Shuttle Disintegrates in Flames Over Texas All Seven Astronauts Reported Dead
By Guy Gugliotta and William Harwood Washington Post Staff Writers Saturday, February 1, 2003; 12:01 PM CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Feb. 1 -- The space shuttle Columbia, traveling 12,500 miles per hour as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere after a 16-day science mission, disintegrated in flames 200,000 feet above north central Texas today with seven astronauts aboard. A senior U.S. official told the Associated Press that "it's gone" and the astronauts were dead. He said NASA officials have recovered parts of the shuttle on the ground. < - snip - > http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10088-2003Feb1.html This poem - my favorite one, actually - comes to mind: "And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air. Up, up the long delirious, burning blue, I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace Where never lark, or even eagle flew - And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod The high unsurpassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand and touched the face of God. " Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee No 412 squadron, RCAF Killed 11 December 1941 - Rick Infowarrior.org -- You are a subscribed member of the infowarrior list. Visit www.infowarrior.org/lists for list information or to unsubscribe. This message may be redistributed freely in its entirety.
