STS-107: Columbia Tragedy
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/archives/sts-107/memorial/
By Dennis Gonzales

I cannot express how I feel about what happened February 1, 2003. No matter how many times you know that another disaster would eventually happen in our lifetime, you're never prepared for that reality. But I do believe we should continue the space program, continue to explore space and beyond the boundaries of our Solar System. I heard about the accident on the radio several hours after Columbia's initial landing time, which would be very early in the morning, Pacific Standard Time. So, I did not plan on going in to work to see the STS-107 crew come home. We all assume that since it was a successful mission, it would be the same for the landing at KSC. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
My heart just dropped to the bottom of my stomach with nauseating feelings of despair and unbelief. My thoughts raced back to the Challenger mission. I'd only work for NASA one year after that tragedy but seeing the launches on television was taken serious by the Networks, so I was used to seeing the missions as I did with Apollo. Now days, its rare that we follow the Shuttle missions on television.

I'd attended the Ames Family Gathering on Monday afternoon, Feb. 3, on the front steps of the Ames administration building. The 30-minute informal ceremony provided employees to share their thoughts and express their feelings about the tragic loss of Space Shuttle Columbia and its seven-member flight crew. As you can imagine, it was quiet and touching. The media was not invited due to the fact that many people knew the crew.

The brief program included remarks by Deputy Center Director Dr. Steven Zornetzer, followed by employees that share their thoughts with the rest of the Ames family. There was a moment of silence and a reading of the poem, "High Flight," written by a young American, John Gillespie Magee, Jr., who flew with the Royal Canadian Air Force in England at the start of World War II. Magee was killed shortly after he composed the poem. At the conclusion of the program, a remembrance book was available for the Ames community to be presented to the NASA family at the Johnson Space Center which employees signed and shared their thoughts.
I wrote,

"When I look at the stars, I will always think of the 7-crew members of STS-107. God bless the crew and their families..."

Above artwork created by Mike Jackson, 2003.

As soon as the tragedy was reported on television, radio and Internet, many people from all over the bay area as well as the Ames community, started to turn the NASA Ames sign outside the gates into a makeshift memorial like many of the NASA centers across the nation. I've provided a tour of the letters and flowers at the memorial on my website. I took the digital pictures the day before everything was taken down by one of our employees which rescued the mementos from the rain. They planned to put them in an album to send to the families of the crew of STS-107. If you are interested in looking at the words and memories of the "Ames Family Gathering" & STS-107. You can download the Commemorative issue of the Astrogram (scroll down to February topic).

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