reason we have a space program. People climb into imperfect machines and lift tenuously into space just as others climbed into imperfect machines and lifted into the air at the beginning of the last century, and others before them climbed into imperfect machines and sailed across uncharted oceans labeled, “Here be Dragons,” by mapmakers, because we have to. Curiosity, the urge to discover and the drive to explore, is the difference between humanity and all lower animals. It is not the result of our humanity, it defines it. We are the animal that climbs over the crest of the next hill to see what is there, even if danger lies ahead. We climb that hill, even when those who went before us never returned. We climb that hill because to do anything else is to deny our very nature, and to be less than we are – less than human.

There were seven people aboard the Columbia when it was destroyed, six Americans, and one Israeli. Each of them dreamed of doing what they did as children. Each of them had watched as the Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff, but it did not keep them from climbing into the next available spacecraft. It would be trite to say they knew the risks, but they did. It would be absurd to imply that they did not know or believe it could happen to them, because they did. Most importantly, it would be a betrayal of all that they died for to destroy the very thing they were willing to sacrifice their lives to build.

We, or others, will continue our journey into space. There will be a flag fluttering in the Martian breeze now, or in a hundred years. Will it be American, Russian, Chinese, or UN? Who knows? There will be a flag there, however, and it will be Human – Terran. We cannot deny our nature, and it is our nature to dream. We cannot deny our destiny, and it is our destiny to explore. We cannot deny our future, and it is our future to cross the vast expanses of space, and expand our horizons to other planets in the Solar System, and then to the stars.

I am proud to look up as we climb that ladder to the stars. I wish I were among those whose destiny it is to explore, but even if I am not, I am human, and so a part of the adventure.