Indian-Born American Astronaut Was Heroine in India

India Mourns it's Space Heroine

Kalpana Chawla: Doing India proud

India has lost a worthy daughter

Woman who lived space dream

She said she'd say hello to us from space

and even more from Google news

This one is a good biography

You know, even if they could never figure out what happened. Even if there was a huge risk of it happening again as soon as the next Shuttle went up (and we're going to have to figure out if it will, since there are folks on the International Space Station)... if someone asked me tomorrow, or right now if I would go up into space, I'd say yes in a heartbeat. No hesitation, I know the risks. I'd go.

I hope this doesn't have a lasting negative effect on the space program but only serves to strengthen our resolve to explore, do science and reach into space despite the risks.

photo courtesy of NASA

image courtesy of Steve

I just woke up to find out about the news - Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart over Texas as it was descending toward Kennedy Space center in Florida.

Damnit, this is three days after the anniversary of the 1986 Challenger accident! I still remember where I was when that happened. I was in Calculus class, my senior year in high school. Another teacher, our computer math teacher, came to tell ours the news. We thought he was kidding, since he was such a jokester.

But it was no joke. And for weeks, the city of Houston was as depressed as you could ever find it. Houston is fairly invested emotionally in the space program and the Challenger Accident was utterly devastating. I remember my mom driving me to school and listening to DJ's on the radio sobbing as they played memoriums for the astronauts.

*sigh*

My sister was the one to tell me about this. She'd called and left a message early this morning. Apparently debris is even being found in Houston, and I can only imagine how the city feels now.

I'd actually been aware - unlike a lot of people who take the program for granted these days - of the launch of this mission, since my University had a student science project aboard.

It's frustrating, realizing that our space program is stuck refurbishing 20 year old shuttles. This was the 28th flight for Columbia, which was built back in 1981, making it the oldest of the fleet.

Besides the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, this mission also carried one of my heroines, Kalpana Chawla. Just eight years older than me, and born in India, she went to the University of Texas in 1984 for her Masters and to my parents alma mater, University Of Colorado for her doctorate. Her picture has graced my India web page since her first ever mission. I found her fascinating. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen and was married to a non-Indian, Jean-Pierre Harrison, a freelance flying instructor.

From what's been said so far, it looks like the re-entry of the shuttle was too fast at the wrong altitude. Given what they're saying, it's not surprising that it would break apart. So far no evidence of terrorism, and I'm not surprised. If it was terrorism I'm sure something would have been done at launch. This is much more likely due to the aging of our space program fleet.

Here's some more news links:

From the Jerusalem Post

From Voice of America

From the Times of India

From Houston, Texas

Key Missions since 1981

Iraq on my Mind

"Our Documents" features 100 milestone documents in U.S. history. Each week, the web site highlights 3 documents, beginning with the Lee Resolution of June 7, 1776, & ending with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Speeches, treaties, Supreme Court cases, patent designs, & Constitutional amendments are among the 100 documents that changed the course of history & helped shape our national character. Images of documents are accompanied by transcriptions & historical interpretations. The website includes information about competitions for students & workshops for teachers. Teachers are invited to develop & test a classroom lesson on one or several milestone documents. (NARA)

From the Culture & Development Page at the Development Gateway

Local cultural traditions play an important role in the creation of Internet content, a critical factor for the developing world to enter the Information Age. Telling traditional stories online, particularly when available in indigenous languages, attracts local Internet audiences. "From Whakapapa to Katha: Local Storytelling on the Internet" is the new highlight on the Culture & Development Topic Page at the Development Gateway. It provides links to an innovative Maori website in New Zealand, to a literary center in New Delhi, and to experiments in digital storytelling such as Capture Wales, a BBC digital storytelling project in Welsh and English.