Columbia

The first thing I thought today after fully waking up was, "What about the people on the Space Station?" There were no Shuttle launches for nearly three years after Challenger, and it's not as if the people currently on the ISS can wait it out. The Soyuz capsule attached as a "lifeboat" is not terribly reliable, and I'd imagine that using it to return to Earth would be substantially riskier than a Shuttle return.

Beyond that, if they do return to Earth soon, what will happen to the Station if it is left unmanned for years at a time? Would all of the work put into it be for naught? Such a loss might be a death knell for perhaps NASA, but almost certainly for manned space flight in the short-term.

I'm old enough to remember Challenger, but only the knowledge of a disaster; I don't remember how I felt about it.

Now I have a feeling.

February 01, 2003 - 02:14 PM