I have been an aviation junkie as long as I can remember. Like many, I was caught up in the "Space Race" and all that surrounded it. One of the highlights of my 12th year was shaking the hand of John Glenn after his Friendship 7 flight when he returned to his hometown of New Concorde, Ohio, only 30 miles from mine. I remember all of the Mercury and Gemini flights, the Apollo One fire, the Apollo missions, the first photos of "Earthrise," Armstrong and Aldrin........I hated to see it end. But by then I was more "mature" and caught up in other things. I suddenly found the space program to be the fault of everything wrong in America and a financial waste. It was hard to reconcile my political beliefs with space flight and all the economic drain it entailed.

One day, perhaps ten years later, I gave up trying to hate the space program. My logic and all was compromised.......So what? Damn if it hadn't been exciting....and it still was. As the shuttle came into being I was thrilled. This was a real aircraft......at least pretty close.....like the X-20 Dynasore project would have led to had it not been shut down when Mercury became the method of choice. Yeah, I know that money could be better spent perhaps, but where else was the thrill, the excitement, and the pioneering spirit as much to be found.

Just over 20 years ago in '81, I watched with great trepidation as Columbia under the command of an old space vet, John Young, made her first flight. Would all those systems and those screwy tiles work? I know the Saturn booster from Apollo accelerated faster, but watching that day it just seemed as though Columbia leaped off the pad as if to say. "I want to FLY!" Today, after performing flawlessly on her mission, I watched the break-up of her that took 7 valuable lives.

I am impressed with the way NASA is handling this and I am sure the families have great support. My heart goes out to them as well,as do most of yours. If you heard any of the crew interviews though, you know these folks were all committed to what they did, knew the risks, and considered them to be a part of their job. I'm sure none of them wanted to die, but I am equally sure that none of them would have traded their positions for anything else. We are still in the early days of space flight.....it is still not routine.

NASA will do what it must and I hope that they get the financial backing to do more. Someone said this is much like the early days of aviation or sailing and it's true. If we think of the Mercury program as the Wright Brothers, then Gemini and Apollo were the WWI years and up to Lindbergh's crossing of the Atlantic. About then, we really got things underway in commercial aviation and that's about where the shuttle is now.......like an old Ford Tri-Motor. It's time for a DC-2 and DC-3 to replace it. The solutions and new technologies need to happen. The crew of Columbia was counting on it I'm sure.

A very sad day for the families and friends, for NASA, and for many of us.................

Spaw