Jan. 28, 2003Columbia, International Space Station crews exchange greetings day before anniversary of Challenger disaster
CAPE CANAVERAL -- Astronauts aboard shuttle Columbia said howdy to the men on the International Space Station on Monday morning as the two vessels separately orbited the Earth a day before the 17th anniversary of the Challenger disaster.
By Chris Kridler
FLORIDA TODAYThe "red team" aboard Columbia, whose crew is working 24 hours a day, in two shifts, on science experiments, talked to Commander Ken Bowersox and Don Pettit, who live with Nikolai Budarin on the station.
"I wish I could stay some more time like you guys," Ilan Ramon said from aboard the shuttle. He's the first Israeli to fly in space.
"We'd love to have you here visiting as well, so you could spend a little more time," Bowersox said.
"We have a lot of great experiments," Laurel Clark said from Columbia. "It's really fun, and Columbia is a beautiful ship. She's performing magnificently."
She asked Pettit if he was able to keep in touch with his twin boys on Earth.
"I'm doing the best job I can to maintain contact with them as they go through the terrible twos," he said.
Clark told Pettit that photographs shot by the station crew are taking a long time to process on Earth. "What we can't have in quality we make up in quantity," Pettit joked.
Today, Columbia will be orbiting the planet on the anniversary of the 1986 Challenger disaster that killed seven astronauts.
"These were our friends that lived down the hall from us in our offices here," Phil Engelauf, of mission control at Johnson Space Center, said Monday. He was a flight planner in 1986. "They were heroes every day to us."
"Within hours, I think people had adjusted to a state of optimism that we were going to find out what happened and pick up and carry on," he added, "and 17 years later here, it's kind of nice to see that we in fact did that. . .
He said the legacy lives on today "with a space station occupied 365 days a year and an independent shuttle program serving both the station and the broader science community and the objectives that all of those people stood for."
Kennedy Space Center plans a moment of silence, while Titusville will have a memorial ceremony for all astronauts who have died on duty today at Sand Point Park.
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illegitimi non carborundum
Jan. 28, 2003Columbia, International Space Station crews exchange greetings day before anniversary of Challenger disaster
CAPE CANAVERAL -- Astronauts aboard shuttle Columbia said howdy to the men on the International Space Station on Monday morning as the two vessels separately orbited the Earth a day before the 17th anniversary of the Challenger disaster.
By Chris Kridler
FLORIDA TODAYThe "red team" aboard Columbia, whose crew is working 24 hours a day, in two shifts, on science experiments, talked to Commander Ken Bowersox and Don Pettit, who live with Nikolai Budarin on the station.
"I wish I could stay some more time like you guys," Ilan Ramon said from aboard the shuttle. He's the first Israeli to fly in space.
"We'd love to have you here visiting as well, so you could spend a little more time," Bowersox said.
"We have a lot of great experiments," Laurel Clark said from Columbia. "It's really fun, and Columbia is a beautiful ship. She's performing magnificently."
She asked Pettit if he was able to keep in touch with his twin boys on Earth.
"I'm doing the best job I can to maintain contact with them as they go through the terrible twos," he said.
Clark told Pettit that photographs shot by the station crew are taking a long time to process on Earth. "What we can't have in quality we make up in quantity," Pettit joked.
Today, Columbia will be orbiting the planet on the anniversary of the 1986 Challenger disaster that killed seven astronauts.
"These were our friends that lived down the hall from us in our offices here," Phil Engelauf, of mission control at Johnson Space Center, said Monday. He was a flight planner in 1986. "They were heroes every day to us."
"Within hours, I think people had adjusted to a state of optimism that we were going to find out what happened and pick up and carry on," he added, "and 17 years later here, it's kind of nice to see that we in fact did that. . .
He said the legacy lives on today "with a space station occupied 365 days a year and an independent shuttle program serving both the station and the broader science community and the objectives that all of those people stood for."
Kennedy Space Center plans a moment of silence, while Titusville will have a memorial ceremony for all astronauts who have died on duty today at Sand Point Park.
illegitimi non carborundum
