Saturday, February 8, 2003
Born in California, she died in Texas
ONCE MORE
By BILL HILL
Columbia was born in a large Rockwell International hangar at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif. As an aviation writer for a California newspaper, I often visited that hangar in 1980 to watch the technicians in white robes turn a skeleton frame into the first operational space shuttle.
Usually, my tours came when dignitaries visited. We never were closer to the shuttle than 15 feet and often were kept about 40 feet away. The aisle for tours was marked by a white carpet surrounded by yellow iron rails.
Congressman James Rhodes of Arizona, the House Minority Leader at the time, was one of the dignitaries to take the tour. He peppered the Rockwell and NASA people with sound questions about the physics of the machine, the strange tiles and he made a comment that stuck in my mind.
He spoke of pride Americans would feel in this magnificent space machine as it lifted off to adventures in space. He saw ahead radical discoveries to improve our lives.
As we ended the interview, Rhodes said we will someday have to accept a fatal accident as a part of the price to explore outer space.
AN OVERTURE TO PEACE
The Arizona congressmansaid the space shuttle can be viewed as our nation´s Overture to Peace. In a sense, he said, the shuttle ultimately would belong to all the people of the world because foreign astronauts would join our homegrown crews to conduct scientific experiments in space. Its explorations will benefit all humanity, he said.
Columbia was carrying an Israeli astronaut on its final journey. He was the first Israeli to travel in space. Before him were other foreign nationals on other shuttle missions. The last mission also included a woman born in India who had become an American citizen.
Fittingly, the final mission demonstrated our national commitment to diversity. Myriad faces were aboard Columbia for her final voyage.
Columbia fired no shots in anger throughout its 22-year history. Today, we count the crew and the shuttle among the stars in our sky.
FIRST FLIGHT APRIL 1981
I flew across the country in April 1981 to witness Columbia´s launch into history. It was the first shuttle to journey into space and the press and public were packed tightly into areas cordoned off for viewing this historic event.
How many people were there watching that day at Kennedy Space Center and along the banks of the river in Titusville, on beaches north and south of KSC? It was easily several million and they had staked places for hours before the launch.
I flew home to California two days later and drove up to Rogers Dry Lake Bed at Edwards Air Force Base in Rosamond, Calif. I spent the night talking with people who had driven from as far east as Maine to see the landing. Many families had excused their children from school for the trip to this desert location.
NASA public affairs told me they estimated more than 500,000 citizens were on hand for the landing. They had issued more than 10,000 media credentials. Along the streets of small desert cities near EAFB, an estimated 2 million people collected to catch a glimpse of the shuttle in descent.
Television carried the live report of the landing and the launch to hundreds of millions throughout the world.
BELONGS TO THE AGES
I had seen her birth at Rockwell, witnessed her first launch and first landing. I had watched white-clad technicians apply the strange and fragile tiles to Columbia and marveled at how those tiles would protect her from extreme temperatures during descent.
I watched her being trucked down 10th Street East in Lancaster, Calif., as she made the trip to EAFB to be placed atop a Boeing 747 for the flight to her permanent home in Florida. She was an ugly baby but she also was prettiest child around and we adored her.
She was born in California, lived in Florida and died in Texas after many visits in our universe.
Congressman Rhodes had it right.
Columbia was an Overture to Peace.
Special Report: THE COLUMBIA CHRONICLES |  |