|
Talon
Staff
Olympia, WA USA
80 Posts |
 Posted - 02/01/2003 : 1:50:49 PM
|
Since the 60's, after President John F. Kennedy inspired us American's to look upwards, man has dreamed of space. There have been 3 major space-related tragedies in our time. The first was the Apollo "0", in which a craft-bourne fire killed 3 astronauts who were training for the first Apollo flight. Then in the mid-eighties Challenger exploded on liftoff killing all 7 astronauts aboard.
The third tragedy was this morning, when at 9am Eastern the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded in re-entry. It was a shock, and I am one of many americans who had grown to accept the shuttle missions as routine. People keep saying that maybe we should stop the space mission, just as people said after Challenger, citing that it is too dangerous for our current level of technology.
I'd like to point out that out of 749 astronauts to go into space in the shuttle program (7 astronauts per mission with this passed Columbia mission being the 107th mission) that 14 men and women have died in persuit of knowledge. That is 0.01% deaths so far in the program. That is so significantly less than any other vehicle related accidents in the world. There is at least one fatal car accident per day in the world. Based on this, I say "Let us not turn our heads from the heavens and stare at our feet, but look even deeper into space and aspire to go farther than before."
Talon |
|
Space: The Final Frontier
