HOUSTON--In
a brief service, the nine astronauts aboard the shuttle Discovery and
International Space Station (ISS) remembered the NASA's lost Columbia crew and
all other astronauts and cosmonauts who have given their lives in the pursuit
of spaceflight.
"We would
like to share with you a tribute to fallen astronauts and cosmonauts," said
Eileen Collins, commander of Discovery's STS-114 flight, during the audio
message.
Space is an
unforgiving environment where mistakes are not treated lightly, the astronauts
said. The loss of
Columbia's seven STS-107 astronauts during reentry on Feb. 1, 2003 drove home a
message that had been learned repeatedly by Russian and U.S. space
agencies in other accidents over the last 30 years. Discovery's STS-114 mission
is NASA's first shuttle flight since that fatal accident.
"Tragically,
two years we came once more to realize that we had let our guard down," STS-114
mission specialist Charles Camarda said during the service.
"We became lost in our own hubris, and learned once more the terrible price
that must be paid for our failures."
Columbia's STS-107 flight, commanded by Rick Husband with Willie
McCool as pilot, was cut short 16 minutes before the shuttle was expected to
land at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Mission specialists Michael Anderson, Dave Brown, Kalpana
Chawla, Laurel Clark and Ilan
Ramon--Israel's
first astronaut--also served during the ill-fated mission.
"We are
reminded that it is upon the completion of the journey, and the arrival at the
place from whence we came, that we can say that we know ourselves," STS-114
pilot James Kelly, adding that Columbia's crew, as well as the astronauts lost
in NASA's Challenger and Apollo 1 accidents, and Russia's Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 11
tragedies, did not have the chance for that homecoming.
Columbia was struck down by a 1.67-pound
chunk of foam that fell from its external tank at launch and pierced the heat
shield panels along its left wing. As the orbiter reentered the Earth's
atmosphere, hot gases entered the damaged area, destroying the orbiter and
killing its crew.
NASA worked
for two years to prevent such foam loss from endangering its shuttles again,
but found a similar problem during Discovery's July 26 launch when a 0.9-pound
piece fell from its external tank. That foam did not strike the orbiter, though
shuttle officials pledged not to launch another orbiter until it is addressed.
Engineers are also examining a damaged thermal
blanket on Discovery's hull to determine whether pieces could rip off
during reentry and potentially damage the shuttle. Shuttle officials are unsure
whether the blanket can be left as is or will require any action, such as an
unplanned, fourth spacewalk, to repair it.
"Space
exploration is not easy, and there has been a human price that has been paid,"
said STS-114 mission specialist Wendy Lawrence. "As we step out into
these new frontiers we find that it is very unforgiving to our mistakes."
Earlier
today, Kelly, Lawrence and Camarda tested the third
heat shield repair method of their flight--a plug for holes in reinforced carbon
carbon (RCC) panels--inside Discovery to check its
performance in the absence of gravity. The carbon silicon carbide patch can be
affixed over small holes in RCC panels, and carefully screwed down until it is
flush with the panel surface. Discovery spacewalkers tested two other repair
methods for the shuttle's protective tile and RCC panel heat shield during
their first spacewalk.
ISS
Expedition 11 flight engineer John Phillips thanked the lost astronauts for
their dedication and courage, adding that they will be deeply missed, while
STS-114 mission specialist Andrew Thomas reflected on their sacrifice. ISS
Expedition commander Sergei Krikalev
offered a statement in Russian, while Discovery astronaut Soichi
Noguchi, of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), did the same in Japanese.
NASA has spent
more than two years and $1.4 billion to enhance shuttle flight safety and
develop new tools for orbiter inspection and repair. Some of those tools,
including an orbital inspection boom, have already been put to practical use
during Discovery's flight during preparations for an unplanned repair
to the shuttle's heat shield that sent STS-114 mission
specialist Stephen Robinson under Discovery's belly - a first for NASA - to remove
space-filling strips jutting out from its tiles.
"The spirit
of exploration is truly what it is to be human," said STS-114 mission
specialist Stephen Robinson. "Previous generations went first on foot and then on
horseback, and then wooden sailing vessels and today we have aircraft and
spacecraft. We have shrunk the world in a way that early generations of
explorers could never have imagined."
"For those
who venture into the sky...there is a revelation of things never dreamed, such
are the ways of explorers and the surpassing ways of the sky," Collins said.
"We will remember them."
Discovery's
crew is taking advantage of some off-duty time after completing nearly all of
its cargo transfer activities between the ISS and shuttle. They are scheduled
to land at KSC on Aug. 8.
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