STORM2K

This is very sad http://www.msnbc.com/news/868012.asp?0cl=cR

You know looking at it in the context now, it almost seems as if it was a goodbye email. Sad indeed.

Garrett

Makes me wonder now if they had some idea that something was wrong I hope not but think they did

It does kinda give you that impression that they did know. Sounds like they are giving there last thanks and love to those around them. Really sad!

That is very sad.
Hopefully they didn't know anything. They know they are at risk every time they takeoff and re-enter the earth's atmosphere so maybe this email was just to tell about her awesome adventure and a "good-bye" if the unimaginable happens. Unfortunately, the unimaginable did happen this time.

As terrible as it is, I pray they didn't know their fate and I pray they didn't suffer.

The letter made me cry. I remember the Church service on Sunday, the day after the tradegy. Sunday's services were dedicated to the astronauts and how the scientific world was going to change after they would have returned back home. The Sermon, the songs, the scripture, all were either based on the US Navy or were dedicated the astronauts. Dr. Mark Hallett spoke at the services and most every who attended was crying. He went to medical school with Laurel at the University of Wisconsin. The tradegy hit him and his family extremely hard because they went to the launch of Columbia and were patiently waiting for Laurel to return.

What makes this hurt worse is that Laurel was from Racine, WI which is about 2 hours south of Green Bay on Interstate 43.

For days after the tradegy, we were still hearing stories about Laurel and her scientific experiments up in space. UWGB is the ONLY NASA granted University in the state of Wisconsin, so we had a moment of silence on monday in every science class that was offered at 8am. (I was in class at that time, and remember the moment of silence.) It was eerie, because the professor had the shades open so we could see the sky outside...we were told to look towards the sky for the illumination of Columbia. :cry:

Very sad

I was at work when this tragic event unfolded. I do however remember "Challenger" like it was yestarday, we were all outside at Gulf High watcing, One of our teachers was a runner up in the teacher in space contest. We were all standing there and somebody said "it flew into the clouds" there was silence. I then realized that they were gone. I was so upset for days and weeks after the tragedy and after this happened (Columbia) all those feelings came back. I understand that there are risks involved with space travel and exploration, this is no secret. I do however feel that they need to increase the amount of money spent on saftey precautions and research so this will NEVER happen again. I just hope the investigation doesn't show this could have been prevented. Unfortunately I think it could have.. Hope I am wrong