Posted by noa on February 2, 2003, at 15:00:40
In reply to Prayers for the Astronauts, posted by NikkiT2 on February 1, 2003, at 9:04:53
I was watching the local NBC affiliate news when they announced that communication was lost, but said at that point it could be nothing, just a function of reentering the atmosphere. Then, the bad news unfolded.
My thoughts immediately went to the day the Challenger went down. I was at work, and had just received a phone call from an acquaintance who was friends with a family I had babysat for a lot (including live-in when parents were on vacation). The family had since moved abroad. The acquaintance told me the horrible news that the youngest child, just shy of his third birthday, had died of drowning. I got off the phone and went into the next office, and said to a co-worker, "I'm in shock, I've just had very bad news". She answered, "I know, I've been watching it on TV all morning." Of course, I was very confused--how would this little boy's death be on TV? Until we cleared it up that she was talking about the space shuttle. That day in January of 1986 was very sad for both reasons. There had been a lot of build up to the Challenger flight because of Christa McCaulliffe, first teacher in space. So many Americans were watching the lift off--including most school children, at least on the east coast (it would have been too early in the morning on the west coast).
A few years later, I was at a science museum, in the new Omni theater, and the film featured that day was about the space shuttle, narrated by Walter Cronkite. It was eery because some of the astronauts in the film were among those lost in the Challenger explosion. I remember Judith Resnick, specifically.
I do find it sad. Sure, my "logical" brain tells me more deaths occur in ordinary circumstances that I don't pay attention to, etc. But it does have my attention, and it is sad.
In watching yesterday's developments, I was struck by what several NASA officials said. They used a very euphemistic phrase that made me think. They said, "It's been a bad day" or "We've had a bad day". I was thinking about the kind of oddity of that understatement, and was wondering if this is reflective of the NASA culture. I can imagine that they use such a mantra as a way of coping because when they have a bad day, they still have to pick up and keep on working--contingency plans, recovery efforts, investigations, keeping up with research and training, projects, etc. I imagine that in their business there isn't much time to be paralyzed by any set back, even such a devastating loss.
Then I was thinking about my own "bad days", and NASA's bad day puts mine in perspective.
As for the space program--as much as I am a strong advocate for better funding of mental health and social programs on earth, I do feel we need to have a good space program. Who knows, maybe the cure for one of the mental illnesses will be propelled by some research in space?
poster:noa
thread:36059
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20030201/msgs/36190.html