Tuesday, February 4, 2003
For local parents of shuttle fliers, reflection also means looking forward
By SANDRA FREDERICK
NEWS-JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
FLAGLER BEACH — For Patricia Kelly, lighting seven candles under a blanket of stars to honor Columbia´s fallen astronauts brought much needed inner peace.
During the days since the shuttle explosion, the mother of twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly paced the floors of her beachside home trying to make sense of the catastrophe.
“It made me feel part of it, like I was doing something,” she said Monday. “I laid there on my wooden deck bundled in a blanket and looked up at the sky. I thought to myself, ‘They were up there in pieces.’ That makes me deeply sad.”
The candlelight Sunday night cast a soft hue on the 6-foot replica of the space shuttle given to her by her sons and was a tranquil reminder something had gone terribly wrong, Patricia Kelly said.
Scott Kelly was scheduled to be Columbia´s commander on a mission in November, a flight taking teacher/civilian astronaut Barbara Morgan to space. Mark Kelly was scheduled for a January 2004 mission to the International Space Station. Both have been to space once before, Scott on a 1999 mission to fix the ailing Hubble Space Telescope and Mark to drop supplies to the space station in June 2001.
“I realized at that moment, when I heard the news, how dangerous space travel is,” Patricia Kelly said. “In my heart I know that my sons´ commitment to the space program will not waver because of this. It is their calling and it is what they want to do.”
As his sons help search rural Texas for debris and remains of their colleagues, Richard Kelly said he is not surprised they are involved in recovery efforts.
“They were junior first-aiders and then EMTs during college,” he said. “When other kids their age were hanging out on street corners, they would be on the roof of a building in Jersey City giving emergency medical care to a shooting victim. It was a natural thing for them to be in the middle of it.”
The couple said their prayers go out to the families of the astronauts. They vividly remember their excitement as they sat on metal bleachers with the other families in a grassy area just off Kennedy Space Center´s runway, waiting for the shuttle to touch down during earlier missions.
“To be honest, I never thought much about the landing,” the father said. “Once the launch was over, in my mind, I thought they would be safe. Once they were in space, they were trained to handle just about any situation.”
Richard Kelly said both sons told him about the amazing red glow of the heat coming off the shuttle at re-entry. The sons took in the site from their seats in the front row of the shuttle as they passed through the Earth´s atmosphere. “They said it was a beautiful sight.”
As the nation watches the investigation unfold, Richard Kelly said he also will watch with keen interest. He said there is trust between NASA engineers, the administration and astronauts, and if something is wrong, it will be fixed before another mission goes to space.
“This might be a setback for NASA, but the space program will go on,” Richard Kelly said. “And my boys will be ready to go. When the engines light, the rumble starts, for the next 8 1/2 minutes I will watch with apprehension, but then I will know they will be okay. They will be in space.”
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